Should the Chicago Bulls pursue Brook Lopez via free agency?

Brook Lopez is an unrestricted free agent this summer and the Chicago Bulls will have money to spend.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. The Chicago Bulls currently have one Lopez brother, Robin Lopez. If they were to pursue unrestricted free agent Brook Lopez, they would unite the brothers for the first time in their careers.

If the Los Angeles Lakers are looking to spend big this offseason, (Brook) Lopez might not be back. The Lakers are one of the front runners to land LeBron James, and there would certainly be quite the domino effect following his signing. Filling in the roster with other veterans — and likely another star player — would be the next step. Would Lopez take a significant pay cut to be their starting big man, or even to come off the bench if need be?

That’s a great question. But, for now, let’s look into (Brook) Lopez with the Bulls.

Would it be a good fit? And, would (Robin) Lopez still be on the roster come next season? There has been much speculation of whether or not he could be traded, so uniting the brothers might not even happen should (Brook) Lopez come to Chicago.

First off, let’s take a look at some of the numbers:

2017-2018 salary: $22.64 million

Last contract signed: 3-year, $63.49 million

2017-2018 averages: 13.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, 46.5 percent shooting, 34.5 percent from downtown, 23.4 minutes per game

Last season, the 30-year-old veteran center played the least amount of minutes per game of his entire career. Consequently, he averaged his lowest points per game since his rookie year back in 2008-2009. To top it off, he shot the ball at the lowest percentage of his career as well.

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So, is he on the decline? His 4.0 rebounds per game is his lowest since 2011, but he’s never been an excellent rebounder — good, but not great. If the Bulls truly wanted to upgrade the center position while giving rookie Wendell Carter Jr. some time to come off the bench, they might look elsewhere. After all, (Robin) Lopez averaged about four rebounds per game last year as well.

That brings up another interesting point. Will Carter end up as the starting center as a rookie? If so, would (Brook) Lopez be fine with coming off the bench? Maybe he still views himself as a starting center in this league — he still has some years left in him at 30 years old, and he’s proven to be pretty healthy over the last four years or so.

How much money would Lopez want at this point in his career? It’s not likely he ends up with another deal averaging over $21 million per season, but maybe somewhere between $10-$17 million. At that price, I think I would pass, especially if for some reason his brother is still on the books next season for $14 million.

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The fit isn’t quite there, and he appears to be on the decline. If I am the Bulls front office, I wouldn’t even consider the thought.