The thumb injury that will sideline Wendell Carter Jr. for the next eight to 12 weeks won’t change the Bulls‘ plans to trade veteran center Robin Lopez, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Even though a deal would leave Chicago short-handed in the middle the team, the team could give more minutes to Cristiano Felicio or get by with a small lineup until Carter returns.
With an expiring $14.3MM contract, Lopez is unlikely to return to the Bulls next season and management wants to get something now by shipping him to a contender. Relegated to a reserve role, Lopez’s numbers are about half of what they were last season, averaging 5.9 points and 2.6 rebounds per game.
The Bulls will continue to look for deals involving Jabari Parker as well, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). Parker recently returned to the rotation after being exiled when Jim Boylen took over as head coach, but Chicago reportedly made no progress in working out a Parker trade while he wasn’t playing.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- The Pistons had internal discussions about acquiring Carmelo Anthony, but decided not to pursue him, tweets Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. There were reports yesterday that Anthony, who remains on the Rockets’ roster although he hasn’t played in more than two months, has multiple options for his next location. Houston needs to open a roster spot before signing Kenneth Faried, so the team may have some urgency to get the Anthony situation resolved soon.
- Alec Burks wasn’t sure if the Cavaliers planned to keep him when they acquired him from the Jazz in November but he says the experience in Cleveland has been positive, relays Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Burks’ playing time has increased with the Cavs and he has become the team’s top perimeter defender. “I would say there’s more opportunity here, definitely,” he said before Friday’s return to Utah. “I think it’s been great. Been up and down. Still going to be up and down I feel like just trying to find a rhythm. But it’s getting better and better. I’m adjusting more and more every day.”
- Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated examines the impact that point guard Eric Bledsoe is having in his first full season with the Bucks.
The pistons would be a perfect spot for Melo I don’t get why they wouldn’t want to bring him in
Because it’s only about 16 years late. He is washed up now and would be no help to any team in the league. Imagine if they had picked him instead of Darko Milicic in ‘03, that Pistons team could have been a dynasty.
Markannen, Portis, Dunn, Carter… ALL missing significant time with freak injuries in the SAME season and we aren’t even to the all star break yet, WOW!
I’m not sure that starting a 7’ guy who can shoot it makes a small ball lineup. Markkanen moves to the pivot and makes the other teams big step out and guard. Think that would free up driving lanes for LaVine….
This will be an interesting offseason for Milwaukee. Middleton, Bledsoe, Lopez and Brogdon (RFA) will all become free agents. I don’t think they can afford to resign more than 3 of them. So it will be interesting who they chose to leave out.
Lopez will probably be first one to go. IMO