The Chicago Bulls officially announced the completion of the trade that sent fan favorite and Bulls star Zach LaVine to the Sacramento Kings.
The Bulls received Tre Jones, Zach Collins, and Kevin Huerter in return along with their first-round pick from the Spurs which is top 10 protected.
To make room on the roster, the Bulls waived two role players to make the deal official after not receiving any interest for a trade.
Chicago Bulls waive Chris Duarte and Torrey Craig
The Bulls through their Twitter account announced that they have waived Craig and Duarte to make the deal for LaVine official. This also allowed the Bulls to clear some roster spots to accommodate Jones, Collins, and Huerter.
“Thank you & best of luck @C_Duarte5”
Craig has been on the sidelines for the Bulls since December after going down with an ankle sprain. Craig has only appeared in nine games for the Bulls this season and averaged 12.6 minutes a game.
In those 12.6 minutes, Craig did put up respectable numbers off the bench giving the Bulls 6.9 points, and 2.8 rebounds, and was effective from three with shooting 42.9%. Given that Craig has been out with an ankle sprain and the emergence of Bulls rookie Matas Buzleis, Craig was expendable.
As for Duarte, he was another player that was considered expendable. Ayo Dosunmu is currently the Bulls starting shooting guard and Huerter is going to require the bulk of the minutes when Dosunmu isn’t on the court averaging 20.9 minutes this season. Duarte was not that effective while he was with the Bulls this season appearing in 17 games where he averaged 4.4 minutes and had only 2.1 points.
What happens from here?
Now that Craig and Duarte have been waived teams will have 48hrs to place a claim on them.
Craig may have a harder time than Duarte given his injury, but Duarte is still under 30 and has a lot still to prove.
With the completion of the trade and allowing the young guys to play, the Bull’s rebuild is officially in full swing.
This article first appeared on ChiCitySports and was syndicated with permission.