Getty Lauri Markkanen and Thaddeus Young
There is a ton of pressure on the Chicago Bulls front office to improve the team this offseason. Barring a trade, they won’t have a first-round pick in this year’s NBA Draft, so Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley will have to explore some other avenues to add talent to the roster.
Keep an eye on August 1-2, because both days will be key dates for the Bulls’ immediate future.
ESPN’s NBA salary cap expert Bobby Marks broke down the Bulls’ offseason options, and let’s just say, it’ll take quite the effort from AKME and Billy Donovan to turn things around.
Lauri Markkanen and Javonte Green’s Big Day
The future of Lauri Markkanen is one of the biggest action points of the offseason for the Bulls. Will Chicago re-sign him, match an offer sheet he’s almost certain to receive from another team, sign-and-trade him, or sign him only to deal him after the New Year.
All are options, but August 1 is huge because as Marks explains, it is the deadline for extending Markkanend a qualifying offer.
The Bulls have until Aug. 1 to extend a one-year qualifying offer to Markkanen and Javonte Green. Markkanen averaged a minimum of 34.25 starts over the past two seasons and has reached starter criteria, earning him a $9.0 million offer. Green was acquired at the trade deadline and appeared in only six games, averaging 5.5 minutes. His one-year contract is for $1.9 million. The qualifying offer will tag each player with the restricted free-agent status, allowing the Bulls to match an offer sheet.
No one is talking a lot about Green. Granted, he only played in six games for the Bulls after the deadline deal brought him over from the Boston Celtics. However, his scrappiness, athleticism and respectable three-point shooting (37% with the Bulls), makes him an intriguing and affordable bench option.
Green has the potential to be similar to Tony Allen if he embraces a lockdown-defender role.
Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky’s Big Day
The very next day, the Bulls must decide at least partly what they will do with veterans Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky.
Marks wrote:
Young and Satoransky will both have their full contracts guaranteed on Aug. 2. Young will see his guaranteed portion increase from $6 million to $14.19 million and Satoransky from $5 million to $10 million.
Both Young and Satoransky have flexible value. They could be meaningful parts of trades that might bring a higher-value players, and their partially guaranteed contracts means that if Chicago had an opportunity to sign a major free agent, they could renounce them to clear cap space for said signing.
Ryan Arcidiacono’s Big Day
Let’s not forget about Arch.
Arcidiacono is entering the last year of a three-year, $9 million contract that he signed back in 2019. The undrafted guard out of Villanova has seen his minutes decrease over the past three seasons: 24.2, 16.0 and now 10.8. The Bulls have until Aug. 1 to decline the team-friendly $3 million contract.
While Arcidiacono’s spunk is admirable, Chicago would be better served offering his roster spot to young Devon Dotson. He has a much higher upside and would be a far less-expensive guy on the roster. We’ll find out in a little less than a month.