Trades Ten Years Later - Luol Deng to the Cavaliers; Andrew Bynum Waived by Chicago
Cleveland Cavaliers receive: Luol Deng. Chicago Bulls receive: 2nd-round draft picks. But this is mostly an Andrew Bynum story.
Welcome to “Trades Ten Years Later,” the world’s most self-explanatory sports blog! An upcoming schedule can be found at the end of the post.
The Names: Bulls receive: Andrew Bynum (immediately waived), Sacramento protected first-round pick (ultimately conveyed as a 2017 second-round pick), 2015 Portland second-round pick, 2016 Portland second-round pick, right to swap 2015 first-round picks with Cleveland (never exercised). Cavaliers receive: Luol Deng.
The Team Context: The Chicago Bulls were having a rough one. The 2013-2014 season was anticipated with sky-high expectations, as superstar Derrick Rose would make his eagerly-awaited return following a missed season resulting from his torn ACL in the 2012 playoffs. The Bulls went 8-0 in the preseason, then only got to enjoy a 6-4 start before Rose tore his meniscus in the 3rd quarter of their 11th regular season game, a loss to Portland. The wind was out of Chicago’s sails and they sleepwalked through another lost year, wondering what would become of their franchise. They sat at 15-18 on January 7, 12.5 games back of the Pacers in the Central Division. However, next year could be better. Rose would return, rumors of signing Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love in free agency were rampant, and European star Nikola Mirotic was just waiting for enough salary cap room to be cleared to bring him to Illinois City.
The Cavaliers were worse than the Bulls based on record, but had their own basis for hope. After the franchise had been abandoned by its hometown hero in 2010, the team bottomed out and selected Kyrie Irving first overall in the 2011 Draft. He was looking pretty good! Then, in 2013, the Cavaliers won the draft lottery again (despite only having the third-worst record), making the surprise selection of Anthony Bennett. He was maybe looking not very great so far, but the jury was still out! Meanwhile, the back of every basketball-loving mind in Ohio was focused on Miami, where a certain Akron-born superstar was playing out the final year of his four-year contract.
The Player Context: Andrew Bynum was only sort of being “traded” here, but he’s impossible not to discuss at length and I won’t sell him short. Bynum began making history in 2005, when he opted to forgo plans to attend the University of Connecticut, instead entering the draft out of high school as a 7-foot tall 17-year old. He was selected 10th overall by the Lakers, becoming the youngest player drafted by an NBA team, then played six minutes in the season opener to become the youngest player in league history at 18 years, 6 days. Bynum skyrocketed his national profile in a January 2006 game against the eventual champion Miami Heat, featuring former Lakers megastar Shaquille O’Neal. In the second quarter, Shaq grabbed an offensive rebound and ferociously dunked over Bynum with a slam that commentators said Bynum would “remember for the rest of his life.” Before the color commentator could eke out a “yes he will,” Bynum had executed a spin move that put Shaq on roller skates and opened a path to the basket for a dunk of his own, sending the Staples Center crowd into pandemonium. He jogged back on defense and then threw an elbow into Shaq, who retaliated into a minor scuffle that resulted in both players receiving technical fouls as the cheers of Los Angeles transitioned to a roar of bloodlust. Bynum kept a minor role throughout his rookie season (he only played 3 minutes in that Heat game and the dunk was his only field goal attempt) and was still the youngest player in the NBA for his sophomore season as a result of the new “one-and-done” rule, gradually increasing his role to become a starter and eventually an All-NBA player by the 2011-2012 season, when he also made his first All-Star team.
