According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the Chicago Bulls have discussed a possible deal for Blazers shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. (shoutout to NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer for paraphrasing his live comments).
Brian Windhorst just said on ESPN he's heard the Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers have discussed trade involving Gary Trent Jr. in last 24 hours. Trent, like Lonzo Ball and Lauri Markkanen, is set for restricted free agency this summer
— Rob Schaefer (@rob_schaef) March 25, 2021
As I’m typing, the Bulls pulled off another trade, so the implications are fluid here!
Trent Jr. is a 22-year-old averaging a very solid 15.0 points per game on a 41.4 percent shooting clip from the field and a 39.7 percent clip from downtown. Over the past two seasons, he has turned into a very reliable bench scorer and defender for the Blazers.
With that said, I’m still a bit surprised to see his name in the mix. The assumption is that the Bulls would look to solve their issues at point guard position now that they have acquired big man Nikola Vucevic from the Orlando Magic. And while Trent Jr. does help them solve some of the defensive issues that have popped up at that position, he isn’t at all a lead guard or true facilitator. If anything, Trent is kind of a Coby White upgrade at this point in time, which kind of leaves me wondering what that would mean for him and whether or not it’s worth doing.
Also, we should keep in mind Trent Jr. is headed toward restricted free agency this summer, so a trade would likely mean they are interested in re-signing him. Today is crazy.
UPDATE: Gone. That was fast:
Toronto has traded Norm Powell to Portland for Gary Trent and Rodney Hood, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 25, 2021