Warriors trade rumors: Is trading picks with the Chicago Bulls on the table?

The new Chicago Bulls regime is setting its sights on making waves straight out of the gate with a rumored trade up with Golden State. 

It’s about to be the dead of winter in Chicago, but things are heating up inside the Madhouse.

After finally jettisoning GarPax, relieving fans of a decade of chronic cranial pain and heartache, the Chicago Bulls are aiming to enter this new era with an absolute bang. New executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley have wasted no time in putting their stamp on the Bulls, hiring Billy Donovan to mold a young upstart team, and now it appears the duo will at least attempt to make a splash in the NBA Draft to get the premier talent they need.

According to Kevin O’Conner, the Bulls and Warriors are discussing — but haven’t yet agreed to — a trade that involves Chicago moving up to No. 2 in tonight’s NBA Draft.

Chicago Bulls rumors: Who would be the No. 2 pick?

This can only mean one thing: The Chicago Bulls want James Wiseman and are willing to pay the price to move up and get him.

Golden State has made it no secret that it’s trying to move out of the No. 2 pick, but the question has been who would be willing to move into that spot? Wiseman is the consensus best available player in that slot, since the Minnesota Timberwolves have had their sights set on the likes of Anthony Edwards and LeMelo Ball since winning the lottery.

It sounds like the Bulls have a pretty solid plan if they stay put at No. 4 overall, but the gusto to want to move up to get the guy that is truly at the top of your board is a key difference between this regime and the one it succeeded. GarPax would never consider this, which was a chief criticism and frustration among Bulls fans during their tenure.

If Wiseman is the guy that the new regime thinks is the right piece, why not move up to get him? It’s a pretty simple concept but general managers across all sports habitually outsmart themselves in this regard.

Chicago would likely have to give up Wendall Carter Jr. in a deal with the Warriors, in addition to the fourth overall pick, but if Wiseman is a key piece of Karnisovas and Eversley’s blueprint for the Bulls future, trading up to get him seems like a no brainer.