Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Julia Poe: Bulls' front office is relying on luck for its plan
05 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What recent trades have the Bulls made?
Can you imagine Lovie Smith doing the whole good, better, best thing and saying bleep the Packers?
Come on, guys. Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Never let it rest. I'll see you on Tuesday. Middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score. He's got 18. And all the way to the cup. And a vicious right-handed slam. A mild dose in the grill of Pete Nance. Yeah, that's just running the floor.
And unfortunately, Io DeSumo is no longer a Chicago Bull. That courtesy of our Bulls radio network. We now go to the Circa Sports Illinois hotline. Download the Circa Sports app today to talk about Io and more as the Bulls are busy at this trade deadline. It is the Bulls and Sky Beat writer for the Chicago Tribune, Julia Poe, who joins us from Toronto.
And she's on Twitch, twitch.tv slash thescorechicago. Hey, Julia, thanks for joining us.
hey guys how's it going i just had to make sure i had not also gotten traded uh while this is happening it's been it's been a pretty crazy day here julia you would fetch a first rounder let's let's not get it twisted several multiple first rounders no second round picks for julia we're not taking in those those protected picks either we want the straight up thing we want our entry into the lottery speaking of julia are the bulls tanking
Looks certainly looks like it. I mean, this is a this is as big of a deadline dump as I think a team can really do. You know, looking at the list right now, they've got, I believe, eight players total have been sent out. They have sent out the majority of their expiring contracts. And this is what a nosedive looks like.
You know, you take a lot of guys that are on expiring deals and you get them moved and some of them kind of going for a lower price tag than I think the Bulls necessarily would have wanted. And you trade arguably one of your top three best players to the team that is chasing you for a play in tournament spot. I think that counts as, you know, committing to at least a short-term tank.
Yeah, Julia, that's what we're trying to figure out because we brought this up in our 10 o'clock hour of the show and that was fresh off of the news about Iodosuma being traded away. Part of a trade involving four second round picks and Julian Phillips. And we were even discussing whether or not that was selling a little bit low when it came to Io's value.
You know, what do you think of the return?
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Chapter 2: Are the Bulls tanking this season?
One interesting note is that Jaden Ivey is there, was able to shoot around, will be available tonight. We were able to speak with him, just get to know him a little bit better as an introduction today. Heard a lot of good things from him just about kind of how he's approaching this process. But they're going to have to call in reinforcements.
You know, Mac McClung is in on a two-way contract right now. Yuki Kawamura has been playing a decent amount of minutes. This is very much just kind of a grind it out, get through type of situation as the bulls try to get the calls in, get these deals over the line and then get guys into town. Um, Anfernee Simons was another player who was at shoot around this morning.
And although he couldn't speak with us because the deal was not through at that time, that is another player who is physically here in Toronto and could maybe be available.
Okay. So this is where I'm confused because I'm assuming that Simons could still be flipped. I'm assuming Ivy is a guy who is going to be here because he is a restrictor free agent. They can control his future. So walk me through this. Help me understand why the bulls, if this is a tank, why, Why get these players, specifically Simons is who I'm really focused on here.
I think he's a better offensive weapon than Kobe when healthy, and I think he's healthier than Kobe White is right now. It feels like they could still win a whole bunch of games with the guys that they have right now coming back in these deals.
Yeah, I think, like you said, there's a little bit of time left. The Bulls are still active. They're going to be active right up until the moment that the commissioner says Pencil's down at 3 o'clock today. So that is something to just kind of keep in mind and keep an eye on. I think that...
You're definitely right that there is, I think, Ivy Simons are two players who are a good example of, you know, definitely players who can make an impact early on.
But I still think that when you look specifically at what they've done to the front court and kind of where the front court is at right now, bringing in some players like Dillingham, like Dieng, who maybe have just not been able to play very much at all in their young careers.
These are situations where I do think that you're seeing the Bulls take a significant enough step back that they believe that they are going to be able to duck out of the play-in tournament. But you're not wrong. This is the problem with doing all of this at the deadline. They won too many games at the start of the year to make this a very effective tank job. They just can't lose enough games.
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Chapter 3: What was the return for Io DeSumo in the trade?
If they're able to do those things, then I think fans, by the end of the summer, will be able to come away from this feeling a lot better. At this time, I think, and again, I know emotions are not necessarily how you need to be making decisions here, but when you look at what some of these players, Kobe White, Io DeSumni, when you look at what they meant to the fan base...
you want to at least be able to kind of point at it and say, look, I know this is heartbreaking. We're going to miss these guys so much. But look at what we're doing with their value. Look at where we are moving the franchise with that.
Right now, unless something drastic changes in the next 90 minutes, I just don't think they're going to have anything that they can point to that the average Bulls fan is going to say, OK, that's worth losing Kobe and Io over. And that's a really, really tough spot to be in.
I think what you say makes a lot of sense. And those are the two people who I think a lot of people think of when they think about what this team looks like, when it's been successful on the floor. Julia Poe, thanks for telling us who was available at shoot around anywhere, who was there, maybe not media available, but at least we know who's out there.
Yeah, thanks, guys. I hope everyone's looking forward to my five minutes off the bench tonight. I'm going to get up as many shots as Billy will let me.
No, shoot. Shoot or shoot.
Do it. Hey, you know what I say? I got six fouls to give. So if you want to go ahead and take a few shots, I think together we will create some sort of team.
Thank you, Julia. We've got this. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
That's Julia Poe. You can check out her work on Blue Sky. She's also at the Chicago Tribune, of course, and she covers both the Cubs and the Cubs, the Bulls and the Sky for the Chicago Tribune. So now we at least know who's there. That's good. That's a step up.
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