While the Chicago Bulls start sniffing around the trade market (*ahem* Andre Drummond), it appears other teams have already contacted the Bulls with requests of their own.
According to the IndyStar’s J. Michael, the Indiana Pacers reached out to the Bulls front office about trading for forward Garrett Temple.
The Pacers already have tried to trade for Bulls guard Garrett Temple, a league source with knowledge of the negotiations told IndyStar. While he’s not a post player, the 6-5 combo guard can defend smaller guards and wings, shoot the 3 and has the intangibles of Young. He’s also much cheaper on a 1-year, $4.7 million deal. The Bulls, however, have showed no interest in dealing him to their division rival.
If that doesn’t tell you Arturas Karnisovas signed the right vet this offseason, I don’t know what will.
Temple, 34, is currently on a very inexpensive one-year, $4.7 million contract, far outplaying his dollars by averaging 8.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game in 33 games (including 12 starts). Those numbers may not be eye-popping, but his smart play and defensive IQ has made him a driving force in some of the Bulls most efficient lineups this season. According to Basketball-Reference, the Bulls three-man combination of Temple, LaVine, and Young is a +11.9 on the season. Overall, lineups that feature Temple have a +6.6 point differential this season, which is in the league’s 84th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass.
I think we can all agree that it comes as no surprise that a hopeful playoff team would want a reliable and experienced presence like that on the roster … which is exactly why it also isn’t surprising that the Bulls apparently showed no interest in moving Temple.
I’m sure for the right price the Bulls would consider anything (they’d be silly not to), but if we combine the reluctance to trade Temple with the reported interest in Drummond, it sure is starting to feel like the Bulls want to gear-up for a playoff push. And if that does happen to be the case, the chances of the team trading highly-coveted target Thaddeus Young feels that much more unlikely.