Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Examining the state of the Bulls after their recent trades

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris reacted to the Bulls acquiring guard Jaden Ivey, veteran point guard Mike Conley Jr. and guard Anfernee Simons in a pair of trades Tuesday.

The score. This hour is sponsored by WinTrust. The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grody may change at any time. It's just sports.

Okay, thanks. Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 1043, The Score. It is our friend Paul Papps, host of the tailgate Saturday mornings. I see you are traversing the entire bay. How is that going for you, Paul? Well, you know what's weird out here?

They have these driverless cars, and they're like, they're not Uber. Yeah, Waymo. Marshall, I had no idea about Waymo. I went to cross the street the other day, and there was a car with no people, and I'm like, I had a staring contest. I didn't know what to do. Hey, what is the deal with the smart car? How smart is that? Those things are tiny.

Can you even drive them in traffic? Yeah, I'm so smart. E equals MCC. squared. I drive a smart car. That's not smart in my bar. Are you going to try a waymo? I have been in a waymo. I was in one in Phoenix. And it's an interesting thing. It's pretty standard for people out there, though.

They're used to it. I got to tell you, I'm old school. I'm like a Chevy Nova 3 on the tree. I like old school cars and people. But I'll try to embrace this this week and get back to you. You're not driving this. It's a death trap. We have breaking news. Oh, I like this.

I like this Paul. I can't believe that. I love this. Paul, the Bulls have made a trade. Get ready, Pam. Give it to us. Get ready. Oh my God. Okay. It's happening. Everybody stay calm.

What's the procedure, everyone? What's the procedure? Stay fucking go. Chicago, Minnesota, and Detroit have agreed to a multi-team deal that since Jaden, Ivy, and Mike Conley Jr. to the Bulls? Love Mike Conley Jr. Mike Conley to the Bulls. He's a stud. Kevin Herder and Dario Sarge go to the Pistons. sources tell ESPN.

I know you guys are going to have people on to break this down, but my first reaction is it's step one of a second grade. I don't think that this would be the only thing you did. This might be a round. roster move to get the roster ready to do something else. I want you to put the word out there that we back up. Understand me? We back up.

Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. We're back up. Stringer Bell. We're back up because the Bulls are making trades with the rest of the NBA. Stringer Bell has the back at sea level in terms of their order. their standard operating procedure. The declaration has been made.

We back up. A.K. did those things he was supposed to do like three years ago. Oh, man. Oh, my God. It's true, Ray. You're right. You're right. A.K. has seen the lights.

The standard had been lowered and now we're... As we like to say about the dating scene, the bar is in hell. So let me get this straight. Back to average. Ultimately, I'm all for making... moves that further define the direction of your franchise, which I think we just saw the idea. Right now they have like seven guards, the Bulls, but they're making trades. So we back up.

Guards are important. When you run at the pace, the Bulls run, I believe it's the fourth highest pace in the NBA. You need guards to push. I am aware, but like they have so many guards that I feel like they're just going to run a line of full of guards. We got 5-8 running the point. We'll get higher in height from there. You saw Yuki win that jump ball.

I have so much belief in him. Yeah. Yuki did win the jump ball. All 5-8 of him. Listen, AK. And you know what? I'm not 5-8. I got miles to go before I get to 5-8.

Shortest player in Bull's history out here winning jump balls over Casper Yucatunis. I have a message for AK right now. A.K., do not waste. Do not waste Yuki's window. You hear me? Don't waste it. Is this what backup is? like. I know, I know it's Casperis. I just like to call him ghost because I see Casper and I just

stop there. Call him ghost. I like it. It's okay. Like, I, I, on behalf of Alainai, who I adopted, because they're the public school and they disappoint me in various sports ways at times. I felt like I had to say. Aligni, by the way, looking good. But that's, that's not why we are. We got a freaking Alinai on this show. Yeah, we actually, Kendall Gill, that's right. We could ask him about those align I will talk to kendall later at our show at 1.25 and in the meantime, this is something. Like you're not, you're not wrong in putting that in there, Tyler, that the bulls are back up because they had three straight years of no activity. Then we see, and you're starting to see the direction. And rather than pivoting a kayak for this team,

it does feel like they're turning a barge. Yeah, it's just a slower, more deliberate process. Like, for example, a lot of NBA GMs, you know that they're good for at least two trades basic at the trade deadline. You don't necessarily know who they're going to trade. You just know it's going to happen. That's not the case with the Bulls. And while they have talked about their direction and they said as much, you know, after the trade deadline last year, draft picks, as we know, weren't the priority when it came to first rounders, you know, that we've talked about that. However, we didn't necessarily know the exact direction.

