Tyler Herro does not look like the cleanest fit for a team in the middle of a rebuild, and that’s exactly why a Bulls trade idea for him sounds so strange at first. But the deeper you dig, the more it starts to line up for Chicago, Herro and even the Milwaukee Bucks.
Milwaukee reportedly ended up with Herro as the centerpiece of the deal that sent Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami. For the Bucks, the appeal is obvious enough: Herro is from about 12 miles away from Fiserv Forum, and the 26-year-old has built a résumé that includes at least 20 points and four assists per game since his third NBA season, plus a Sixth Man of the Year Award and an All-Star selection.
The hesitation is just as clear. Herro has missed meaningful time because of injuries, he’s a defensive target, and he’s due for a major payday this summer. That combination makes it easy to understand why Milwaukee may not want to commit to him for the long haul.
Chicago, though, is in a different spot.
Any Herro conversation has to come with the same caveat: the Bulls are early in a long rebuild, so a pure win-now swing would be the wrong kind of move. Still, Herro checks boxes on a roster that badly needs someone who can create offense on command, and he would remain useful well beyond the immediate future.
Outside of Josh Giddey and 33-year-old Norman Powell, the Bulls are thin on shot creators. Tre Jones can manage things off the bench, Matas Buzelis is trending upward and that’s about where the list ends for now unless rookies Caleb Wilson and Dailyn Swain grow into bigger roles.
Herro would instantly change that. The former Kentucky guard has kept sharpening into a three-level scorer, with his field-goal percentage climbing from 44.1 percent in 2023-24 to 47.2 percent the next season and 48.0 percent last season.
Over that same stretch, he hit 38.1 percent from three on 8.1 attempts per game. He’s also money at the line, shooting 91.7 percent last season and 87.8 percent for his career.
There’s more to his game than scoring, too. Herro posted a career-best 5.5 assists in 2024-25 while playing 77 games, and his assist-to-turnover ratio has improved in each of the last five seasons.
That matters for Chicago, because Herro would bring two things the Bulls don’t have much of right now: real shot creation and secondary playmaking. And at 26, he still fits the timeline. He should be under 30 when the franchise is back in the postseason picture.
The defensive concerns are real, but the Bulls may have the right kind of roster to hide them.
Herro is a slight defender who gets hunted by opposing offenses, yet Chicago has a couple of possible answers in Buzelis and Caleb Wilson. Buzelis already ranks among the NBA’s elite weakside shot-blockers, finishing sixth in blocks last season and tying Raptors forward Scottie Barnes, who is widely viewed as one of the league’s top defenders.
Wilson brings a different kind of protection. At 6-foot-10, he’s an athletic freak in the best possible way, and he has the physical tools to develop into one of the league’s most versatile defenders as a rookie.
If those two hold up physically, they could cover for perimeter mistakes for a long time. That makes them ideal partners for players like Herro and Giddey, who need help on that end.
Handing Herro a big contract would not be a universally popular move. But for the Bulls, it makes more sense than it first appears.
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