The Chicago Bulls came into this season hoping to make some steps forward after a disappointing campaign, but with their prospects for a championship once again looking dim, the team is reportedly looking to shake things up and try to vault themselves into contention.
According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Bulls are looking to trade both point guard Rajon Rondo and forward Nikola Mirotic, with the hopes of “bolstering the roster and making a second-half run in the wide-open Eastern Conference.”
Rondo, who was benched by head coach Fred Hoiberg earlier in the season, is viewed as a non-entity in the team’s rotation right now, and he has openly questioned the decision-making process that led to his benching. Mirotic, who is averaging 9.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, has struggled for large chunks of his third season with the Bulls, and it’s unclear at this point whether he will be included in the team’s future plans.
Unfortunately (and perhaps expectedly) for the Bulls, the market for Rondo and Mirotic’s services is, in a word, lukewarm, according to Cowley’s report. The team isn’t getting the kind of value that they think they should for either one of the players, and it could complicate their efforts to move them out of the rotation.
As things stand right now, the Bulls are in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, with a one game lead over the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks for the final playoff spot. They are just two games out of fifth place in the tightly-bunched race, as Washington, Charlotte, and Indiana loom just ahead of them in the standings.
