10:43am: Both moves are official, the Bulls announced (via Twitter). Since Johnson’s $1.7MM salary was partially guaranteed, the prorated cap hit for Chicago will be about $706K, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. McKinnie will have a $1.09MM salary and a $1.02MM cap hit, leaving the team roughly $3MM below the luxury tax line.
9:06am: The Bulls will waive forward Alize Johnson, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The newly-opened roster spot will be used to sign Alfonzo McKinnie to a contract that covers the remainder of the season (Twitter link).
McKinnie becomes the league’s first COVID-19 hardship addition to earn a standard contract, Charania notes. The 29-year-old small forward signed a pair of 10-day deals and has averaged 8.0 points and 2.3 rebounds in three games. This is the fifth NBA team for McKinnie, who has also played for the Raptors, Warriors, Cavaliers and Lakers after going undrafted in 2017.
Johnson, 25, signed a two-year deal with Chicago during the offseason and received a partial guarantee of $250K for making the opening-night roster. His $1.878MM salary for 2022/23 was non-guaranteed until July 2, 2022, so the Bulls won’t be on the hook for any more money beyond this season.
Johnson was among several Chicago players who entered the league’s health and safety protocols earlier this month, but he was cleared to return on Thursday. He appeared in 16 games for the Bulls, averaging 1.8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 7.6 minutes per night.
Selected by the Pacers with the 50th pick in 2018, Johnson spent two years with Indiana, then played 18 games for the Nets last season after joining the team in March on a 10-day contract.
Would have preferred that waiver Thomas, but at least they kept the hometown hero.
McKinnie is from Chicago. So this is a good story. Nice to see at 29 you can still catch a break in pro sports.
McKinnie is just flat out better than Johnson. Nothing to do with being from Chicago. Having someone on a team’s roster just because the player is from the city is a bad idea.
In the past it may have been fine. With Covid, you need all of your roster spots to be competent players. They may get the call any day!
Being decent off the bench helps.
Good for Alonso.
Sad for Alize. I believe that guy should be on a NBA roster!
McKinnie is better but like Johnson. Johnson seems to like to battle inside. Johnson would be an asset to most teams. Maybe the Bulls figured that can’t keep everyone. Have to choose between players.
Hope sixers look at Johnson for bench,being a Pennsylvania guy
Interesting, Alize has never been outstanding but he has played pretty OK in his few NBA seasons. McKinnie is just better though
When Alize Johnson and 9 other Bulls went into the protocol and couldn’t play, the Bulls picked up McKinnie. Then Johnson comes out of the protocol and the Bulls let Johnson go in order to keep McKinnie. Now McKinnie and Tony Bradley are in the protocol and can’t play. Imagine now the Bulls wouldn’t mind having Johnson for a couple of more weeks. Very strange.