Bynum’s exchange with Shaq showcased two of the three things he would be known for in his career: dominant big man performances and roguish behavior. Bynum played well enough to earn a 4-year, $58 million contract ahead of the 2008 season, but drew the ire of teammates and fans for frequent altercations with other players. Kobe Bryant, while being surreptitiously filmed by fans outside a strip mall, responded to reports of the Lakers rejecting a Bynum for Jason Kidd swap with “fucking ship his ass out, we’re talking about Jason Kidd.” Bynum was spotlighted for hard, unsportsmanlike fouls against Gerald Wallace, JJ Barea, and Michael Beasley. He allegedly skipped out on a community event because he was too sick, then was seen by a fan healthily shopping for counterfeit Game Boy cartridges. Meanwhile, the third and most significant aspect of the Bynum Triad (health) became an increasingly prominent force, as recurring knee injuries disrupted his play. He missed the start of the 2010-2011 season after delaying a knee surgery until after his vacation, by which point his injury history had grown so abundantly that writer Michael Rosenberg commented “it would not have surprised me if doctors looked inside his knee and determined he had a separated shoulder.” The Lakers exercised Bynum’s team option for the 2011-2012 season, but then traded him to Philadelphia in the multi-team Dwight Howard trade where the 76ers gave up Andre Iguodala, Maurice Harkless, Nikola Vucevic, and a first round pick, at which point Bynum’s career firmly pivoted towards infamy. He experienced pain from arthritis in his knees and did not recover after receiving Orthokine treatments before training camp. While being held out of basketball activities due to right knee discomfort in November, he injured his left knee while bowling. Bynum’s knee condition began to be reported as “degenerative” as timelines for his return were repeatedly set and then missed. Finally, on March 19, Bynum underwent arthroscopic surgery on both of his knees, ending his season. He never played a game for the 76ers, establishing their trade for him as one of the worst in NBA history.
As a free agent with incredibly unclear value, Bynum entered the market with one of the highest ceilings and lowest floors in the sport. He ended up with a team who could afford to take dice rolls in Cleveland, signing an incentive-laden contract with the Cavaliers for a reported maximum value of 2-years, $24.79 million. However, the contract only guaranteed $6 million of Bynum’s salary for the 2013-2014 season, with the rest being voidable if Bynum was waived by January 7, 2014. Bynum played through pain to debut with the Cavaliers, starting slow as he adjusted to a permanently-weakened body but eventually picking up the pace. An Akron Beacon Journal article from November 26 is downright optimistic, despite its admission that “his knees hurt any time he runs or does something explosive, which is why he avoids leaping whenever possible.” But with just weeks to go until the rest of his salary guaranteed, news broke on December 28 that Bynum had been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, leading to speculation that he simply “didn’t want to play basketball anymore [and] never liked it that much in the first place.” His suspension was ultimately a result of his conduct at a practice, where he was kicked out after shooting the ball every time he received it, from anywhere on the court. Bynum admitted to launching a shot from midcourt during practice in a subsequent interview, acknowledging he did so on purpose “because it was over there for me.” The Cavaliers were forced to cancel a planned giveaway of Andrew Bynum Fatheads to all children 14 and under for a game against the Warriors the next day. It’s unfortunate for Andrew that he couldn’t wait a week and a half to guarantee the rest of his salary before being suspended, and unfortunate for us that he couldn’t even wait a day so that there would be thousands of Andrew Bynum Cavalier Fatheads floating around.
Having spent 1,000 words on the contractual liability being offloaded, let’s discuss the functional basketball player. Luol Deng was born in what is now South Sudan to a father who was a member of then-Sudanese parliament and immigrated to London when his family received political asylum as a result of civil war. He came to the United States to play high school basketball and excelled at Blair Academy, ascending to become the #2 high school basketball prospect in the Class of 2003 behind Akron’s own Lebron James. He made the Final Four in his one season at Duke and was selected seventh overall in the 2004 NBA draft. Deng quickly became a fixture in Chicago, signing a six-year, $71 million contract extension after his rookie deal expired, and was a fan favorite as a classically underrated star who was “never the face of the franchise but always the backbone” He ascended to make All-Star teams in each of 2012 and 2013, along with an appearance on the 2011-2012 All-Defensive 2nd team. There are interesting parallels between Deng and Bynum, who were drafted 7th and 10th in the 2004 and 2005 Drafts (respectively) and each made their first All-Star appearance in 2012. The chasmic differences related to attitude (where Bynum was seen as a rapscallion, Deng was seen as a beacon of radiant teamsmanship) and their 2012-2013 season (where Deng played in another All-Star Game as he led the NBA in minutes per game for the second consecutive year, Bynum played no NBA basketball whatsoever). Deng was a much more productive NBA player than Bynum, but did so in logarithmically quieter fashion. As the calendar turned to 2014 in another frustrating Bulls season, Deng rejected a 3-year, $30 million extension from Chicago, setting the stage for his trade.
