Bulls position breakdowns: Forward thinking for veteran DeMar DeRozan
DeMar DeRozan is coming off a season in which he led the league in minutes played, but also heads into the summer as a free agent. Does he want to stay put or chase a ring elsewhere? Time will tell.
First came “continuity.”
Then came the now infamous “competitive.”
Just when it felt like the Bulls’ Arturas Karnisovas was done with the C buzzwords to describe his team, well, the executive vice president of basketball operations went back into the bag last month and pulled out “creative.”
“I think we can be creative,” Karnisovas responded, when asked how he planned to maneuver under the luxury tax with all the issues facing the roster this summer. “We’ve been creative in the past and going into this offseason basically everything is on the table, so we are going to look at everything. That would be my answer.”
That’s great, but it’s an answer that doesn’t exactly lineup with the reality of the situation.
Especially the reality that involves DeMar DeRozan returning to the Bulls rather than going swimming in the free agent market waters.
The 34-year-old saw his scoring go down in Year 3 as a Bull, but his importance increase. He’s the unquestionable leader the young players all gravitate to, he’s still the nastiest closer in the biz, and oh by the way, he just happened to lead the league in total minutes played in the 2023-24 campaign.
A forward that definitely outplayed the three-year, $81.9 million deal he inked back in 2021 to become a Bull.
DeRozan wants to return and the Bulls want him back, with a source indicating that the team did offer a two-year, $78-million extension that would give the veteran the option for Year 2.
That’s great, but if the Bulls are going to remain under the cap and want DeRozan back, they have to find a trade partner for Zach LaVine’s contract and likely look to waive-and-stretch Lonzo Ball’s deal to stay in that area code, as well as bring back restricted free agent Patrick Williams – also a top priority for the franchise.
“Creative?” Yes, they need to be that, but there’s a timing issue here as well. The Bulls have until June 30 before free agency begins. Finding a trade partner for LaVine remains tricky and could take longer than that.
What if DeRozan gets into free agency and is blown away by a team closer to getting him a championship ring?
Philadelphia has cap money, a vacancy at the forward spot, and if they can’t land Paul George, could very well chase DeRozan to go along with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.
DeRozan will have a say in this too, and did make some interesting comments in his final meeting with the media after the play-in loss to Miami.
“Just going to be a long summer for me, thinking about a lot,” DeRozan said. “At the end of the day, I hate losing, hate missing opportunities. It really hits you at the end of the season when you look up and the last seconds run off. You don’t have another game, and the next time I play a game it will be my 16th season. My stance on still wanting to be here is the same, but I just want to win.”
FORWARD BREAKDOWN
WHAT THE BULLS HAVE: DeRozan, Williams, Torrey Craig, Javonte Green, Onuralp Bitim, Henri Drell, Julian Phillips
WHO COULD BE ON THE MOVE: DeRozan and Williams are both free agents, but Williams is restricted and coming off season-ending foot surgery. The Bulls want both back. Craig has a $2.8 million option to return, while Phillips showed some positive steps in his rookie campaign until he was hurt. Green, Bitim and Drell will be sifted through to see who returns for depth.
THE DRAFT: The Bulls will find out their draft lottery spot on Sunday, but as of now they sit No. 11. It’s a draft class with a ton of versatile forwards, but not a lot of highly-talented ones. The two to keep an eye on that could be targeted by the Bulls are Tennessee sharp-shooter Dalton Knecht and Colorado’s Cody Williams, who is a defensive-minded wing who needs to work on his outside shot. Sound familiar?
FREE AGENCY: Forget shopping on the free agent forward shelf for the Bulls unless DeRozan walks. Even then they will be hard-pressed to land anything significant because of cap restraints, so might kick the tires on a Buddy Hield to add some outside shooting.
WILDCARD PREDICTION: Bulls gamble that they can move the money and rid themselves of LaVine’s deal, and go ahead and re-sign both DeRozan and Williams. They also draft Knecht to add some shooting.