Veteran forward Thaddeus Young played in the postseason in each of his last three seasons in Indiana, and has appeared in the playoffs in eight of his 12 NBA seasons in total. However, as an unrestricted free agent this offseason, he opted to sign with the Bulls, who were coming off a 22-win season.
Speaking today to reporters, including Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link), Young said he received interest from potential championships contenders in free agency, but liked the idea of becoming a veteran leader in Chicago. According to Young, he intends to bring energy and veteran leadership to the club and to be the sort of player who can speak up in the locker room and hold everyone accountable (Twitter link via Strotman).
While joining the Bulls may have appealed to Young for the reasons he mentioned, it’s probably also safe to assume that most of those title contenders who expressed interest in him this summer weren’t able to match the $13MM+ annual salary he received from Chicago.
Here’s more from the Bulls on Media Day:
- Head coach Jim Boylen said the point guard situation in Chicago will “work its way out” in terms of minutes and that the Bulls’ players have embraced the competition, tweets Strotman. Tomas Satoransky, Coby White, Kris Dunn, Ryan Arcidiacono, and Shaquille Harrison are all expected to be in the point guard mix.
- The Bulls’ goal in 2019/20 is to make the playoffs, Boylen declared today (Twitter link via Strotman). The club finished 19 games back of the No. 8 seed last season.
- Chandler Hutchison, who suffered a hamstring strain earlier this month, is “going to be out for a little bit,” per head of basketball operations John Paxson (Twitter link via K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune). Paxson also noted that Luke Kornet has turf toe and will miss a few days.
- Wendell Carter Jr., on the other hand, said today that he feels 100% – and better than he has for the last five or six years – after undergoing core muscle surgery during the offseason, tweets Strotman.
The Bulls won’t win 25 games. They’re terrible and the front office actually thinks there is talent on the roster.
As a bulls fan…..I agree, Lavine is not a winner, he puts up stats on bad teams and will only ever be that
Boylen said “the point guard situation will work its way out like an infected sliver in your pinkie”, and “even though he’s always injured, I love Chandler Hutchison’s attitude towards sitting on his butt”.
This is going to be a long, long season.
I’ll take the over on 25. Someone put that $ where your mouth is.
Bulls roster per Bas.Ref. alpabetical
1- Arci, Dunn, ShaqH, Satoranski, CobiW
2- Hutchison, Lavine, Valentine
3- Porter
4- Felicio, Gafford, Kornet, Markanen, Young
5- Carter
Firstly the Bulls have a weird way of positioning their players.
The roster’s not horrible but not a winner either. They say they went for culture more than talent in the offseason so that’s a fair excuse I guess.
If Carter doesn’t make 3s like at Duke, Gafford or Young might do just as well. He was 19 for 46 at Duke, 6 for 32 with CHI. Otherwise good for a rookie overall. He might be a high-floor/mid-ceiling.