- DeMar DeRozan ranks as the Bulls’ most valuable trade asset among the team’s core group of players, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times opines. DeRozan, a highly-respected veteran scorer with an expiring contract, could be a hot property for a team with championship aspirations. Nikola Vucevic, despite the fact he signed an extension, could bring more in a deal at the trade deadline than Zach LaVine because of his more affordable contract, Cowley writes.
- In a separate story, Cowley weighs in on five key games for the Bulls during this upcoming season. The last of the games on his list is the April 1 contest with the Hawks, who played three highly entertaining, hotly-contested games with Chicago last season.
The Bulls were determined to re-sign their free agents this summer and center Nikola Vucevic was the top priority, general manager Marc Eversley told K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.
Appearing on the Bulls Talk podcast, Eversley discussed the need for continuity, especially regarding Vucevic, who has been with Chicago since a trade deadline deal in 2021. Vucevic opted to forgo free agency and accepted a three-year, $60MM extension.
“I’m excited for Vooch,” Eversley said. “There’s not many starting centers in the NBA. So if Vooch were to go away, how would you replace him? Those options were just not appealing to us. So retaining him became the No. 1 goal of the offseason.”
Vucevic will turn 33 in October, but he’s coming off a productive season. He played 82 games for the first time in his career and averaged 17.6 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists per night while shooting 52% from the floor and 34.9% from beyond the arc.
The Bulls also re-signed guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, setting up a battle for playing time in a crowded backcourt. They added Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig as well to cap off a productive free agent session.
On the first night of free agency, White committed to a three-year, $36MM deal that could reach $40MM with incentives. He’s coming off the worst scoring season of his career at 9.7 PPG, but the Bulls are happy with other parts of his game.
“Coby White had, I thought, a terrific year last year. I think the growth he has shown over the last three years has been second to nobody on the roster,” Eversley said. “I think his ability to shoot (and) he’s much more comfortable handling it now. He doesn’t get pressured or panic anymore.
“He has found his voice in the locker room. He has become a quiet leader. We’ve seen growth and development from him. And that’s why it was critical to bring him back.”
Dosunmu, who started 51 games in his second NBA season, signed a three-year, $21MM contract as a restricted free agent. He earned second-team All-Rookie honors in 2022, but experienced a decline in his three-point shooting last season.
“He would not argue with me; he didn’t have quite the second year he thought he might’ve,” Eversley said. “Call it a sophomore slump. But we’ve seen him in the Advocate Center and how hard he has worked from the end of the season to today and there’s nothing but good things that are going to happen to him.”
- Re-signing forward Terry Taylor to a two-year, minimum-salary contract might be the final offseason move for the Bulls, per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. Having Taylor and Carlik Jones on non-guaranteed deals creates financial flexibility for the Bulls, who now have 15 players on standard deals and all three two-way slots filled, Johnson notes. It’s worth noting that Chicago is virtually certain to add some players on Exhibit 10 deals ahead of training camp, though those are often geared more toward filling out the G League roster.
Josh Hart‘s four-year extension with the Knicks, previously reported to include a fourth-year team option, has very straightforward terms, as Ian Begley of SNY.tv writes.
The deal, which begins at $18,144,000 (the maximum 40% raise on Hart’s $12.96MM salary for 2023/24) is fully guaranteed for the first three seasons and doesn’t include any performances bonuses.
The only detail slightly different than anticipated is that the annual raise between years one and two isn’t quite for the full 8%, so Hart’s four-year total is approximately $80.9MM instead of $81.3MM. The guaranteed portion of the contract extension comes in at $58.54MM.
Begley believes the contract will ultimately be judged based on how healthy Hart stays over the next few years and how much success the Knicks have during that time, since the forward seems unlikely to significantly improve his production in any specific area. The average annual value of Hart’s deal lands between the new contracts signed by Dillon Brooks and Caris LeVert, Begley notes.
Here are a few more details on recently completed NBA contracts:
- Terry Taylor‘s new deal with the Bulls is a two-year, minimum-salary contract, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. It’s currently non-guaranteed, but Taylor would receive a partial guarantee worth $350K if he lasts through the first day of the regular season. That partial guarantee would increase to $700K if he remains under contract through December 15, Hoops Rumors has learned. Taylor would be assured of his full salary for 2023/24 if he isn’t waived by the league-wide guarantee date in January and would receive his full ’24/25 salary if he isn’t waived on or before July 7, 2024.
