Chicago Bulls: 5 big name free agents to target this summer
By Ryan Heckman
Now that the regular season is over, it’s time to start turning our attention to the Chicago Bulls offseason.
It was an up-and-down year for the Bulls, who looked like they could be in the playoff mix at one point. But, for a couple of reasons, Chicago failed to make the play-in tournament and ended the year as the 11-seed — the first team out — with a record of 31-41.
There were positives along the way, though, especially considering the team was under new leadership with Billy Donovan taking over as head coach. Now, it’s about Donovan working closely with Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley to build the roster into a playoff contender for next season. The future of the team still looks bright.
It begins with the 2021 NBA Draft, along with free agency. Chicago could net another pretty high pick in the lottery this year, and just might be able to convince a high profile player to sign in Chicago.
Will the Chicago Bulls be big free agent players this summer?
Believe it or not, the Bulls will finally have some decent cash to spend this summer. The team has a few expiring contracts in Daniel Theis, Cristiano Felicio, Lauri Markkanen, Denzel Valentine, Garrett Temple and Javonte Green which all add up to roughly $32 million coming off the books.
The team also has Al-Farouq Aminu, who could choose to opt in or out of his $10 million option. There’s potential for quite a bit of spending money for Chicago in a couple of months.
The Bulls could choose to bring one or two of those guys back, depending upon how Billy Donovan sees the roster going forward. But, for the most part, Chicago might be able to go out and pick up a big name free agent for the first time in a while.
The Bulls do have a pretty attractive pairing with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, and one of the following five free agents may view themselves as the missing piece.