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With less than 48 hours to go before the NBA trade deadline, teams are going WILD today, as the Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves have connected on a three-way deal.
The details:
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Chicago receives: Jaden Ivey and Mike Conley Jr.
Detroit receives: Kevin Huerter, Dario Šarić and a 2026 protected first-round pick swap courtesy of the Wolves.
Minnesota receives: Well, essentially nothing. And that’s the point.
Let’s get into some grades.
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Chicago Bulls: A
Look, when I wrote about the Bulls recently, I basically called them incompetent. At the time that was both fair and indeed accurate.
Now? Not so much.
(Although, I have questions about the Nikola Vučević trade, but we’ll discuss that in another piece.)
Ivey is a good, young player who has routinely been underutilized in Detroit and he is just begging for a fresh start. He’s also a restricted free agent, meaning the Bulls have the right of first refusal if he pops for them.
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They get Mike Conley Jr., who I assume will get bought out. He is an expiring, so no harm done there, as the Bulls won’t have more money tied up in the future on his behalf.
All they gave up were two expirings in Huerter and Šarić (the latter of which was taken into a traded player exception, as he wasn’t allowed to get aggregated), only adding the yet unknown future salary compensation of Ivey.
This is just good business by the Bulls.
Detroit Pistons: B+
The Wolves’ pick swap is nice, and the Pistons add more shooting via the acquisition of Huerter, but I still think they sold low on Ivey.
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Perhaps it was just time for the sides to move on, which is fair enough, but the guard does have a level of potential that’s significant, and moving him for that package seems … well, not all that spectacular.
However, I shall judge the Pistons through the lens of how this helps them now, and Huerter, in theory, gives them a player who will help optimize the floor for Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren, taking and making shots without utilizing a lot of touches.
That’s a win, especially for a team hoping to make a deep run in the postseason.
So while I would have liked to see the Pistons get more for Ivey, I get their approach.
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Minnesota Timberwolves: Incomplete
Look, the Wolves just saved a ton of money on their tax bill, but unless they use that flexibility to make a big move, this was just that, a financially driven move in which they relinquished a point guard, a position that is currently their absolute weakest.
Surely, they have another move up their sleeve, otherwise this makes no sense. And so, before we know what that move is, it’d be irresponsible to grade them.