- The trio of players signed by the Mavericks on Monday – Greg Brown, Joe Wieskamp, and Jordan Walker – all received Exhibit 10 contracts, Hoops Rumors has learned. All three will receive bonuses worth $75K if they’re waived before the season and then spend at least 60 days with Dallas’ G League affiliate.
- In case you missed it, Jordan Miller‘s two-way contract with the Clippers covers two seasons, as we relayed on Tuesday evening. Miller is one of seven players to sign a two-year two-way deal this summer, as our tracker shows.
The Bulls have signed restricted two-way free agent Terry Taylor to a standard contract, the team tweets.
Taylor had been just one of four restricted two-way free agents who remained unsigned, as our free agent tracker shows.
The 23-year-old was waived by the Pacers after being thrown into the four-team Kevin Durant blockbuster at February’s trade deadline. The Bulls signed him to a two-way deal later that month.
Taylor appeared in 59 games with Indiana over the past two seasons, including nine starts, after going undrafted in 2021 out of Austin Peay. The 6’4” player, listed as a forward despite his height, came off the bench in five games for Chicago. Overall, he has averaged 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15.3 minutes during his 64-game NBA career. He also appeared in eight G League contests last season.
The addition of Taylor gives the Bulls 15 players on standard contracts, though Carlik Jones has a non-guaranteed contract and Taylor’s deal also seems unlikely to be fully guaranteed.
There was quite a bit of speculation what the Bulls would do this summer, given their lack of progress the last couple of seasons despite making major trades and free agent signings.
Following four straight losing seasons, the Bulls got knocked out of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2022. Last season, they had a losing record but qualified for the play-in tournament. After knocking out the Raptors, Chicago got bounced by eventual conference champion Miami.
Fans who were hoping for major changes or a full rebuild were disappointed. Chicago trudged along this summer by re-signing a number of its own free agents and adding a couple of role players.
Center Nikola Vucevic was re-signed on a three-year contract. Ditto for guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu. Backup center Andre Drummond opted in to the final year of his contract.
They made a couple of under-the-radar free signings in Jevon Carter, who will compete for the starting point guard job with Lonzo Ball out for the season, and backup forward Torrey Craig.
Barring an unexpected blockbuster move, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Patrick Williams will return to their respective starting spots.
Perhaps familiarity and continuity will help Chicago take the next step. Perhaps Carter, a backup in Milwaukee, will form a solid point guard duo with Alex Caruso. Perhaps this will be the season Williams lives up to his draft status.
That brings us to today’s topic: How do you feel about the Bulls’ offseason approach? Did they do the right thing by essentially staying the course and tweaking the roster or should they have made significant changes?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
As of July 18, there were 12 two-way restricted free agents who had yet to sign new contracts.
Over the past three-plus weeks, six of those players — Lester Quinones (Warriors), Kendall Brown (Pacers), Trevor Keels (Knicks), Duane Washington (Knicks), Dominick Barlow (Spurs) and Ron Harper Jr. (Raptors) — returned to their clubs on two-way deals.
Keels and Washington were subsequently waived to create roster space for Nathan Knight and Dylan Windler, respectively. Washington re-signed with New York on a training camp contract, while Keels is an NBA free agent (the Knicks retained his G League rights).
A seventh player — Jeff Dowtin — returned to Toronto on a one-year, minimum-salary contract that is fully non-guaranteed. He would receive $900K if he’s not waived on or before October 21, but may face an uphill battle to claim a roster spot, as the Raptors now have 15 players with guaranteed deals on their roster.
That leaves a total of five two-way restricted free agents available, as our up-to-date list shows. Those players are as follows:
Trent Forrest, G, Hawks- Theo Maledon, G, Hornets
- Jamal Cain, F, Heat
- Matt Ryan, F, Timberwolves
- Terry Taylor, F, Bulls
Of the five-player group, Maledon had the largest role last season. The 34th pick of the 2020 draft appeared in 44 games for Charlotte in 2022/23, averaging 6.7 points, 3.5 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 19.4 minutes per game.
If they’re willing to accept their one-year, two-way qualifying offers, four of these five players seemingly have an easy path back to the teams that hold their rights — the Hawks, Hornets, Heat and Wolves all have an open two-way slot available.
That is not true for the Bulls, however — all three of their two-way slots are filled. If Taylor accepts his QO, Chicago might just release him, similar to what happened with Washington and Keels.
