Chicago Bulls: 3 players most likely to be traded before deadline

1. Jabari Parker

Perhaps the most obvious trade candidate in the NBA, Jabari Parker should be on the move soon. His fit in Chicago was ill-conceived from the start and it hasn’t improved as the season has dragged on. He arrived in Chicago out of shape and declared he wasn’t there for the defense. Even being from Chicago, that mindset didn’t endear him to Bulls fans.

Just 23 years old and in his fifth NBA season, Parker can score at will. For a team desperate for scoring, it’d seem like the Bulls could make good use of his offensive abilities, but his lack of effort defensively hasn’t sat well with Boylen and he’s been benched for most of his tenure.

With Parker’s $20 million contract for this season and a team option for next season, the front office is somewhat limited in options without taking back a bad long-term contract in a deal for the former Duke Blue Devil. Parker has been linked most recently to the Utah Jazz, and he even discussed the potential of playing for the Jazz after the Bulls’ loss to Utah on Saturday.

The Chicago Bulls are clearly in full rebuild mode and this season is a wash. The three big men, Parker, Portis and Lopez are all bench players and outside of Portis, won’t see much playing time the remainder of the season. It’s time for management to pull the plug on the Parker experiment. If they aren’t going to re-sign Portis, a trade could net valuable assets. Lopez won’t be around next year, so moving him now just makes sense.

This is a bad basketball team right now, it’s time to move on from distractions and continue the development toward next season.