The Bulls are one of the only NBA teams to have made no major moves this offseason and an NBA insider thinks they should trade DeMar DeRozan – one of their best-performing assets.
Despite DeRozan averaging 24.5 points, 5.1 assists, and 4.6 rebounds last season, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps believes it’s time to trade the 33-year-old.
“I mean truthfully, if I was the Bulls, I’d be trying to trade DeMar DeRozan,” Bontemps said on Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective. “As great as he has been for them this is, I think they’re in a no-win situation here.
“I don’t want to be paying DeMar $35-$40 million a year into his late 30s,” Bontempts continued. “I just don’t really know what your goal is if you’re doing that, and they’re not really going anywhere as it is. They’re just in a really tough spot. I’m not sure what the right answer is – honestly, I really don’t. I would probably try to trade him.”
If DeRozan was to sign an extension with the Bulls, he would be pushing 38 years of the age by the end of it and be taking up over $179 million in cap space over the next four years.
Another NBA writer in Grant Hughes recently claimed that DeMar’s “footwork in the mid-post impeccable and his foul-drawing craft second to none” but still labelled him to be one of the most overrated players in the league.
“…DeRozan’s individual bucket-getting prowess has led to precious little team success and comes with a level of defensive ineptitude that basically cancels out (at best) the value he provides as a scorer,” Hughes said.
“Throw in a career-long reluctance to work off the ball or shoot threes, and DeRozan has essentially pigeonholed himself as a high-usage weapon who limits his team’s offensive ceiling and can’t scale down into a supporting role because he doesn’t contribute enough in other areas.”
DeMar was selected as an All-Star last season in his sixth appearance, so the talent is definitely there.
Yet Chicago couldn’t make it to the postseason.
Could it be time for a change?
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