Tristan Thompson is currently a Pacer, but the Bulls would be interested in his services if he’s bought out by Indiana, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets. Thompson was thrown into the Domantas Sabonis–Tyrese Haliburton blockbuster between Indiana and Sacramento for salary-matching purposes. The two parties are reportedly mulling a buyout of his $9.7MM expiring contract. Chicago didn’t add to its frontcourt prior to the trade deadline.
We have more on the Bulls:
- According to the team’s top executive, Arturas Karnisovas, Patrick Williams will return from his injury this season, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago tweets. Mid-March is the soft target date for Williams’ comeback. Williams has been sidelined since late October after undergoing surgery to repair torn ligaments in his left wrist. At the time, the Bulls gave a recovery timeline of four-to-six months.
- Williams’ expected return, as well the hope that Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso will eventually rejoin the rotation after recovering from their injuries, were factors in the Bulls’ decision to stand pat on deadline day, Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago tweets. “We were taking calls, but the mutual feeling with all of our group was: ‘Let’s get out guys back,” Karnisovas said. “We’re going to have enough time in the regular season to see what this group can do healthy.’”
- Karnisovas was somewhat evasive when asked if he had the green light to go beyond the luxury tax threshold in future seasons, Schaefer adds in another tweet. While noting the front office has been “pretty aggressive” in its acquisitions over the last nine months, Karnisovas said, “When the opportunity will present itself, I think we’re going to evaluate that. That’s it.”
Devoid of an inside defensive presence even at full strength. That was the need.
I keep saying the same thing. Bulls fans don’t want to hear it. Oh well, another early exit. Yawn.
And everyone keeps telling you their best defenders are out, but you still can’t comprehend.
I don’t buy it
You don’t have to buy it for it to be true
Sit down Pat
Both perimeter defenders. You can talk about positionless basketball and all that, but the bottom like is they have no interior defense or shot blocking.
In a league relying to 3 point shooting that much they are a great addition.
And it’s team defence that matters, which is so much better with these 2 in the lineup
Some of the best players in the East are Giannis, Embid, Durant, etc… Big guys that go hard to the rim. Bulls have absolutely nothing to stop that on their roster and no one they have coming back in March changes that fact. If they don’t make it to the finals, lack of interior defense will be a major reason why.
Durant is injured most of the time and Giannis is unguardable anyway. As for embiid the Celtics managed to humiliate him with horford and theis…
Defence is a team effort whatever you say and when full we defended pretty good
Thompson would be a nice addition. I think the Bulls did the right thing and stood pat until everyone was back from injuries.
I agree, I think keeping flexibility for this offseason was smart but the bulls are crazy if they aren’t claiming drew Eubanks off waivers and seeing what happens with TT, we have nothing in the front court at the moment besides Vuc, Drew Eubanks has to be an upgrade on nothing
I think the Bulls are/will be in a good-great position. They made the smart move. I don’t know if Brooklyn can make up a lot of ground between now & playoffs. I don’t know how much Simmons can help the Nets.
I keep forgetting that Derrick jones jr will be back around the time Caruso and ball are. He’ll help on the inside with his bounce. I’d hoped for a solid D and rebounding guy in a buyout. Millsap would’ve been awesome to guide a less experienced 2nd unit. I’m not familiar with millsap’s or Thompson’s defense but I know TT hauls in rebounds (at least back in the day). The bulls have dreadful spells in games where they give up offensive rebounds in some critical moments
I can’t say I’m disappointed, we have ball, Caruso, Jones and then Williams coming back, grabbing 1-2 bigs that are going to be bought out would be enough
You’re going to meet some of the best bigs in the game come playoff time. Having guys like Ball and Caruso back aren’t helping much against Giannis, Embid, Durant, etc.
Bulls needed another big that could play defense in the interior, rebound and chip in offensively. They needed Holmes or ideally Turner. Maybe they have enough depth to go far, but I dunno. I don’t think standing Pat was the way to go when the Bulls window is this small.
Bulls window is not small, only old players are demar and vucevuc they will be replaced when the time comes.
Ball, Caruso, dosunmu, white,williams, Lavine give us a rather large window.
And as for the bigs we’ll are not afraid of any of them when healthy
So the only old players are two of the three that can score the rock. Got it.
Agreed. This roster is so close. One rim defending big could make all the difference. Maybe they can find that on the buy-out market. The problem being, ten other teams are looking for the same thing.
The Bulls will make the playoffs this year and that’s a nice accomplishment considering this is a new roster and the east is a lot better. I’m excited about next year, hoping to pick up a few bigs in the off-season and not going over the cap then making a serious run at the chip.