I go back to when Arturis Karashova said he wanted nine or ten good players, you know, formidable players, higher than role players, but not necessarily your nucleus of stars commanding supermaxes. So how does that look? And for them partially, it was last year collecting and gaining control again of their first round pick, who they used on Noah Essenge. See. But they got it back. now it's and then now it was well after the season Arturis Karas Charnasheva says we're going to have more flexibility financially after the 2026 season.

I took that to mean at the time that he was going to therefore get out of the Vooch deal, Nikola Vucovich, who he traded for at the trade deadline his first year here, that I thought that that was going to be the indication because he was one of the highest paid players on the team as we know and so if Vooch's contract ended at the end of this coming season that that's where the financial flexibility would be. We have gone through the roller coaster trying to figure out who had what value when.

The Caruso trade is a good example of that. Alex Caruso gets traded to an Oklahoma City team that highly values him. The Bulls get back Josh Giddy. They see Giddy as part of their core. Giddy now getting the $25 million and they feel like that was part of their core. We say that they could have gotten a draft pick in exchange for that. but we start to see the direction again, start to take shape, right? Slowly but surely.

And I think now with trading away Vouch for Anthony Simons, flipping Dario Sarge in a deal who they had traded for, getting Mike Conley, who we expect to see flipped most likely, right? Even if he's flipped or they just buy him out after the trade deadline. There it is. And then Jayon Ivy being a part of this, whose age aligns with Giddy and Modis Buzellas. you're starting to see the direction that they want to go in

in order to put a team together that they think is going to work. See, you say barge, but by the speed in which they did basically three deals to add assets, get rid of expiring contracts, this thing was straight out the banana boat tills, you know? Why did you got to bring up the Jimmy Butler, Dwayne? Because I love it. Because I love it. Your body double, Chris Paul?

My body double. Well, face double. He's probably in much better shape. me. I don't know. I don't think that that's, no, I'm going to push back on that. I like that you mentioned the bar being in Hades, because honestly, that's what those of us following this team are used to. Our expectations are so low when it comes to the Bulls, to see them pull off this flurry of moves. Layla, I got to tell you, I didn't think they could trade Vouch for as much value as they got back for him. And that, to me, was like, okay, this is not

only a good move to get rid of an expiring contract, but this is a move that brings value to your team. That second rounder they got back in exchange for their second rounder, which was a second rounder from the 2027 draft out of the Denver Nuggets pocket that they now moved on to the Celtics to get back a 2026 second rounder. That's this year. Very good, deep clash. You might be able to move up in the draft of that pick, package it for something else. And then it's the pick of four different teams that could be at the top of the second round. round. So basically like a later first round pick. It's, I didn't know A.K. was capable of this. So we think that we've seen the Bulls start to develop a direction. We wanted to keep the phone

lines open here on practice it with me now. 1043, but you can still listen to 670. The score, 312, 644, 67, 67, we will do so for this hour because we know. I think there was a lot of skepticism appropriately when it came to figuring out what the Bulls wanted to do. But I look at it as simply as this, Marshall. The money will dictate, A, how teams value players, Giddy's the most important to the Bulls, that's why he's getting paid the most.

Nicola Vouchovitchevich was the second most important to the bulls at 21.5 million. And you have to organize it by big rocks in a jar versus little rocks that fill it in. So moving Vouch, which was something that shocked you and I yesterday, because I didn't think it was going to happen, especially for a guy like Anthony Simons, who, by the way,

A side note probably indicates what I've been thinking all along, which is Tatum is likely back for the Celtics sooner rather than later. I don't think it's as aggressive as the February timeline. I do think perhaps maybe it's late March or April. Like, do they feel like that is reasonable? What's the hurry? You literally just need to have Tatum come back soon enough that he can integrate or really just reintegrate because everybody knows who Jason Tatum is. Yeah, for the playoff push. Right.

