Chicago Bulls: An early look at 5 free agents to pursue

Now that the Chicago Bulls are officially moving on to next season, it is time to begin looking ahead at their busy offseason.

The 2017-2018 campaign went pretty much as expected for the Chicago Bulls, however many fans actually expected them to finish worse off than they did. Regardless, the offseason will hold many decisions that will impact the future of this team.

Aside from the draft this summer, the Bulls have some holes to fill that could potentially be solidified during free agency. The official free agency period begins on July 1st this year, and there are going to be some big names who may find new homes.

The Bulls are far from a position to attract bigger free agents at the moment, so don’t count on them having a shot at guys like LeBron James, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant or Paul George. But, you could argue that they may be able to lure in the second and third tier players as the franchise continues to drive a youth movement into the 2018-2019 season.

The Bulls have a fun and exciting core of young players including Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn. The third piece to that puzzle is free-agent-to-be Zach LaVine, who sees his future in Chicago for years to come, thankfully. He will be the first domino to fall for the Bulls, I’m sure, as they will be working hard to get a deal done keeping LaVine in Chicago for the next few seasons.

Aside from LaVine, Markkanen and Dunn, the Bulls possess a rising sixth man in Bobby Portis, who also has some experience as a starter. He’s been phenomenal off the bench on many occasions, and the Bulls need to give him a couple more guys off the bench to help his efforts.

Chicago could use another starting wing as well as potentially another starting big man next to Markkanen, depending on whether the team sees Cristiano Felicio as a long-term option. With that said, here are five players the Bulls should pursue when the free agency period opens in July.