- Bulls guard Lonzo Ball has been the team’s best shooter so far this preseason, Sam Smith of NBA.com writes. Ball shot 7-of-11 (63%) from three-point range in his first two contests, something that could become an important development due to Chicago’s roster. Alongside teammates such as Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, Ball may find himself playing more off the ball than usual this season.
The Bulls revamped their roster over the offseason, but Nikola Vučević will still be a focal point of the team’s new high-octane offense, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic.
Vučević had a game-high 18 field goal attempts in the Bulls’ blowout preseason victory (121-85) over the Pelicans Friday night. New teammates Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and DeMar DeRozan are all finding the All-Star center in good positions to score.
“With all the guys I have around me now,” Vučević said, “I have so many opportunities to score: trail 3s, drive-and-kick, off pick-and-pops, on rolls and dump-offs. We have so many guys who are good on the ball and that are willing passers, as a big man, it’s a luxury to have. We just have to get used to each other and build that chemistry, and I think it’ll be great for everybody.”
On a team with three 20-plus points per game scorers (Vučević, DeRozan, and Zach LaVine averaged a combined 72.4 PPG last season), Vučević knows he might not be the primary option every night, but his looks should be easier to convert, and he’s perfectly fine with that, per Mayberry.
“It will come easier to me because we have so much talent out there that it’s harder for defenses to take stuff away. When we do a two-man game, any type of actions, it’s going to open up a lot for everybody. For me, the same. I think it will be easier to get touches in better spots,” Vucevic said.
Here’s more from the Windy City:
- Ball was unfazed when facing his former team last night, writes Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times. Ball’s laid-back demeanor has served him well when faced with the near-constant rumor mill that has followed his career, Cowley notes. “I always have rumors circling around me all year,” Ball said. “So, I mean, it’s been the same for me the last four years. I’m just happy to be here.”
- In the same piece, Cowley says that Caruso continues to praise former Lakers teammate LeBron James. “I owe a lot to [James] for where I am today. Obviously, I put a lot of work in, but he makes me look good. He makes the team look good. When you win, everybody gets paid, everybody gets to do a job. Being part of his legacy and being a part of that team for the last couple of years was fun for me,” Caruso said.
- Cowley also relays that Patrick Williams, the fourth pick of the 2020 NBA draft, hasn’t recovered yet from his ankle sprain, but if he’s able to start practicing by next weekend, Cowley thinks there’s a good chance he’ll be ready for opening night at Detroit.
- Coach Billy Donovan appreciated his time working with veterans Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple, and Thaddeus Young, according to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “You talk to these veteran guys like Garrett and Thad and Sato and the word that always comes out of their mouth is ‘We. We’ve got to do this better.’ A lot of times, players say, ‘I.’ They were always ‘We,’” Donovan said. “I just admire that not only did they take care of themselves, they took care of the group.”
- Follow more Bulls notes and rumors on our team page here.
- Former 15th overall pick Troy Brown, who was traded from Washington to Chicago at last season’s deadline, is hoping to claim a bigger role with the Bulls in his first full season with the team, writes Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago. “I feel like me and Coach (Billy Donovan) have a good dynamic in the sense of me being like a Swiss Army Knife,” Brown said. “Whatever he needs on the court, that’s what I go do — whether it’s playmaking, rebounding, playing defense, hitting 3s. I feel like that’s my job on the team, and I just try to accept that role and do it as best as I can.”
The Bulls are hopeful that second-year forward Patrick Williams will return for the season opener in Detroit, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times. Williams was expected to miss four-to-six weeks after severely spraining his left ankle in mid-September during an individual workout.
“We’re pretty optimistic,” coach Billy Donovan said. “What the [doctors and trainers] really want to make sure is that the sprain has healed adequately, so we’ll probably be a little bit more on the cautious side, just because I think once [Williams] starts randomly cutting, they’ve got to see how he responds. With as explosive and as powerful as he has been, one of the things they don’t want is [to] have something where he’s not quite stable, he does something and tweaks it, and now he’s having to manage that in the middle of the year.”
We have more on the Bulls:
- Chicago’s ball movement in the preseason opener was superior, with the team amassing 36 assists. DeMar DeRozan says that Lonzo Ball is setting the tone with his play-making skills, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago writes. “When you’ve got a point guard of that magnitude with that IQ that’s as unselfish as he is, he makes the game easier and it makes it fun. And it becomes contagious,” DeRozan said. “You saw the way we moved the ball. It’s been like that all through training camp, and we expect it to keep getting better.”
