Chicago Bulls setting themselves up for these 2021 free agents?
By Ryan Heckman
The NBA free agency class of 2021 is still two years away, but the Chicago Bulls appear to be setting up strong already.
It sounds odd, doesn’t it? The Chicago Bulls — a free agent player.
The Bulls haven’t been an interesting free agent destination for nearly a decade now, all the way back when Derrick Rose was fresh onto the scene and Luol Deng was in his prime. Right now, it seems laughable that the Bulls would ever reach that point again.
But, they have built a young core which fans are hoping can develop into at least one or two potential stars — heck, I’m sure fans would settle for “very good” players.
This offseason, and over the course of the last year, the Bulls have been making moves in order to try and stay a little more competitive in the immediate future. With the team they have in place, they should be able to compete for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. That would be a step forward, no question.
But, the moves they’re making are also setting them up for a couple of years down the road when the free agency class looks a lot more interesting.
For example, the contracts of Otto Porter, Cristiano Felicio and Kris Dunn are all officially over by 2021. Denzel Valentine and Antonio Blakeney‘s deals are done a year prior. Moreover, Coby White, Wendell Carter, Ryan Arcidiacono and Chandler Hutchison all have team options in the summer of 2021.
Lauri Markkanen will be a restricted free agent that year, giving the Bulls an interesting choice to make with all of the other free agents available.
The newly signed Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky are both signed through the 2021-2022 season, however their deals are not fully guaranteed.
Zach LaVine is the only guy with a locked-and-loaded salary that season, and he’ll be in the final year of his contract — that’s assuming the Bulls don’t trade him for some reason.
So, who are the Bulls setting themselves up to potentially target? There are a lot — and I mean, a lot — of names in the 2021 free agency pool. Let’s take a closer look at several of the notable names.