The Bulls won’t be major players this summer, but they still have an itinerary to follow to keep the rebuild moving in the right direction. How much action will we see from them in the coming weeks?
Well, here’s a glimpse of their roster situation:
GUARANTEED CONTRACTS
- Robin Lopez- $14.35M
- Omer Asik- $11.28M
- Cristiano Felicio- $8.47M
- Lauri Markkanen- $4.53M
- Justin Holliday- $4.38M
- Kris Dunn- $4.22M
- Cameron Payne- $3.26M
- Jerian Grant- $2.63M
- Bobby Portis- $2.49M
- Denzel Valentine- $2.28M
ROOKIE CAP HOLDS
- Wendell Carter Jr.- $4.4M
- Chandler Hutchison- $1.97M
NON-GUARANTEED CONTRACTS
- Sean Kilpatrick- $2.05M
- Paul Zipser- $1.54M
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS
- Zach LaVine
- David Nwaba
- Noah Vonleh
Active Roster Cap (Including Rookie Cap Holds): $64,312,296 (12 players)
NBA Salary Cap: $101,869,000
Remaining Cap Space: $37,556,704
The Bulls are expected to waive Paul Zipser at some point, but Sean Kilpatrick is expecting the Bulls to keep him around.
BULLS NATION!
— Sean Kilpatrick Jr (@SeanKilpatrick) June 29, 2018
With Kilpatrick in the fold, that leaves two open roster spots and more than $35M to spend. The biggest question for the Bulls, which has been discussed ad nauseum, is what to do with restricted free agent Zach LaVine.
From Bulls perspective on LaVine, 4 yrs for $60 mil has always felt like preferred number to them. At 23, nobody is sure what kind of player he'll become. If I'm the Bulls I'm not going too much higher than that because I'm still not convinced he's worth that big of an investment
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) July 1, 2018
Lavine responded to this tweet, making it pretty obvious he doesn’t agree with what Friedell, and possibly the Bulls, think he’s worth.
😂
— Zach LaVine (@ZachLaVine) July 1, 2018
The Atlanta Hawks have joined the Sacramento Kings as an interested bidder for LaVine. If more teams start to show interest, his price tag will rise and that’s the worst-case scenario for the Bulls this offseason.
Ideally, the Bulls will be able to sign LaVine at the $15M a year price tag that they value him at and retain David Nwaba at $4-5M a season. That maxes out the roster with $15M of cap space leftover while keeping the core intact.
Zach LaVine is a mystery, but high risks sometimes yield high rewards. Keeping LaVine in Chicago should be priority #1 for the Bulls this summer.
