Michael Carter-Williams Will Not Receive Bulls Qualifying Offer, Become UFA

Chicago Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson announced Tuesday that the team will not extend a qualifying offer to guard Michael Carter-Williams, according to ESPN 1000's David Kaplan.

That means Carter-Williams will become an unrestricted free agent rather than going through the offer-sheet process he would have as a restricted free agent.       

Carter-Williams, 25, spent last season in Chicago after previously playing for the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks. He averaged 6.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 45 games.

Playing in a log-jammed backcourt—Rajon Rondo, Cameron Payne, Jerian Grant and Isaiah Canaan were also getting minutes at point guard—Carter-Williams shuffled from being out of the rotation entirely to the starting lineup and back again. 

Carter-Williams expressed frustration at his inconsistent role in January.

"Hopefully you get your time," he said, per ESPN.com's Nick Friedell. "If it's not one team, maybe it's another one."

The biggest issue: Carter-Williams was not very good when he did get minutes. He shot just 36.6 percent from the field during the regular season and bordered on unplayable in the postseason. Head coach Fred Hoiberg gave him just 10.6 minutes per game and even kept him stapled to the bench when Rondo went down during the Bulls' first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics.

The 2013-14 NBA Rookie of the Year, Carter-Williams has gotten progressively worse. His rookie performance now appears more a situation where he put up empty stats on a bad team than an indicator of a star in the making.

Even so, MCW is still young, and the fact he has a couple of productive seasons on his resume should be enough for a team to take a chance on him in hopes that he returns to his Sixers form.

Maybe Carter-Williams can develop into a decent backup point guard, but expecting any real return to form is probably unlikely at this point.