The Trade: Unsurprisingly, the phones in Cleveland were not ringing off the hook for a suspended Andrew Bynum. Approaching their contractually-imposed January 7 waiver deadline, Cleveland opted to use Bynum’s salary cap figure to land an impact player at a trade capital discount, understanding that Bynum would then be waived by the acquiring team to void his guarantee. With the current season looking lost and Deng set for free agency on a team that needed salary cap space, the Bulls saw an opportunity to pick up some draft capital, even if it meant waving the white flag on the season and saying goodbye to a franchise stalwart a few months early. Deng left the Bulls as the fifth-longest tenured player and fourth-leading scorer in franchise history (he still holds the latter mark, but is now the sixth-longest tenured player in history by games if we count Kirk Hinrich’s non-consecutive terms). Cleveland got the discount they were hoping to see, as the draft capital mostly came in the form of 2nd-round picks.
The one 1st-round pick in the deal had originally been sent to Cleveland from Sacramento several years before. It was top-14 protected in 2012 and did not convey as the Kings struggled. It was top-13 protected in 2013 and did not convey as the Kings struggled. This left 2014, where it was top-12 protected, then 2015, 2016, and 2017, where it was top-10 protected. If Sacramento couldn’t win enough to escape the lottery in any of the next four years, the pick would convey as a 2017 2nd-round pick. But Sacramento had just traded for Rudy Gay! Surely they would have a competitive team in one of the next 3.5 seasons.
The Kings drafted 8th in 2014, 6th in 2015, 8th in 2016, and 5th in 2017. The first-round pick never conveyed. Chicago received a 2017 2nd-rounder to complement their 2015 and 2016 editions.
The Reaction: Chicago fans were devastated to lose Deng, with reports of “every Bulls fan looking out at a large body of water, contemplating life,” and comparisons made to “getting an infected tooth pulled without novocaine.” At the same time, fans understood the rationale of making the trade at that particular moment, since the Bulls “want[ed] to get as high of a pick as possible in this stacked draft.” Cavaliers fans, meanwhile, were excited to “upgrade the black hole that is our SF position” and add veteran savvy to help enhance Kyrie Irving’s late-game performances. There was praise for Cavaliers GM Chris Grant, notwithstanding his seemingly poor draft selection of Bennett six months ago.
Given the high stakes of the exceptionally talent-rich 2014 NBA Draft, even unaffiliated teams were concerned about the Bulls’ brazen move to tank. Here are two Bucks fans expressing fear about the Bulls out-tanking the Bucks to end up picking earlier than them in the draft. These fans would certainly be ecstatic to know that they would go on to draft seventeen spots ahead of the Bulls, taking Jabari Parker with the second overall pick. They’d be even more ecstatic to understand the extent to which last year’s fifteenth overall pick Giannis Antetokounmpo, already on their roster, would provide them with more to focus on than “losses and conspiracy theories.” We don’t have to tell them how Jabari Parker turned out.
The Results: Despite the trade being seen as the start of the Bulls’ teardown, they just kept winning. The Bulls ultimately finished with 48 wins, good for a #4 seed in the weak 2014 Eastern Conference, led by Joakim Noah’s best season even in the absence of Rose and Deng. They were ultimately defeated by the Washington Wizards in a 5-game first round series, which was certainly better than anybody expected even prior to this trade, but raises the question of what might have been accomplished had Deng been kept on the roster.