- Guard Javonte Green started in a downsized lineup in place of the injured Williams in that 36-point win over Cleveland. He made a solid case for a rotation spot, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. Green posted a stat line of 13 points on 6-for-9 shooting, eight rebounds, four blocks and two steals in 17 minutes. The Bulls re-signed Green on a two-year deal early in free agency.
- The team is still in good shape cap-wise despite all the big moves it made, John Hollinger of The Athletic notes in his review of the offseason and preview of the season ahead. The Bulls are $3MM below the tax line, giving them flexibility to make some in-season moves. While Chicago has improved its roster, Hollinger still projects the club to finish 11th in the Eastern Conference.
The Designated Veteran extension, as we explain in our glossary entry on the subject, is a relatively new addition to the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. It allows players with seven, eight, or nine years of NBA service, who would normally be eligible for a maximum starting salary of 30% of the cap, to qualify for a “super-max” contract that starts at 35% of the cap, a level normally reserved players with 10+ years of experience.
A player who has seven or eight years of NBA service with one or two years left on his contract becomes eligible for a Designated Veteran extension if he meets the required performance criteria and hasn’t been traded since his first four years in the league. A Designated Veteran contract can also be signed by a player who is technically a free agent if he has eight or nine years of service and meets the required criteria.
The performance criteria is as follows (only one of the following must be true):
- The player was named to an All-NBA team and/or was named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season, or in two of the last three seasons.
- The player was named the NBA MVP in any of the three most recent seasons.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN writes, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic met the super-max performance criteria this past season when he won his first MVP award. However, since he still has only six years of NBA experience under his belt, he can’t actually sign a super-max contract with Denver until the 2022 offseason. At that point, he could tack on five years and a projected $253MM+ to the one year left on his current deal.
For the time being, Jokic is the best bet to receive a Designated Veteran extension a year from now, but there are other players who could join him. Here’s a look at some super-max candidates to watch during the 2021/22 season:
Karl-Anthony Towns (Timberwolves)
Towns has one All-NBA season under his belt already, having made the Third Team in 2018. Towns played in all 82 regular season games that year and Minnesota made the postseason for the only time during his six-year career.
Towns might not need the Wolves to get back to the postseason in order to earn a spot on the 2021/22 All-NBA team, but he’ll need to stay healthier than he has the last couple years — he has appeared in just 85 games since the start of the 2019/20 campaign, missing 51. If he plays 70+ games this season and puts up the same sort of numbers he has in the three years since his last All-NBA season (25.0 PPG, 11.5 RPG, 3.9 APG, and 1.4 BPG on .506/.399/.834 shooting), he’ll have a great case.
Should he make an All-NBA team in 2022, Towns would be eligible for a four-year super-max extension that goes into effect in 2024/25. We’re too far out to accurately project the value of such a deal, but if the salary cap increases to, say, $130MM by that point, a four-year super-max extension for Towns would be worth nearly $204MM.
Devin Booker (Suns)
Booker’s current contract with the Suns looks essentially identical to Towns’ deal with the Timberwolves, since both players signed five-year, maximum-salary contracts at the same time. As such, Booker is in a similar situation — if he makes an All-NBA team in 2022, he could sign a four-year, super-max extension that would begin in 2024/25 and could be worth in excess of $200MM.
Unlike Towns, Booker hasn’t been an All-NBA player before, but he has a realistic shot. When the Suns posted the NBA’s best record in 2020/21, it was Chris Paul – rather than Booker – who earned All-NBA Second Team honors for both his performance and the impact his arrival had on a young Phoenix team.
But if the Suns are in contention for a top seed in the West again this season, it could be Booker’s turn to receive serious All-NBA consideration. He’s a safe bet to lead the team in scoring and he’s entering his age-25 season, whereas Paul – at age 36 – may see his numbers start to fall off a little going forward.
If Booker does become eligible for a super-max, it will be interesting to see whether the Suns are prepared to offer it to him, given the recent reports on team ownership’s reluctance to commit max money to Deandre Ayton.
Zach LaVine (Bulls)
Unlike Towns or Booker, LaVine will be a free agent during the 2022 offseason. He was an extension candidate this offeason, but once the Bulls used their potential cap room on roster upgrades rather than a renegotiation of LaVine’s 2021/22 salary, the odds of him signing a long-term extension plummeted.
