Getty Tre Jones of the San Antonio Spurs had a breakout season.
With guard Lonzo Ball’s future still up in the air, the Chicago Bulls are once again in the market for a new court general.
Chicago signed veteran Patrick Beverley — who turns 35 in July — and he started 22 games for the team to close out the regular season, but adding youth and depth at the position will be paramount for the Bulls moving forward.
After gauging the upcoming free agent market, Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report thinks the Bulls should pursue San Antonio Spurs point guard Tre Jones, who played in 68 games and started 65 this past season.
“Chicago could do worse than giving Tre Jones a look,” Buckley wrote in his April 20 column. “He quietly ranks among the Association’s better playmakers. This past season was his first as a full-time starter, and he wound up dishing 6.6 assists against just 1.6 turnovers per outing.”
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A former Duke standout, the Spurs selected Jones in the second round of the 2020 draft. He didn’t play much as a rookie and spent much of his first two seasons in the G League, averaging 2.5 points in Year 1 (37 games, one start) and 6.0 points in his second season (69 games, 11 starts).
This past season, he broke out as a full-time starter, scoring 12.9 points, while dishing out 6.6 assists and hauling in 3.6 rebounds in 29.2 minutes a game (all stats via Basketball Reference).
“He isn’t a great three-point threat or the stingiest stopper you’ll find, so it’s not like he’d be a direct replacement for Ball,” Buckley pointed out, adding: “Still, Jones’ passing and ball control might scratch the team’s biggest itches without Ball by giving the Bulls more purpose and better connection on the offensive end.”
The thought of adding Jones is an interesting one for Chicago — but money will be the primary issue for the Bulls.
Bulls Will Need to Unload Some Contracts Before Adding More Talent
Jones, who turned 23 in January, is a restricted free agent, so the Spurs can match any offer he is given. Thus, if the Bulls or any other potentially interested team want to pry the young point guard away, they’ll have to set the price higher than San Antonio will want to pay. Jones’ qualifying offer for the 2023-24 season — which he could reject if he wants to seek a larger contract extension — is $5.2 million, per Spotrac.
In the same way the Bulls will want to retain RFA Coby White, the Spurs will want to retain Jones, whose playmaking ability was evident this season. There’s little doubt a backcourt of Jones and White would give Chicago a young duo with intriguing potential, but the Bulls are currently strapped for cash. They are over the league salary cap, according to Spotrac, and they only have the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception to spend, which is a little over $12 million.
The only way the Bulls will be able to add more young talent and promising young players like Jones is if they unload a player like Zach LaVine or DeMar DeRozan, who together account for nearly $70 million in cap space next season.
Even if the Bulls don’t re-sign aging big man Nikola Vučević — and executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas says he would like to bring Vooch back — they will still have to decide whether or not to pay White and Ayo Dosunmu, both RFAs.
Jones would be a nice addition, to be sure, but unless the Bulls shake things up, adding him feels more like a pipe dream.