Some two-way RFAs have managed to earn standard contracts this offseason. Cain has reportedly been discussing that possibility with rival teams, but Miami has been reluctant to give him a standard deal.
It will be interesting to see if any of the five players are able to land a standard contract instead of another two-way deal. However, being RFAs hurts their leverage to negotiate with rival teams, and offer sheets for two-way restricted free agents essentially never happen.
- While it’s unclear if former No. 4 overall pick Patrick Williams has shown enough in his first three NBA seasons to warrant a rookie scale extension from the Bulls this offseason, teammate DeMar DeRozan remains a big believer in Williams’ potential, as Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times details.
Ayo Dosunmu understood that nothing would be guaranteed when he decided to re-sign with the Bulls, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. After receiving a three-year deal worth $21MM as a restricted free agent, Dosunmu now has to prove that he’s worthy of consistent playing time.
With Lonzo Ball out for the season, Chicago appears to have a three-man competition for the starting point guard role. The organization also invested in the re-signed Coby White, who got $33MM over three years, and free agent addition Jevon Carter, who signed for three years at $20MM.
“You know I always want to come out here and compete,” Dosunmu said. “Anybody who says they don’t want to start, they would be not telling the truth. But that’s something that will be taken care of in training camp. … I’m going to make a way. That’s all I can say. I’ve always found a way. I’m going to continue to find a way.”
There’s more on the Bulls:
- Carter, a native of the Chicago area, credits Derrick Rose for inspiring his NBA career (video link). Carter is thrilled to be playing in his hometown after spending time with four teams in his first five seasons. “When I started to watch Derrick Rose, he was really one of the ones that made me believe that going to the NBA was possible,” Carter said.
- Trade speculation surrounding Zach LaVine has calmed down, but it’s likely to resume when the season begins, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. League sources told Cowley they got the impression that the Bulls were exploring their options with LaVine this summer. Even though executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas was pleased with the strong finish to the regular season, Cowley cautions that changes could be coming if the team doesn’t get off to a good start this fall. Cowley also points out that LaVine is Chicago’s only maximum-salary player, and the new CBA could make teams reluctant to add big money in trades.
- Appearing on Iman Shumpert‘s podcast, DeMar DeRozan said it feels like the NBA is trying to de-emphasize the mid-range game, but he doesn’t mind going against the tide (hat tip to Josh Buckhalter of Heavy.com). “The threes, that’s cool. I’m not never against that or anything,” DeRozan told Shumpert. “But sometimes it’s a complete game that you could have too, playing basketball. And I think so much of that gets lost by so many threes being shot.”
In addition to a few playoff hopefuls, the Spurs have also shown some interest in trading for Knicks wing Evan Fournier, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv.
As Begley outlines, Fournier shares an agent with fellow Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, the No. 1 overall pick of last month’s draft. Fournier spoke last week about being intrigued by the possibility of joining San Antonio.
The 30-year-old’s $18.9MM pseudo-expiring contract (he has a team option worth $19MM in 2024/25) wouldn’t be viewed favorably by rival teams after he was pulled from New York’s rotation early last season. Fournier appeared in just 27 games in ’22/23, averaging 6.1 PPG and 1.8 RPG while shooting career worsts of 40.4% on twos and 30.7% on threes.
On the other hand, Fournier started all 80 of his games in ’21/22, averaging 14.1 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 2.1 APG and 1.0 SPG while converting the fourth-most three-pointers in the league (241, a career high). He holds a career mark of 37.9% from beyond the arc.
After making multiple deals this offseason, the Spurs no longer have the salary cap room to accommodate Fournier’s salary outright, Begley notes — they’d have to send salary back to adhere to the NBA’s trade rules. The Knicks also haven’t shown any inclination to attach draft assets to move off Fournier’s contract, Begley adds, but presumably would be more open to doing so if they could get a potential rotation player or two in return.
Fournier has come up in a couple other trade rumors this summer, but he remains on the Knicks’ roster for now, although he certainly hopes that isn’t the case when the season starts. It’s worth noting that Begley’s article is a week old, and a report a few days ago indicated Fournier could eventually become a buyout candidate if New York can’t trade him.
Begley’s mailbag column also touches on a handful of other topics. For example, he expresses skepticism that the Knicks were ever seriously interested in Bulls guard/forward Zach LaVine this offseason, despite having exploratory trade talks on the two-time All-Star at the February deadline. Begley also hears the Raptors were shutting down trade inquiries on OG Anunoby — a player the Knicks like — earlier this month.