Since LaVine is earning a relatively modest $19.5MM salary in 2021/22, his max extension without a renegotiation would only be worth in the neighborhood of $106MM over four years — and a renegotiation is only possible with cap room.
That means LaVine will almost certainly reach free agency in 2022. That takes an extension off the table, he could still qualify for the super-max as a free agent if he makes an All-NBA team this season.
Earning an All-NBA spot may be a longer shot for LaVine than for Towns or Booker. Not many centers will put up better numbers than Towns, and Booker’s role as the top scorer for a potential title contender will automatically put him in the conversation. LaVine is coming off a monster year, in which he established a new career high in PPG (27.4) and earned his first All-Star berth, but he has a reputation as a subpar defender and the Bulls haven’t made the playoffs during his four years with the franchise.
If LaVine maintains his impressive offensive numbers and shows improvements on defense while the new-look Bulls force their way into the playoff mix, an All-NBA nod becomes a more realistic possibility. In that scenario, LaVine would be eligible for a five-year super-max contract worth a projected $241.6MM. Whether Chicago would be comfortable putting that type of offer on the table is another story altogether.
The rookie scale extension recipients
Trae Young (Hawks), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder), and Michael Porter Jr. (Nuggets) all signed five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extensions this offseason that project to start at 25% of the 2022/23 cap, for a five-year value of $172.5MM.
However, all three players also received Rose Rule language in their deals. This is another form of the super-max — unlike the Designated Veteran contracts, which start at 35% of the cap instead of 30%, a player who meets the Rose Rule criteria gets a starting salary worth 30% of the cap rather than 25%.
The performance criteria for a Rose Rule salary increase are essentially the exact same as for a Designated Veteran bump, but must be achieved by the end of the player’s four-year rookie contract. That means Young, Gilgeous-Alexander, and Porter would have to make the All-NBA team in 2022 in order to increase the value of their respective extensions to $207MM over five years — an All-NBA berth in 2023 or 2024 would be too late.
Of the three players, Young might be the best bet to make an All-NBA team this season. Like Booker, he’s the go-to offensive option on a team coming off a deep playoff run. He should rank among the NBA’s leaders in both points and assists. If he improves upon last season’s .438/.343/.886 shooting numbers and Atlanta has another strong season, he’ll have a solid case.
Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, the other young star to get a maximum-salary rookie scale extension this summer, already qualified for the bump to 30% of the cap by making the All-NBA team in his second and third NBA seasons. His five-year deal will be worth a projected $207MM no matter how he performs in 2021/22.
The rest
While there are other veteran players who could technically qualify for the super-max this season, none are particularly compelling candidates. Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis and Pacers center Myles Turner are perhaps the most intriguing, especially since Turner could be a legitimate Defensive Player of the Year contender. But I have a hard time imagining either player receiving a super-max offer even in the unlikely event that they qualify for one.
Among players on rookie scale contracts, Suns center Deandre Ayton is the other candidate to monitor. Ayton is reportedly seeking Rose Rule language in a maximum-salary extension with Phoenix, but the two sides are at an impasse in their negotiations.
I’d be a little surprised if Ayton becomes an All-NBA player this season, but there are so few star centers around the league that it’s not out of the question, especially if he takes on a larger offensive role going forward. If Ayton and the Suns don’t agree to an extension this month and he earns an All-NBA nod in 2022, he’d be eligible for a 30% max (five years, $207MM) with Phoenix as a restricted free agent next summer.
The Bulls will begin preseason play tonight without Patrick Williams, who is recovering from a severely sprained left ankle. That leaves a hole in their starting lineup, and coach Billy Donovan is considering a number of options to fill it, writes Sam Smith of Bulls.com.
Donovan has expressed a desire to play faster this season, so it doesn’t appear he will turn to a traditional big man to step in for Williams at power forward. He has been experimenting with several players to see who fits best alongside Lonzo Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic.
“We’ve thrown Derrick (Jones Jr.) in with that (starting) group,” Donovan said. “We’ve thrown Javonte Green in with that group. We’ve put Alex Caruso in there. We’ve put Troy Brown in there with that group. It’s been hard to really evaluate it because as you’re implementing and you’re putting in, there’s things that we have to continue to get better at and improve upon. And then I think the other piece of it is, how well does the group function together?”
