Chicago Bulls trade Anthony Randolph to Orlando Magic
The Chicago Bulls have agreed to a deal that will send forward Anthony Randolph and two second-round picks to the Orlando Magic, reports Sam Amick of USA Today.
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This is a blatant cap-clearing move by Chicago, which sheds Randolph and his $1.8 million salary for the 2014-15 season while sending a couple picks Orlando’s way. The Magic will waive Randolph once the deal is complete, using some of their available cap space to gain some assets for the future.
The Bulls have had an interesting offseason, adding Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic and first-round pick Doug McDermott while failing to land a legitimate superstar like Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love. Randolph was acquired as part of the McDermott deal with the Nuggets, but never seemed like a logical fit for Tom Thibodeau’s team.
Chicago will pay a pretty high cost to avoid paying Randolph his salary next season, though, by giving up multiple second-round picks to Orlando. It’s the kind of deal we’ve seen become increasingly common in recent years, with second-round picks becoming highly useful as assets for greasing the wheels on minor deals with financial implications.
It’s also easy to forget that Randolph is just 24 years old given that he’s already spent six highly disappointing seasons bouncing around the NBA since being a first-round pick in the 2008 draft. Over the years, Randolph has played for Golden State, New York, Minnesota and Denver, and now he’s been bailed on by two more teams who didn’t even give him chances on the court.
Randolph is also coming off arguably the worst season of his career, which isn’t exactly good news as he gets older. He averaged just 4.8 points on 39 percent shooting in 43 games with the Nuggets in 2013-14, which is pretty abysmal for someone with his size (6’10).
He will likely become a free agent once the deal goes through, leaving the Bulls with some extra money to spend elsewhere on the roster. As for Randolph, we’ll see whether other teams are willing to give him a shot.