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Buckle up, everybody. The Chicago Bulls are pushing for the playoffs, and with their most recent acquisitions, they might just do it.
After an absolute doozy of a trade that sent the Orlando Magic's two-time All-Star Nikola Vucevic to Chicago, the Bulls capped the big day with a less flashy but much bigger deal.
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The Boston Celtics' Daniel Theis is obviously the highlight of this gigantic deal for the Bulls, as he provides a worthy spark of energy behind Vucevic now that Wendell Carter, Jr. is in Orlando. But for both Boston and Chicago, this deal accomplishes multiple things and answers several questions about where each team is going into the last leg of a huge multi-team push for the postseason in the East.
The Washington Wizards also participated.
Given that this is such a large deal with the Wizards, Bulls and Celtics, it behooves us all to look back on it and assess how each of the three teams walked away from the table. This is how each team's hall grades out:
Washington Wizards
Can anyone say ‘big whoop'? Bulls fans probably could. Let's be honest with ourselves, no one really knows who exactly plays for the Wizards anymore, aside from Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook. If neither of those two are on the move, the Wizards are just flat-out uninteresting.
Maybe they would have made waves if they'd dealt Rui Hachimura or rookie Deni Avdija to the Bulls as well. Hell, if they'd dealt either Beal or Westbrook, that would have meant that the team was committing to some sort of rebuild.
But now, instead of that, the Wizards have apparently decided to delude themselves once more that they are contenders in the Eastern Conference, even though they are well under .500 even with their pair of stars.
It should be noted that Wagner is on an expiring contract, and the Wizards are now able to get some sort of return for him. But Gafford and Hutchinson are the NBA equivalent of shoulder shrugs and yawns.
If the Wizards were truly trying to get under the cap, they would have let go of one of their stars. Instead, they decide to sit infuriatingly still. This package with the Bulls and Celtics doesn't move the needle.
Grade: C-
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Boston Celtics
Honestly, for a team looking desperate for any sort of inside presence, this deal with the Bulls and Wizards is an absolute blow to the Boston Celtics.
The team is currently floundering and is in a dead heat for the Eastern Conference's last playoff spot. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are a pair of bonafide stars, but the Kemba Walker experiment is a big dud thus far in the season — even Bulls fans are laughing at that — and the Celtics are really aching for toughness in the middle. Marcus Smart would love to help of course, but he simply doesn't have the size to guard some of the giants roaming the Eastern Conference.
Now, this Celtics-Bulls-Wizards trade can be seen on the surface as a pivot from Theis to Wagner, but Wagner is a clear downgrade from his more athletic counterpart, and a worse shooter. No, this trade should instead be viewed as the team's vote of confidence in youngster Robert Williams. At 23, Williams is a younger, bouncier version of Theis, and his energy on both ends of the court have been testament to his promise going forward as a franchise centerpiece.
With an eye-popping PER of 26.4, Williams is the very definition of a player that does more than his stats, and the Celtics are probably banking on that as a future for the franchise.
For now, this move is a relatively safe gamble if nothing else — we'll see how far it gets them (not to mention the Bulls and Wizards).
Grade: Incomplete
Chicago Bulls
The masterful run continued for the Bulls in the waning hours of this season's trading period.
One concern for the Bulls after the acquisition of Nikola Vucevic was the question of how they would replace Wendell Carter, Jr. The young big has been quietly enjoying a breakout campaign, and lines up nicely with Lavine's timeline.
But while Chicago hasn't quite replaced Carter's production per se, the Bulls have a great simulacrum of the young forward's energy and youth in Daniel Theis.
Theis is the perfect ‘garbage man' player. He will never light up a stat sheet (9.5 PPG, 5.2 RPG), but the Bulls have two elite scorers and at least one elite rebounder on their roster going into the playoffs. What Theis provides is sheer efficiency. His PER is above league average (15.3) on low counting stats, and his shooting splits are encouraging for a role player (55% FG, 34.7% 3FG). He is a low maintenance, energetic spacer that relishes his role as an energy and glue guy, which makes him a perfect compliment to Chicago's two stars.
Javonte Green and Troy Brown are fine pieces, but mostly seem to be there to make the money work. Theis and some additional cash are the real prizes here. This was a great personality move for the Bulls, given the limited space they had to work with after acquiring the Vooch.
Grade: B+