There’s more from Chicago:
- It’s possible that Williams could return before the preseason is over, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. Williams injured his ankle on September 15 and was projected to miss four to six weeks. Mayberry notes that he wasn’t limping at media day and may be ahead of schedule in his recovery. “He’s been able to come in here and shoot,” Donovan said. “We haven’t done anything laterally, cutting-wise with him. He’s been coming in at night, getting some shots up, doing as much conditioning as he can be doing. But he’s done well. We feel pretty good about the way he’s progressing. I guess that’s what happens when you’re 20 years old. You heal pretty quickly.”
- No team has changed its roster more than the Bulls since last season’s trade deadline, and Vucevic believes they’re ready to contend, calling it “definitely the most talented team I’ve been a part of,” Mayberry adds in the same piece. One concern is lack of depth in the frontcourt after the team missed out on Paul Millsap and LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency.
- The Cavaliers will be the opponent in the preseason opener, which means a quick return to Chicago for Lauri Markkanen, who suggested in the offseason that he wanted a “fresh start.” Speaking to reporters today, Markkanen refused to criticize his former team, tweets Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve got nothing bad to say about them,” he said. “When I was here, they treated me well and just things didn’t go as planned.”
Nearly half of the NBA’s general managers voted for the Heat as the team that had the best 2021 offseason, John Schuhmann of NBA.com writes in his annual survey of the league’s GMs. Miami got 14 of 30 possible votes, while the Lakers picked up five votes. The Nets, Rockets, and Wizards were the other teams picked by multiple GMs as having the best offseason.
The Heat’s acquisition of Kyle Lowry via sign-and-trade helped tip the scales in their favor. Asked which offseason player acquisition will make the biggest impact for his new team this season, GMs overwhelmingly chose Lowry — he received 23 of 30 votes. New Lakers point guard Russell Westbrook was the only other player to get multiple votes (five).
Although the Heat and Lakers received high marks from rival GMs for their work over the summer, neither club is considered the title favorite entering the 2021/22 season. That honor belongs to the Nets, who earned 22 votes from GMs for the team that will win the 2022 Finals. The Lakers (five) and Bucks (three) were the only other teams to receive any votes.
Here are a few more of the most interesting responses from Schuhmann’s GM survey, which is worth checking out in full:
- The Trail Blazers‘ trade for Larry Nance Jr. received the most votes (28%) for the most underrated acquisition of the offseason, with the Nets‘ signing of Patty Mills (17%) and the Wizards‘ addition of Spencer Dinwiddie (14%) also receiving support in that category.
- The NBA’s GMs view Rockets guard Jalen Green (47%) and Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (40%) as the best bets to win Rookie of the Year, but voted Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley as the rookie who will be the best player in five years. Mobley (33%) narrowly edged out Cunningham (30%) and Green (23%) in that category.
- The GMs voted the Magic‘s selection of Jalen Suggs at No. 5 (23%) and the Rockets‘ pick of Alperen Sengun at No. 16 (20%) as the biggest steals of the 2021 draft.
- The Bulls (27%) are considered the best bet to be the most improved team in 2021/22, while Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (17%) received the most support as the top breakout candidate.
- Following their run to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Hawks (50%) were overwhelmingly voted as the team with the best young core. The Rockets received three votes, while no other team got more than two.
- Only two players received multiple votes when GMs were asked which player they’d want to start a franchise with: Mavericks star Luka Doncic (43%) barely beat out Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo (40%).
As expected, veteran big man Pau Gasol announced his retirement as a basketball player today at a press conference in Barcelona.
The third overall pick in the 2001 draft, Gasol began his NBA career with Memphis after playing for Barcelona in Spain from 1998-2001. He won the Rookie of the Year award in his first season and ultimately spent 18 years in the NBA with the Grizzlies, Lakers, Bulls, Spurs, and Bucks, averaging an impressive 17.0 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 3.2 APG, and 1.6 BPG in 1,226 regular season games.
Gasol appeared in another 136 playoff contests, posting 15.4 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 3.2 APG, and 1.7 BPG in those games for the Lakers, Spurs, Grizzlies, and Bulls. The 41-year-old is a six-time All-Star who won a pair of championships with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010, as well as three Olympics medals (two silvers and a bronze) for Spain. He also made the All-NBA team four times.
Gasol last appeared in an NBA game in March 2019, when he briefly played for Milwaukee. Since then, he has undergone multiple surgeries to repair stress fractures in the navicular bone in his left foot, which prevented him from making an NBA comeback — he signed with Portland for the 2019/20 season, but never suited up for the team for health reasons.
