The Chicago Bulls must really want to corner the market on non-shooters.
According to a report by K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune on Thursday, the Bulls “pushed hard” for Andre Roberson to be included in their deadline day deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but the Thunder resisted, preferring instead to re-sign Roberson.
Bulls pushed hard for Andre Roberson, source said. But Thunder wants to re-sign him.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) February 23, 2017
The Bulls ultimately settled instead for Cameron Payne, Joffrey Lauvergne, Anthony Morrow, and a future second-rounder in exchange for Doug McDermott and Taj Gibson.
While the 25-year-old Roberson’s offensive game is an abject nightmare (he holds career marks of 4.3 points per game on 46.4 percent from the field and 26.0 percent from deep), the value he brings to the Thunder in terms of his perimeter defense and the chemistry he has developed with the starting lineup (and I suppose you could add trash talking as well) would be hard to replace. With Roberson eligible for restricted free agency after the season, that’s what OKC had in mind as they elected to hang onto him through the deadline.
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