Bulls, Bucks agree to trade

Well, the Bulls have done it again. If the goal of the NBA is to collect as many perimeter players that can’t shoot as possible, Chicago has had an incredible offseason.

In a deal first reported by ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Marc Stein, the Bulls are sending Tony Snell to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for 2013–14 Rookie of the year Michael Carter-Williams. In a vacuum, Michael Carter-Williams might be the better player involved in this deal, but I don’t like the swap from the Bulls point of view. When your starting perimeter players are Rajon Rondo, Dwyane Wade, and Jimmy Butler, you are already dealing with a dearth of reliable shooting from the wing. Butler is the only one of the trio that shoots above 30% from behind the arc at a mere 32.8% for his career. Snell cooled off a bit from three point range last season after shooting 37.1% in 2014–15, but he was one of the only perimeter players for Chicago with a reliable outside presence.

Michael Carter-Williams is probably an upgrade over Chicago’s backup point guard situation right now (Jerian Grant, Spencer Dinwiddie, Isaiah Canaan), but, with the Bulls’ abundance of ball-dominant guards like Wade and Butler that need the ball to be at their best and can slide over to pseudo-point guard and bring the ball up when Rondo sits, backup point guard is not the biggest of the Bulls’ problems. I think Chicago’s biggest weakness is perimeter shooting, and they just gave up one of their only perimeter shooters for a backup that has managed to hit only 25.5% of his threes during his career. Now, If Doug McDermott or Nikola Mirotic aren’t out there, the Bulls’ opponents can just pack the paint against them. Rondo, Wade, and Butler are all smart, crafty players, and they will probably figure out a way to manufacture buckets, but without the spacing that the threat of three-point shooting provides, life will only be made tougher for the Bulls’ offense.

That being said, I like the move from Milwaukee’s end. Getting rid of Carter-Williams means we get to see even more of point guard Giannis, and Snell provides a good fill-in for Khris Middleton while he is out with injury.

Disagree with me? Let me know in the comments below.

I’ll be back later this week with some season preview content!

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