NBA Free Agents: Aaron Afflalo and SGs Chicago Bulls Must Target

The Chicago Bulls must sign a quality shooting guard to take some of the scoring burden off of NBA MVP Derrick Rose.

The Bulls also needed a dependable bench scorer last year in the playoffs, and did not have one, especially against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

The Bulls have several choices on good shooting guards to target this free-agency period, let's look at three of them.

1. Jason Richardson

Jason Richardson played well with the Orlando Magic last season and even as an aging player he can be a quality scorer for a few more seasons.

The Bulls would love to sign Richardson to a one- or two-year deal, so Rose can have a versatile scorer by his size.

Richardson will be able to stretch the floor with his good three-point shooting and can also take the ball to the basket and finish strong against bigger defenders.

2. Marcus Thornton

Marcus Thornton averaged 21.3 points per game last season for the Sacramento Kings, and really showed he could be depended on to shoulder a team's offensive burden throughout an entire year.

Thornton also averaged 1.7 steals per game last season and will not hurt the Bulls on the defensive end of the floor.

He would give Rose a quality wingman who can shoot, take the ball to the basket and make defenders back off of the MVP because they must respect Thornton's talent.

3. Aaron Afflalo

Aaron Afflalo is a very talented player that would give the Bulls an elite perimeter defender to guard the likes of Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics and Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat.

He also averaged 12.3 points per game last season for the Denver Nuggets, and did a nice job of covering superstars such as Kobe Bryant.

Afflalo would be a perfect combination of scoring and defense that would really make the Bulls a complete team.