The Cavaliers went 21-26 after completing the Deng trade, marking a slight but immaterial improvement to their performance. Deng did slot into a valuable leadership role and assist with the progression of young guards Irving and Dion Waiters, but that’s about all that can be said for long-term impact. The Cavaliers failed to make the playoffs and Deng left as a free agent. Cavs GM Chris Grant was fired a month after making this move. The Cavaliers were fine with Deng’s departure, as their dreams came true with Lebron James’s return to Cleveland.
The Aftermath: With an open job suddenly available in Miami, Luol Deng slid into the South Beach Small Forward role, performing as a key cog for a contending team once again in the post-Lebron era. After playing in the 2016 playoffs, Deng took advantage of an anomalous spike in the salary cap environment to sign a four-year, $72 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers. Deng was one of the four horsemen of the July 2016 contract overpay bonanza (along with Timofey Mozgov, Tyler Johnson, and Ian Mahinmi). By that February, a new front office led by Magic Johnson had decided to transition an underperforming Deng out of meaningful playing time. Deng did not play after February 26 that season, then played opening night and no other games for the Lakers in 2017-2018. Opening night ended his Lakers tenure; the Lakers bought out his contract after two of the four seasons he had signed for. Deng was the highest paid member of the Lakers during each of his seasons with the team. He signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves and former Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau for his final season. His last NBA game was a February loss to the Hawks, where he missed the only shot he took but had a neat moment when he recorded an offensive rebound off a three-point miss and passed back to fellow January 7 trade victim Jerryd Bayless (who missed another three-pointer). Deng signed a one-day contract to retire as a Chicago Bull.
The 2015 pick swap never mattered, as Cleveland’s pick was worse than Chicago’s, and the picks that Chicago received were ultimately used to draft NBA players with short careers: Sir’Dominic Pointer in 2015 (by which time his pick had been traded multiple times and circled back around to Cleveland), Heidelberg-born Paul Zipser in 2016, and Jordan Bell in 2017. Jordan Bell’s pick proved to be surprisingly controversial; rather than making the selection, the Bulls opted to sell the pick to reigning champion Golden State Warriors for $3.8 million in cash. Choosing $3.8 million over the rights to Jordan Bell sufficiently angered a Bulls fan to create a GoFundMe for a billboard begging for the front office to be fired. The campaign quickly raised over $8,000. Steve Kerr started Bell in a game against the Bulls that fall, where he persistently made money gestures to spite the organization that spurned him. All of this sizzle belied the bite-sized steak; Jordan Bell ultimately bounced around the league for a few years across 161 games, ending his career with one game (two minutes played) in Chicago. If I had double-posted yesterday so that this was on time, it would have been his 29th birthday. Happy belated, Jordan!
Andrew Bynum was waived immediately after the trade, voiding his contract guarantee for the remainder of the 2014 season. Everyone assumed he would join the Miami Heat’s superteam, but he in fact joined their main contender in the Indiana Pacers. Pacers coach Frank Vogel said he wanted to give Bynum a week or two of practice to acclimate before putting him in any games; he ultimately gave Bynum six weeks before his first appearance with the Pacers on March 11, 2014, where he played 15 minutes and 37 seconds in his first game with the Pacers. His second game with the Pacers, which was also his final game with the Pacers and his final NBA game, was four days later in a victory over the Pistons. Bynum played 20 minutes and took 18 shots, one attempt short of the team lead despite playing the seventh-most minutes on the team. Then the soreness in his right knee flared up and his NBA career was over, 139 days after his 26th birthday. Andrew Bynum was last reported as attempting an NBA comeback as of 2018, when he was 30 years old. Nothing came of it and he has been out of the news since outside of occasional “what happened to him?” inquiries.
Upcoming Trades
January 15, 2024:
Heat receive: Toney Douglas (from GSW)
Warriors receive: Jordan Crawford and MarShon Brooks (from Boston)
Celtics receive: Joel Anthony and conditional future Philadelphia 1st (from Miami), 2016 Miami 2nd