The Chicago Bulls traded for Jaden Ivey and then almost immediately benched him before putting him on the injury list, which is not a good look for their much-maligned front office.
The trade between the Pistons and Bulls hasn’t done much for either team so far, as both Jaden Ivey and Kevin Huerter are out of the rotation for their respective teams, and in Ivey’s case, back on the injury report with knee soreness to be re-evaluated in two weeks, a phrase Pistons fans are very familiar with.
In the case of the Pistons, it is now clear that they were more interested in moving up in the draft than they were in Kevin Huerter and also didn’t want to deal with Jaden Ivey’s cap hold and contract mess next summer.
As for the Bulls, their fans have to be wondering what they are doing, as Ivey wasn’t the only injured player they took on at the deadline.
Is the Bulls medical staff that bad, or are they just tanking?
Jaden Ivey is sitting with knee soreness, and the Bulls have said they want to give him time to build strength around his surgically repaired knee, something the Pistons should have done.
The thing is, it’s not even the same knee, so this is something new and surely something the Bulls should have known about before trading for Ivey.
Same with Anfernee Simons, who fractured his wrist while with the Celtics and has now been ruled out indefinitely.
To be fair, the Bulls are tanking and may not have cared if these two players could go, as they are not trying to win anyway.
But both Ivey and Simons are free agents after this season, so surely the Bulls wanted to see them (especially Ivey, who is only restricted) before having to make a decision about bringing them back.
The Bulls obviously don’t care about what happens this season but will now be forced to go even more blindly into Jaden Ivey’s restricted free agency, either offering him a contract and hoping he gets back to his old self or letting him walk for nothing.
The Bulls didn’t give up anything to get him, so It's not a huge risk, but if the past is any indication, Chicago is at risk of offering Ivey more than he’s worth, as they have been prone to do in recent years.
The Bulls may see this as their chance to lock up a top five talent for a cheap price, and that could work out for them, but they’ll be doing it with little information or knowledge of whether he’ll ever get back to form.
I’m glad the Pistons are out of the “second draft” phase of their rebuild where they try to take flyers on players who have flamed out elsewhere. In this case, it makes the Bulls look like they don’t know what they are doing or at least didn’t do their due diligence on two injured players who are up for new contacts next offseason.