Bulls rank last in NBA trade market value, per cap expert

Bulls rank last in NBA trade market value, per cap expert originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

According to HoopsHype, the Chicago Bulls are entering the 2023-24 season with the least valuable sum of assets in the NBA.

The annual ranking considers a team’s top players and “estimates the potential trade returns based on recent market trends and comparable player trades,” and also takes into account a team’s overall draft capital. The Bulls landed at No. 30 on this year’s list.

Yossi Gozlan, HoopsHype contributor and NBA salary cap expert for USA Today Sports Wire Media Group, said there are “no veterans with premium trade value or blue-chip prospects” in the Bulls organization.

“They lost a ton of value in the Nikola Vucevic trade, where they gave up Wendell Carter Jr. and the picks that became Franz Wagner and Anthony Black,” Gozlan said. “Zach LaVine’s value might not be very strong due to his maximum contract. DeMar DeRozan has been fantastic for them, but his return in a deal might be limited given his age. And Lonzo Ball has lost a lot of time with a knee injury.”

On Tuesday’s episode of the “Bulls Talk Podcast,” Bulls Insider K.C. Johnson agreed that the Bulls’ are asset-deprived due to a lack of draft capital but objected to the assertion that the players under contract don’t have trade value.

“They forgot two words: Alex Caruso,” Johnson said. “I mean, that would be a first-round pick guaranteed minimum.

“The other thing is, in this day and age with the salary cap going up, Zach [Lavine]’s contract is eventually going to look like a bargain. And people are sleeping on how good Zach LaVine is.”

LaVine got off to a slow start last year, beginning the season on an injury maintenance plan after having knee surgery in the offseason. If not for that, Johnson believes he would have made his third-straight All-Star team last year.

“I mean, the dude is an elite scorer on, to me, what’s going to be ultimately a value contract as the salary cap goes up,” Johnson said. “So I would argue that he has value.”

Johnson then argued that DeRozan will have some value at the trade deadline if the Bulls choose not to extend his contract.

Listen to the full episode of the “Bulls Talk Podcast” here.

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