It was as emotional as DeMar DeRozan had been in his three-year stay with the Bulls.
Minutes after the play-in loss to the Heat in April, the veteran was asked about his immediate future and facing free agency.
“It’s kind of like crawling up that hill,” DeRozan said. “You get knocked back down, you take a look up that mountain and say, ‘Damn, I gotta do it all over again, gotta figure it out.’ ”
As of Saturday night, there’s a new hill to climb.
After the Sun-Times reported last week that DeRozan had played his last game with the Bulls, he was sent to the Kings in a sign-and-trade that gives him a three-year deal worth up to $74 million. Bulls public relations confirmed the deal.
Rumors of a three-way trade started late Friday, and that third team ended up being the Spurs, for whom DeRozan played before becoming a Bull in a sign-and-trade. The Spurs will receive Harrison Barnes, and the Bulls get Chris -Duarte, two second-round picks and cash.
The deal pushes forward the youth movement by Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, who already had moved on from Alex Caruso before the start of free agency last week.
That doesn’t mean his work is done. The Bulls continue to shop Zach LaVine aggressively and have been looking for a new home for Nikola Vucevic.
As for DeRozan, he had quite a stay, not only impacting the Bulls on the court but as an elite leader off of it. Even at 34 during the 2023-24 season, he led the league in total minutes played while averaging 24 points and 5.3 assists.
