The Bulls made a long-expected move by firing their general manager and executive vice president on Monday after years of mediocrity. The Bucks may have delivered the straw that broke the camel's back when they swooped in to steal Ousmane Dieng from the Bulls at the trade deadline after Chicago initially acquired him from Oklahoma City. Even though the dismissal could inspire a similar change in leadership for Milwaukee, their front office can revel for now in the undeniable win of snagging Dieng for cheap.
The Bulls showed their incompetence again by trading Dieng
To break down the Bulls' perspective on Dieng, we need to remember his journey at the trade deadline. Dieng was originally shipped from OKC to Charlotte, then quickly rerouted to Chicago. There, he actually passed a physical to play for the Bulls but was traded again to the Bucks before ever suiting up for the Bulls. Since then, he's broken out as a talented prospect and is far exceeding his previous production on the Thunder.
Meanwhile, the Bulls ended up with center Nick Richards, who has been disappointing for them and is notably much older. Dieng's flashes of potential have been a rare bright spot in a tumultuous time for the Bucks. A promising young prospect like Dieng is exactly what the Bulls should have been targeting at the deadline too, but they somehow ended up with the 28-year-old Richards over the 22-year-old Dieng at the last second.
For years, the Bulls have struggled to escape the dreaded middle tier of the East. They were not good enough to properly contend or bad enough to get high draft picks, but just right for the Play-In Tournament every season. With multiple veterans, they showed a repeated mistake that the Bucks are also now experiencing: not trading them until it was too late. But with Dieng, the opposite happened - they never gave the youngster a chance.
The Bucks were smart to take advantage of the Bulls
Picking up Dieng for next to nothing was a crafty transaction from the Bucks front office. Overall, they gave up Cole Anthony and Amir Coffey - neither of which had a big role or flashed considerable potential - to pick up Dieng. Milwaukee general manager Jon Horst has been known to take big swings, but trading for Dieng was a smaller move with high upside.
Losing Dieng for so little certainly wasn't the only thing that led to Bulls staff getting fired, but it may have been on ownership's mind considering its recency. Perhaps getting the short end of the stick against a rival team was too much to bear. For all the criticism that Bucks management gets, at least they haven't made the same mistakes as the Bulls.