The Chicago Bulls appear to be one of the league’s great enigmas heading into this Thursday’s NBA trade deadline. Alternating reports allege that team president Arturas Karnisovas could be one of the big sellers or a major buyer this week.
This writer is feeling a bit optimistic after Karnisovas got involved in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ naked salary dump of De’Andre Hunter to the Sacramento Kings. Chicago offloaded two-way player Emanuel Miller and cut non-rotation point guard Jevon Carter, while taking back the expiring contract of center Dario Saric, to add two low second-round draft picks – one in 2027, and the other in 2029.
In the deal, the Bulls took on the kind of facilitating role that, well, smarter franchises often assume in anticipation of making further moves. Chicago rarely adds assets, and frequently undervalues second-rounders.
A lot of the conversations surrounding the Bulls center around the kinds of pieces they can give other teams. But K.C. Johnson of Chicago Sports Network, on a recent episode of CHSN’s “The Fastbreak,” suggested that Chicago is prioritizing a certain kind of player in any trade return this year.
“Let me just emphasize: this stretch is not influencing management’s thinking,” Johnson cautioned about Chicago’s up-and-down recent run. At 24-26, the Bulls are hovering around .500 — as they’ve done for much of the year.
Indiana Pacers shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin, an intriguing recent lottery pick who thrived as a sixth man last year but has failed to take a leap in a larger role this season amid injury setbacks, is a new name Johnson cites as a potential trade target.
“The word around the league is they are interested in some young, athletic names,” Johnson said. “The way I would probably phrase it is, you look at teams that have players on rookie-scale contracts that are not currently working out for their current teams, whether that’s [Yves] Missi in New Orleans [or] Mathurin in Indiana…”
Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn ImagesBennedict Mathurin’s Run with Indiana Thus Far
The Pacers selected the 6-foot-5 swingman with the No. 6 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft out of Arizona. Last year, he was a critical bench component on an NBA Finals team.
Legendary Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle, who’s covertly established himself as one of the league’s all-time great coaches, carved out a Day 1 starting role for Mathurin this season — but he’s been hurt for much of the year on a reeling Pacers squad.
Still just 23, Mathurin has been averaging a solid stat line when he has played this year for the 13-36 Pacers. He’s averaged 17.5 points on .429/.377/.882 shooting splits, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists a night.
While, to Johnson’s point, Mathurin remains on his rookie-scale contract, that won’t be the case this summer. He’s going to hit restricted free agency this summer, meaning whichever team is fielding him this summer will be able to match any rival offer tendered his way.
Mathurin still packs plenty of upside. He’s a downhill athlete with strong finishing ability who can nail a jumper (that 37.7 percent 3-point rate arrives on 5.7 triple tries a night this season).
So What’s Wrong With Bennedict Mathurin?
The big performative knocks on Mathurin are: (a) he tends to have blinders on a bit when he builds a head of steam on drives, and (b) he’s never been a strong defender, despite his obvious strength and speed. Provided Chicago doesn’t hypothetically pay him like it paid Zach LaVine, that might not be a huge problem.
As a lottery pick, Mathurin is making a respectable $9.2 million salary this season. Would the Pacers accept a few second-rounders back in a deal, plus salary flotsam? Would Chicago need to surrender, say, a top-20-protected first-rounder?
If the Bulls were a competent franchise with some clear building blocks for the future, perhaps I’d be a bit more discerning about the kinds of pieces the team should be honing in on at the deadline. Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey, and Coby White (the latter of whom seems doomed to be flipped anyway) are all nice players — but there’s no guarantee any of them is good enough to be even the third-best guy on a title team.
That’s why taking a swing on a young scorer like Mathurin would be totally fine, even if he doesn’t address this 2025-26 roster’s biggest issues (frontcourt depth and wing defense).
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