Chicago Bulls: 4 reasons not to trade for Russell Westbrook

3. His hefty contract

Let’s face it, there’s a lot of money available for today’s NBA superstar. For Westbrook, he’s still owed approximately $124 million over the next three seasons, with a player option for the 2022-23 season which he will surely pick up for $47 million.

That’s a lot of money for a player in his age-34 season. In fact, that’s too much for the Bulls to assume at this point in their rebuild.

If Chicago can clear cap space for the 2021 free agent class (ahem, Giannis Antentokounmpo), it’ll be paying a top-notch talent a huge salary in 2022-23 and beyond, but at least it won’t be for a past-his-prime player swallowing up an enormous portion of the salary cap.

The best NBA front offices exhibit the correct balance between patience and aggressiveness, sticking to their blueprint while maintaining the flexibility to pounce on the next unhappy superstar whenever they become available, as they often do.

If the Chicago Bulls have any blueprint for the future, then Russell Westbrook and his onerous contract surely aren’t in the plans. Not only would he tie up precious cap space each offseason, but he’d also handcuff the team from achieving future success.