However, Gasol was able to return to action for Barcelona this past year, winning a Liga ACB title with the team in 2021 after having won championships in 1999 and 2001 with the club. He also played for Spain in the Tokyo Olympics before officially calling it a career. Following his retirement, Gasol appears on track for eventual enshrinement in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Although Pau has been out of the league for a couple years, 2021/22 might be the first NBA season since 2000/01 that doesn’t feature at least one Gasol brother. Pau’s younger brother Marc Gasol isn’t currently on an NBA roster and is reportedly considering remaining in Spain this season.
- Coby White may have the talent to be a starting point guard in the league but it won’t happen with the Bulls, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic opines in his latest mailbag post. The commitments to Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso greatly diminish White’s chances of remaining with the franchise long-term. Mayberry takes on a number of topics, including his skepticism regarding the franchise’s desire to retain Zach LaVine for the long haul.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2021 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s offseason moves, examine what still needs to be done before opening night, and look ahead to what the 2021/22 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Chicago Bulls.
Free agent signings:
Note: Exhibit 10 deals and non-guaranteed camp invites aren’t included here.
- DeMar DeRozan: Three years, $81.9MM. Acquired via sign-and-trade.
- Lonzo Ball: Four years, $80MM. Fourth-year player option. $4MM in unlikely incentives. Acquired via sign-and-trade.
- Alex Caruso: Four years, $36.98MM. Fourth year partially guaranteed. Signed using mid-level exception.
- Tony Bradley: Two years, minimum salary. Second-year player option. Signed using minimum salary exception.
- Javonte Green: Two years, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
- Alize Johnson: Two years, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed. Signed using minimum salary exception.
- Devon Dotson: Two-way contract. Accepted two-way qualifying offer as restricted free agent.
Trades:
- Acquired cash ($1.1MM) from the Rockets in exchange for Daniel Theis (sign-and-trade).
- Acquired Lonzo Ball (sign-and-trade) from the Pelicans in exchange for Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple (sign-and-trade), the Bulls’ 2024 second-round pick, and cash ($1.2MM).
- Acquired DeMar DeRozan (sign-and-trade) from the Spurs in exchange for Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, the Bulls’ 2025 first-round pick (top-10 protected), either the Pistons’ or Bulls’ 2022 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable), and the Bulls’ 2025 second-round pick.
- Note: If the Bulls don’t convey their 2023 first-round pick (top-four protected) to Orlando in 2023, the first-round pick they send the Spurs will be pushed back until at least 2026.
- Note: The Spurs already had the ability to swap the Lakers’ 2022 second-round pick for either the Pistons’ or Bulls’ 2022 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable). Now they’ll receive the Lakers’ pick and the most favorable of the Pistons’ and Bulls’ picks.
- Acquired Derrick Jones (from Trail Blazers), the Trail Blazers’ 2022 first-round pick (top-14 protected), and the Nuggets’ 2023 second-round pick (top-46 protected; from Cavaliers) in a three-team trade in exchange for Lauri Markkanen (sign-and-trade; to Cavaliers).
Draft picks:
- 2-38: Ayo Dosunmu
- Signed to two-year, minimum-salary contract. Signed using minimum salary exception.
Draft-and-stash signings:
- Marko Simonovic (No. 44 pick; 2020 draft)
- Signed to three-year, minimum-salary contract. Signed using mid-level exception.
Contract extensions:
- None
Departing players:
- Al-Farouq Aminu
- Ryan Arcidiacono
- Cristiano Felicio
- Lauri Markkanen
- Adam Mokoka
- Tomas Satoransky
- Garrett Temple
- Daniel Theis
- Denzel Valentine
- Thaddeus Young
Other offseason news:
- Coby White underwent shoulder surgery and is expected to miss the start of the 2021/22 season.
- Patrick Williams sprained his ankle and is expected to miss the start of the 2021/22 season.
Salary cap situation:
- Remained over the cap and below the tax line.
- Carrying approximately $131.9MM in salary.
- Hard-capped at $143MM.
- $10,742 of non-taxpayer mid-level exception still available ($9,525,258 used on Alex Caruso and Marko Simonovic).
- Full bi-annual exception ($3,732,000) still available.
- One traded player exception ($5,000,000) available.
Lingering preseason issues:
- The Bulls have 13 players on guaranteed contracts, so they could still fill two roster spots. Alize Johnson, Stanley Johnson, Tyler Cook, Daniel Oturu, and Matt Thomas all have non-guaranteed contracts and are expected to battle for a roster spot.
- The Bulls have an open two-way contract slot.