So they've been doing enough to stay in their respective mix. There's no question. But that means that they are going to move some pieces while they have this flexibility ahead of now tomorrow's trade deadline. So for the Bulls, again, they're faced with, number one, Simons is on an expiring deal. Jaden Ivy is on an expiring deal. But are they going to do what they did like, say, with Josh Giddy,

who was also on an expiring deal? And try to build what they think is a core. And is that core enough to actually compete? and dare I say qualify for a actual playoff series in the East. Not this year. Yeah, I think they're positioning themselves to be able to make a playoff push. Maybe this year still. I know people are going to think I'm crazy after watching the Bulls go down by 25 points

at the half in back-to-bad games for just the second time in franchise history. I know they're going to think I'm crazy. But once they get, you know, players over 5'8, players over 6'3 on the roster that are not named Lachlan Olbrick, they might have a chance to make a push. The East is really bad, Laila. It's really bad. But that is the hard part about trying to figure all this out is that

you had to let the air out of the balloon. Like, you had to rip the band-aid off. Say whatever you want. You are going to have to get worse to get better. So trying to do that in a graceful or slow way is not the way of the league.

And we see that you can shorten that timeline to use an AK phrase. you can shorten the timeline of tanking. The Oklahoma City Thunder showed you. But they did this in a much more deliberate and aggressive process. You know, acquiring so many draft picks, trying to hold on to other ones.

The Paul George trade is really what's what started them on the path to therefore winning the title last year. Yeah. So, you know, it got painful before it got better, but the Bulls haven't really done that. So then therefore it's, it comes down to me, understanding that I think they think

some of these players who aren't fitting on other teams, kind of all of what we saw what the Cubs do with Michael Bush. You know, when you're dealing with the Dodgers, like Gitties with the Thunder, for example. You know, Jane Nivey is with Detroit and we see now Simon's with the Celtics. If there's not room for some of these guys because of the apron issue, which does change all of this, you know, are you picking up some of these other players from other teams, and maybe you didn't draft them, but they start to become the core that you think that you can build around

with a guy you did draft and modest. So the issue here is, because the first thing that comes to mind is when you say like the Oklahoma City Thunder, the way they made that deal to give out of Alex Caruso, but going back to the Paul George deal. Right. They got Shea Gilgis Alexander in the Paul George trade along with assets, right? And they let Shea Gilgis Alexander figure it out. The Bulls are unwilling to let a guy like Modis or Giddy figure it out.

They're like, we're going to put capable players next to you because we're going to make this push for what we believe could be a playoff team, maybe a play-in team. I think the biggest thing here is you're watching Cooper Flagg right now go off for the Dallas Mavericks in a situation which is bad, right? But it's allowing, as we saw Jason Kidd get fined, I think $30,000 for talking about the criticism he faced for putting Cooper Flag at point guard and letting them lose their last five games while he's putting up games where he scores 49 points. He's letting him make the mistakes through the floor.

Montez-Buzellis hasn't been afforded that opportunity to the degree that a Cooper Flag has. He's just a role player, a lesser player, if you will, alongside Josh Giddy and Kobe White, and at times, Trey Jones and Smith. I think the Bulls are afraid to let Modis be turned loose. Now, he's got work to do with his handle and everything, but in the meantime, they are doing something different than they've done in the past. They're acquiring a bunch of young players who, along with draft capital, will put them in position to trade for a superstar because they're, every year there's a disgruntled superstar or three. Janice.

Janice is going to Minnesota, right? Like that's pretty much happening? I think so, but there's talk that he may make it to the offseason. If that happens, the bull might, they may have a chance to go get Janus because they may have more stuff that they put together if they move Kobe and or I. Well, and I save Minnesota because, number one, that became the overwhelming discussion yesterday through the NBA circles. And then number two, Mike Conley is here partially because.

