Biggest Offseason Priorities and Targets for Chicago Bulls
For five weeks, the Chicago Bulls set aside their season-long drama and played some of the NBA's best basketball. They won nine of their final 13 games to sneak into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's No. 8 seed and then unleashed their Three Alphas—Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo—and surrounding size on a small, scrappy Boston Celtics squad en route to a shocking 2-0 series lead over the conference's top team record-wise.
Then, Rondo injured his thumb, leaving Chicago's passel of not-so-passable point guards exposed to the elements of Isaiah Thomas' scoring and Boston's perimeter pests. Four deflating defeats later, the Bulls find themselves where so many expected they would be: stumbling into the offseason, staring down some monumental decisions.
Should Chicago reignite the trade market for Butler? Will Wade pick up his player option? Might the Bulls run Rondo out of town? Overall, what does Chicago want its identity as a basketball team to be?
Assuming head coach Fred Hoiberg is safe, thanks to his chumminess with Chicago's front office, here's a look at the key points of the coming summer in the Windy City.
Buckets for Bulls
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On paper, Jimmy Butler looks likely to stay in the Windy City. He finished the 2016-17 regular season with career highs in points (23.9), rebounds (6.2), assists (5.5) and steals (1.9) per game. He carried Chicago into the postseason with his spectacular play from late March into April. And he put together a pair of brilliant games to push the Bulls to the shocking 2-0 series lead they once held over the Celtics.
Through it all, Butler proved that he's just the sort of player an NBA team can build around and the caliber of talent a proper teardown is supposed to yield later on. The Bulls already have him on their roster, so why bother trading him now to embark on a rebuild that may or may not bring a Butler-esque stud to Illinois down the line?
All that is precisely why Chicago should and likely will keep Butler. But don't put it past the front office tandem of general manager Gar Forman and executive vice president John Paxson to test his market this summer.
Last year, they were close to moving Butler to Minnesota on draft day for the No. 5 pick in a weak class, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein. This year, the three-time All-Star's name was among the most prominent on the block prior to the trade deadline, with the Boston Celtics sniffing around the United Center, per TNT's David Aldridge.
There have been no indications Butler wants out. If anything, he seems to enjoy living in Chicago and doesn't appear eager to leave behind his multimillion dollar mansion in River North.
The impetus could come from management in defense of Fred Hoiberg. Butler's uneasy relationship with Chicago's head coach has been well-documented. So have Hoiberg's close ties to Forman from their days at Iowa State.
If the Bulls' future boils down to a choice between Butler and Hoiberg, the former, while the obvious choice in a player-led league, might not be so safe sitting across from the latter.
Wade's Way
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Dwyane Wade has at least 23.8 million reasons to brave another brutal winter with the dysfunctional Bulls. His hometown ties to Chicago could keep him tethered to the shores of Lake Michigan beyond this season too.
There figures to be more at stake for Wade than money and local pride this summer, though. His game has been waning for some time, and at 35, he might have only a handful of years left in his banged-up body with which to chase championships.
If Wade doesn't believe he can get another ring in the Windy City, would he consider declining his player option—and all the money that comes with it—and taking a pay cut to play for a contender elsewhere?
Wade's acrimonious split from the Miami Heat last summer suggests he'd stick with the most lucrative option. After all, he might not have even entertained the notion of leaving South Beach had the Heat ponied up to his preference.
Wade's decision this summer could swing both ways for the Bulls. If he leaves, they'll have tons of cap space to throw at marquee free agents. As far as recruiting goes, though, Wade may be the team’s best pitchman if it's going to seriously pursue his prized peers (more on that later).
Ron-Do's and Ron-Don'ts
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Not long ago, Rajon Rondo's ouster from Chicago looked like a foregone conclusion. His midseason benching by Fred Hoiberg and butting of heads with Butler and Wade made the partial guarantee on his 2017-18 salary an almost-certain cap casualty.
That is, until all of the Bulls' other point guards—from Jerian Grant and Michael Carter-Williams to Isaiah Canaan and Cameron Payne—turned out to be duds and Rondo started playing like a stud. After reclaiming a starting role in mid-March, he averaged 12.0 points, 8.0 assists, 6.2 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game while shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 48.7 percent from three. Then he tormented his old team to help Chicago take a 2-0 series lead over Boston.
Had Rondo not busted his right thumb in Game 2, we might be talking about the Bulls finishing off the 8-1 upset over the Celtics right now. Instead, Chicago's summer starts early.
Rondo showed more than enough over the last six weeks to cement a spot in the Windy City if the team will have him. For all his peculiarities as a poor free-throw shooter, stubborn personality and declining positional defender at the age of 31, Rondo is still the Bulls' best floor general. Cutting his $13.4 million salary and eating the $3 million guarantee, then, might not be such an easy decision for the front office after all.
Chasing Big Names
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Chicago's approach to Rondo's future could be just one in a string of interconnected moving parts that determine the direction of the team's upcoming offseason.
If Wade stays and Butler doesn't get the boot, the Bulls could have the cap space and the inclination to go after a max-level free agent.
Maybe the eldest of Chicago's Three Alphas calls his buddy Chris Paul to see about leaving L.A. to play with a Banana Boat buddy. Maybe the Bulls take aim at another point guard (Kyle Lowry, George Hill, Jeff Teague) who induces fewer headaches than Rondo does. Or, maybe they devote their resources to an off-ball scorer, be it on the wing (J.J. Redick) or up front (Paul Millsap, Danilo Gallinari).
Dump Rondo's deal, renounce the rights to a slew of restricted free agents, and Chicago could muster up enough wiggle room to fit in some other win-now role players alongside whatever star-studded core they cobble together.
The Bulls' storied history and home in a great city haven't been enough to lure major free agents who don’t either have roots in town (Wade) or erstwhile baggage (Rondo). Now that they have those kinds of names and the cap room to add to them, it's possible this summer will see a shift in the wind around the United Center.
Restrictions Galore
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The Bulls have four players bound for restricted free agency. It would come as no shock if none of them returned.
Nikola Mirotic was inconsistent (to say the least) on both ends throughout a season that saw a supposed sharpshooter hit just 34.2 percent of his threes. Michael Carter-Williams missed 37 games and shot even worse than Mirotic (36.6 percent from the field, 23.4 percent from three) when he was available. Joffrey Lauvergne played sparingly after coming over from the Thunder in the deadline deal that sent Taj Gibson to Oklahoma City.
Of Chicago's restricted free agents, Cristiano Felicio could be the best bet to get a new deal. The Brazilian big man isn't overwhelmingly skilled, but he's young (24), spry, bangs on the boards (10.9 rebounds per 36 minutes) and finishes well in the pick-and-roll (57.1 percent).
Mirotic might have done enough down the stretch of the season to earn a second look too. Over his last 13 starts, the 26-year-old averaged 15.4 points on 49.0 percent shooting (46.0 percent from three), thereby providing the Bulls with some much-needed spacing around their three perimeter creators.
All stats via NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise noted.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and listen to his Hollywood Hoops podcast with B/R Lakers lead writer Eric Pincus.