- Troy Brown is eligible for a rookie scale contract extension until October 18.
- Nikola Vucevic is eligible for a veteran contract extension until October 18.
- Zach LaVine is eligible for a veteran contract extension all season.
The Bulls’ offseason:
The Bulls got a jump on the offseason at the 2021 trade deadline when they sent two future first-round picks and a recent first-round selection (Wendell Carter Jr.) to Orlando in a deal for All-Star center Nikola Vucevic.
The move – meant to catapult Chicago into the postseason – didn’t make much of an impact in the short term. The team posted an underwhelming record of 12-17 after the deadline and didn’t even make it to the play-in tournament, let alone the playoffs.
However, that trade wasn’t made with just the 2020/21 season in mind. Vucevic remains under contract for the next two years, and Chicago’s moves this summer have shown that deadline blockbuster was just the first of a series of win-now acquisitions made by a club pushing hard to end its four-year postseason drought.
Entering the summer, the point guard position was viewed as perhaps the greatest area of need for the Bulls, who had relied on 21-year-old Coby White as their starter last season. White underwent shoulder surgery this offseason that will sideline him to start the season, but even if he had been healthy, an upgrade would’ve been required.
The Bulls wasted no time in addressing the point guard spot, agreeing to acquire Lonzo Ball in a sign-and-trade deal with the Pelicans. In fact, the terms of that swap were agreed upon so quickly – they were reported within minutes of free agency opening – that the two teams are currently under investigation for possible tampering or “gun-jumping.”
While Chicago may face a minor penalty as a result of that investigation, the addition of Ball is a good one. The former No. 2 overall pick is a solid play-maker and defender who has improved as a shooter in recent years. And landing another point guard – Alex Caruso – on a long-term deal helped further shore up the position. Caruso is a stout perimeter defender who will never be relied upon to score 15-20 points per night, but can knock down open shots and contributes on the court in a variety of useful ways.
Chicago’s other major transaction this offseason was acquiring DeMar DeRozan in a sign-and-trade from San Antonio. I didn’t love the move for the Bulls, who surrendered a productive player (Thaddeus Young) and a first-round pick in the trade and will pay DeRozan $81MM over three years, far more money than he seemed likely to have on the table from any other team.
Even if you throw out the assets and money involved and focus exclusively on DeRozan’s on-court fit, I’m not fully sold. This Bulls team should be extremely dangerous offensively, but DeRozan, Vucevic, and Zach LaVine aren’t exactly All-Defense candidates. Chicago will be relying heavily on the likes of Ball, Caruso, Patrick Williams, and Derrick Jones to help the team get defensive stops.
With White and Williams both expected to miss the start of the regular season due to injuries, the Bulls’ depth will also be tested early in the year. Javonte Green and Tony Bradley are among those likely to take on bigger roles than they’re accustomed to, and the club will have to hope at least one or two of its young players show they’re ready to play regular minutes too. Rookies Ayo Dosunmu and Marko Simonovic will be in that mix, as will Troy Brown, a fourth-year pro who is still just 22 years old but is coming off a down year.
While losing a first-round pick in the DeRozan sign-and-trade hurt, the Bulls did well to get a first-rounder back in their Lauri Markkanen sign-and-trade. Chicago had to accept an unwanted contract in the deal, but Jones’ expiring deal isn’t onerous, and he should actually play a role for the Bulls in 2021/22.
The Bulls’ upcoming season:
The Bulls are well-positioned to improve upon a disappointing 31-41 season, but projecting a Hawks-esque jump into the top five of the Eastern Conference may be overly optimistic. When Atlanta leaped from the lottery to the Eastern Finals last year, it was due more to the growth of their young core than the contributions of their veteran free agent additions, many of whom missed significant time with injuries.
In the Bulls’ case, there aren’t a ton of young core players they can bank on to improve — Markkanen is gone, LaVine appears pretty close to his ceiling, and it may not be realistic to expect big leaps from White and Williams when they’re coming off injuries and will miss the training camp and the preseason.
That means the Bulls’ 2021/22 season could come down to whether or not LaVine still has another level and how quickly newcomers like Ball, DeRozan, and Caruso get assimilated and make an impact. We can include Vucevic in that group too, since he’ll be getting extensive practice time with his new team for the first time this fall after having to adjust on the fly in March.
If the Bulls’ new-look roster jells quickly, we should expect the club to vie for a top-six spot in the East. If not, Chicago will likely have to fight its way into the postseason via the play-in tournament.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.