Should the Chicago Bulls consider moving on from veteran big man Andre Drummond to pick up some draft capital and a project player who could have some significant upside yet untapped? ESPN’s Bobby Marks would love to see such a deal go down, and proposed that the Bulls swap Big Penguin for Oklahoma City Thunder forward Alexei Pokusevski and a pair of second round picks.
“The addition of Drummond addresses one of the Thunder’s … weaknesses, defensive rebounding,” writes Marks of what the hypothetical swap offers the Thunder. “The addition of Drummond addresses one of the Thunder’s lone weaknesses, defensive rebounding.”
“In only 15.9 minutes per game, he is averaging 8.4 rebounds,” he adds.
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“When he was pressed into starting duty when Nikola Vucevic was out, Drummond averaged 17.4 rebounds per game over seven games,” notes the ESPN cap guru.
“Giving away two second-round picks for a player like Drummond on an expiring contract appears to be too much of a risk, but Oklahoma City has a league-high 21 seconds available and Pokusevski is averaging a career low 6.1 minutes. He is a free agent in the offseason.”
For our part, we think Chicago can do better than this offer, as intriguing as Poku is. A non-lottery first round pick and a younger player with a higher floor is probably the ceiling the Bulls could get, but it’s certainly not out of the question.