The Anthony Davis trade proposal brings the Mavericks star home to the Bulls

The 2025-26 The Chicago Bulls started the season 5-0highlighted by a 135-125 victory over the New York Knicks in which color commentator and analyst Stacey King declared this team “the real deal.” suffice to say, that proclamation it was a little too early. The Bulls have played inconsistent basketball since then, and are now 9-9 after Friday night’s NBA Cup loss to the Charlotte Hornets, of all teams.

Losing is bad enough, but doing it against the Hornets should raise alarm bells for this perennially mediocre Bulls franchise. Year after year, they finish in the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, and that has prevented them from actually getting the high draft pick the team needs to possibly get the franchise shakeup they desperately need to ascend.

This is not to say that the Bulls’ roster is devoid of talent. In fact, they have so many promising building blocks that they shouldn’t be too far out of contention, especially in the weaker East. They have Josh Giddy, Coby White and Matas Bouzelis as quality building blocks, but the rest of the team around them needs a lot of work, especially on the defensive end.

Bulls defense ranks 23rd in the league right now in points allowed per 100 possessions, and they need to turn things around on that end of the floor if they want to compete going forward. And just as luck would have it, a hometown hero who is elite defensively Anthony Davis he could end up being available for a trade, especially as the Dallas Mavericks continue to struggle.

The Bulls acquire Anthony Davis from the Mavericks in this trade package

Bulls Trade: Matas Bouzelis, Noah Essengue, Isaac Okoro, Zach Collins, Dalen Terry, 2028 and 2030 CHI

Mavericks trade: Anthony Davis

Bulls fans may not finish reading this piece in protest of Bouzelis’ inclusion in this trade offer. But realistically, it’s the only way they’re going to do it make the Mavericks trade Davis would be to include their top prospect in a rookie deal in addition to any first-round picks they can give up.

Again, before any Bulls fans scoff at this hypothetical, they need to remember that I do not support the idea of ​​their team trading for Davis. This is just an exploration of what should separate Davis from the Mavericks. And considering how much the Mavs have invested in Davis, then the above package might not be enough even though Bulls fans would think their team is already giving up on the world.

Davis is 32 years old (he’ll soon turn 33 in March) and just recently returned from a calf strain that sidelined him for the last 14 games. He also wasn’t at his best in his return to the court, scoring just 12 points and pulling down five boards in 28 minutes in a 129-119 loss to his former team, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Regardless, Davis is still one of the best rim protectors in the league, and players like him don’t grow on trees. Doc managing director Nico Harrison made the mistake of hitching his wagon on Davis instead of Luka Doncic, one could see why any talent evaluator would want Davis on the team. He blocked three shots on Friday, and would give the Bulls a man in the middle they can rely on on both ends – a stark contrast to Vucevic.

Of course, there will always be the question of Davis’ health. Now that he’s approaching his mid-thirties, he won’t be any less injury-prone, that’s for sure. All of the concerns surrounding Davis and his availability questions are valid and should give the Bulls pause, especially when they’re giving up Buzzellis in such a trade.

Bouzelis is a sophomore whose game also grows with each game. He’s improved a lot as a scorer, and he’s becoming more consistent as a three-point threat (he’s averaging 13.8 points on 36.8 percent shooting from deep). And he is only 21 years old.

So as inconsistent as he is on a nightly basis, and as lacking in other stats, the potential is tantalizing, and teams with opposing aspirations would always want tall, long wings like him to complement their more offensive-minded guards.

However, there is a chance that Bouzelis’ potential may be becoming overrated. He’s a good young player, but will he be more than a complementary piece for a Bulls team that needs a legitimate franchise cornerstone to be a winning team?

There is a possibility that Bouzelis scores 18 points a night with eight rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game on 49/37/88 shooting. That makes him a very good third option for the Bulls. But this Chicago team, time and time again, needed a top-15 player, at least to become more than just first-round playoff fodder.

Now, whether or not Davis is that star is a whole other debate. Ditching Buzzelis for Davis is embarrassing at best, especially when Davis is on the wrong side of the aging curve.

If the star in question is younger and has much less risk attached to him, then the Bulls should feel more comfortable giving up Buzzellis. But for Davis, this seems like a short-sighted move it could be very disastrous if the 10-time All-Star can’t stay healthy the way he has so far in his stay with the Mavericks.

But it takes talent to get talent, and Bouzelis will be one the Mavs will target. He and Cooper Flagg could form a formidable duo on the wing – two long, swaggering defenders who can relentlessly attack the rim and wreak havoc on both ends of the floor.

Losing Noah Esenge, the Bulls’ last first-round pick, could also prove to be a disaster. But at this point, Esenge is so far from contributing, and acquiring Davis means Chicago is pivoting to a more aggressive winning stance, leaving no roster space for a raw 18-year-old rookie.

Essengue was created as a projectbut if the Bulls were to be as eager as they are in this scenario where they trade a significant portion of their future to bring in Davis, then it makes sense for him to be included in the trade package if it means the Bulls would give up fewer first round picks to the Mavericks.

Somehow, in this trade scenario, Vucevic remains a bull — putting Davis in his preferred power forward position. They would also complement each other quite well; Vucevic is a fleet-footed pacer who can handle post-up beasts on the defensive end, while Davis can command the interior on both sides.

Given that the Bulls want to win big and win now with this hypothetical addition of Davis, they would want to keep Vucevic. Their starting lineup would now consist of Giddy, White, Patrick Williams (or Kevin Huerter), Davis and Vucevic — a quintet that should be good enough for about 40 to 45 wins in the East.

This trade also allows the Bulls to retain several key assets that will help them trade for other pieces to supplement their core. Williams and his $18 million annual salary packaged with a first-round pick or two should be a good starting point for another trade, this time for someone like Trey Murphy, an off-ball sniper who can further grease the wheels of a Bulls team that could take advantage of a wide-open Eastern Conference.