because they needed to create roster space. Now, the question becomes, can the Bulls flip Mike Conley like they did Dario Sarage before the trade deadline at, what, 3 o'clock, 2 o'clock tomorrow? Yeah, it's 2 o'clock tomorrow. Yeah, 3 o'clock Eastern. If they can't, it won't be the worst thing

because they still have, you know, taken back expiring contracts and they can get the buyout done. That's not as big of a deal. I think what's most interesting is just to understand this moment in time. Our church, Karnas Chauvis, to me, is looking very much like he's, in his bull's tenure, what, six years deep, at the same point where we saw Ryan Poles sitting next to Kevin Warren, kind of being at a boyd while being admonished about not doing a good job

in his first opportunity with the Bears, but he got a second run with Ben Johnson and company. He got a quarterback in Caleb Williams. Archer's Carter-Shovis is being afforded that opportunity to figure it out. What I don't like about it is that Michael Rinesdorf has basically said, yeah, take your time, Do the slow development of your own players. No, no, no. Develop your own players, yes, always, but also be ready, be nimble,

be able to pivot more like a banana boat than a barge when the next crop of disgruntled stars become available. Yeah, I want to get into, I know we don't have a ton of time left in this segment. And what you're referring to is the scene where after the bears fired Matt Eberfluse, Ryan Poles is sitting in a quarter zip next to Kevin Ward, who's in a suit, and there's been a lot made of,

about that discussion and what's happened since. But the difference, I think, partially, too, is that AK was the assistant GM in Denver. You know, that he, he had a higher title than Ryan Poles had in Kansas City. And AK had, he had, I mean, the perennial MVP candidate, you know, as his resume and his scouting when it came to Yokic. So I feel like he had a more established resume. They had a defined direction. They traded for Nikola Vucovich and they added with DeMar de Rosen with a very defined direction when they decided to go that route. Lanzo Balls.

Yeah, I mean, and Lanzo Ball, as we saw, was the guy to put all of that together for them. And then we saw, unfortunately, it was tenuous because they didn't have enough two-way players. Lanzo Ball goes down as part of that discussion. And then we saw how it fell apart because DeMar plays a slower pace of play than what the rest of the league does. It was a formula that made sense at the time, but unfortunately it was at the very end of a time and a salary structure in the league where that would have made sense. So now you have to pivot. And you see how Oklahoma City did it and they're the standard. You know, that's it.

They're the standard. A team full of young players. They got five picks back, including SGA in that Paul George trade. The clippers still have Paul George. So, you know, I say that to say it's a different situation here because the NBA changed, the CBA change. The CBA changed everything. And then teams were left trying to figure out how to put the pieces back together. And, you know, that trade was a fleece when you look back at it now.

You know, it was a fleece. There's no other way of putting it. You don't get to fleece teams like that outside maybe the Kings in the NBA anymore. So that's why I feel you when it comes to the sea change moment, you know, that was the sea change moment for polls and for Warren. But I don't necessarily know. I think we're still seeing every team in the league try to figure out how to tread water

knowing that it's much different salary-wise for them. The NBA trade deadline isn't the same anymore because of it. Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely correct in the way that you're looking at Archer's role in this current NBA compared to what it was back then. My issue is back then he definitely was operating on a barge. Very slow to pivot when something went wrong, aka Alonzo Ball's injury.

Now, though, I think he has learned, or I'm sorry, let me not ascribe that to him. I hope he has learned to be able to pivot quicker in a fast-moving landscape as we've seen over the last, what, three days with the James Harden trade and now not knowing what's going to happen to Janus. All I want for him to do right now is to be a facilitator on some of these deals, get more assets if he can, move I.O. slash Kobe, if he can, to get a first rounder maybe somewhere out there, even if it's protected.

And the other thing is, you want to get an A-plus from me on this. this trade deadline. Find a way to get rid of Patrick Williams. He's in the second year of that deal. Find a way to give rid of Patrick Williams. Second year of a five year. If you want to A, that's what you got to do. Marshall has issued the challenge. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotty on 1043, The Score. You can join us via Twitch. We are at The Score Chicago now. Twitch.tv slash The Score Chicago. Thanks to our Twitch mob for hanging out and having a conversation with us and with them. You can call us in us 312, 64, 64, 67, 67, as we broadcast live from the scores Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. Our producers are Ray Diaz, Tyler Buterbaugh, Brandon Fryer helps us out,

and our video team, not only meaning the Twitch chat, but doing our socials as well. It is Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerland. And now we have to ask the question about one of the longest tenured athletes in Chicago. Did we see Kobe White play his last game? the friend of the show we'll discuss next.