featured-image

Bulls Acquire DeMar DeRozan

The Chicago Bulls have acquired DeMar DeRozan from the San Antonio Spurs in a sign-and-trade agreement. Chicago traded Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, a protected first-round Draft pick and two second-round draft picks to San Antonio as part of the deal. In accordance with team policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

DeRozan (6-7, 220) is a four-time All-Star – twice as a starter (2017, 2018) and twice as a reserve (2014, 2016). Over his 12-year career, he has been named to the All-NBA Third-Team in 2016-17 and All-NBA Second-Team in 2017-18, a conference Player of the Week 11 times (most recently the week of Jan. 13, 2020) and a conference Player of the Month three times (most recently January 2018). DeRozan has scored 17,751 points in his NBA career, which ranks ninth among active players and 82nd in NBA history. Since DeRozan was drafted in 2009, only five other players have scored 17,000 points: LeBron James, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry. He has posted a scoring average of over 20.0 points for the last eight seasons and has scored 1,000 or more points for 11 seasons. The only other players to post at least 1,000 points in every season since 2010 are Westbrook and James. He has 468 career games with 20+ points. The USC product owns a career field goal percentage of .460 which ranks 13th among active NBA players. In 2020-21, DeRozan's 20.1 points per game was the highest mark on the Spurs. He led the team in scoring 34 times and in assists 38 times, and he notched a career-high 6.9 assists per game, which ranked 11th in the league. DeRozan was drafted ninth-overall by the Toronto Raptors in 2009 and played for Toronto for nine seasons before being traded to the San Antonio Spurs ahead of the 2018-19 season. He won the 2017-18 Magic Johnson Award and has won gold medals with Team USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and 2014 World Cup in Spain.

Young signed in Chicago as a free agent on July 6, 2019. He posted 11.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.26 steals over 132 games (39 starts). Aminu came to Chicago in a trade with the Orlando Magic on March 25, 2021, and he averaged 1.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in six appearances for the Bulls.