Getty The Bulls have many moves to make this offseason.
The Chicago Bulls are in the same position they found themselves a year ago: outside of the expanded playoff field.
However, the Bulls are up two All-Stars in Zach LaVine — who found pay dirt after years of toil within the organization — and newly acquired big Nikola Vucevic.
Despite Vucevic’s arrival not producing stellar results — a 12-17 record after the trade with the Orlando Magic — Vucevic and LaVine’s presence could catapult Chicago into the market for a “finishing piece,” per Bleacher Report‘s Zach Buckley.
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Bulls New Regime Expected to Build Cap Space for Something Big
The disappointment that followed the All-Star break was a minor hitch in the long-term plans by president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas.
“We place expectations on our team about winning games,” Karnisovas said, via Bulls.com. “We are certainly not satisfied. But we will learn from it, adjust and make sure what did not go well does not happen again. We will continue being aggressive in our efforts to make this team better whether that’s through trades, free agency or the draft. We have an important summer coming up. We will evaluate this season and line up our priorities for the offseason.”
Buckley recommended that the Bulls could chase a third star that could cement another Big Three in Chicago.
Here’s what he wrote:
They could be in the market for finishing pieces soon, whether that’s a playmaking point guard, a two-way wing or even a third star fit for the NBA’s next Big Three.
“I…wouldn’t be surprised to see the Bulls try to work their books so that they have significant cap space in 2022,” NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson wrote. “There already is speculative talk around the league—emphasis on speculative—that Bradley Beal could be a target.”
It’s the logical next (and hopefully final) step in this rebuild.
They worked the trade market to find LaVine and Vucevic. They added intriguing talent through the draft, like Patrick Williams and Coby White. This roster could be close to completion, and some good fortune in free agency this summer or next might help it across the finish line.
Bulls’ Best Path to Cap Space
One of the first dominos has fallen in the Bulls’ offseason.
Al-Farouq Aminu, acquired in the Vucevic trade, exercised his $10.2 million player-option contract for the 2021-22 season on Tuesday, leaving Chicago on the hook for the entirety of his salary.
However, the Bulls could waive Aminu, who played majorly mop-up minutes, and stretch his cap hit across the next three seasons. Chicago could take a similar strategy with Tomas Satoransky ($5 million) and Thad Young’s partial guarantees ($6 million).
If Chicago renounced all of their free agents along with waiving the trio of player options, the Bulls could create $35 million in cap space, per NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer. The roster would be left with just LaVine, Vucevic, Patrick Williams, Coby White and Troy Brown Jr.
Those are just the max-cap moves the Bulls can make this offseason, and while the new regime likely wants to get more of their own players in the building, there are several who likely have earned their stay.
Who that will be remains to be determined in what’s looking like a high-stakes offseason in Chicago.