Sports
Grading Bulls' Biggest Moves from 2023 NBA Offseason – Bleacher Report
The Chicago Bulls could have used the 2023 NBA offseason to abandon ship with their current core and start over.
Given their spotty track record—a first-round exit in 2022, no playoff appearance this past season—and Lonzo Ball’s ongoing injury issues, there’s a credible case to be made that was the best path forward.
But Chicago didn’t wave the white flag. In fact, it bought further into this nucleus, re-signing almost all of its own key free agents and adding some rotation-caliber veterans, such as Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig.
Rather than second-guess the franchise’s overall approach, let’s focus on the actual moves it made instead and assign a letter grade to its three biggest transactions.
The Contract: Three years, $60 million
The Analysis: It’s debatable whether Vučević, who inked this extension ahead of free agency opening, could have found this much money on the open market. At 32 years old—33 in October—he is probably past his prime, and even at his peak, he faced fairly significant defensive limitations due to limited lateral quickness and a lack of life.
It’s possible, then, the Bulls simply felt pot-committed to the scoring center. After all, they paid a hefty sum to land him in March 2021, sending a package to the Orlando Magic that included two-way center Wendell Carter Jr. and a pair of first-round picks that wound up delivering Franz Wagner and Jett Howard. Maybe Chicago just didn’t like the optics of letting Vučević walk after sacrificing so much to bring him onboard.
Then again, that might be a more cynical take of what actually transpired. The Bulls might simply like what he brings as a support scorer, active rebounder, capable passer and floor-spacer. He may not always be accurate from outside (40 percent in 2020-21, 33.2 in the two seasons since), but the mere threat that he’ll fire helps balance the floor for the league’s lowest-volume three-point shooting team.
The thought process of wanting to keep him is relatively easy to follow. The willingness to pay him an average annual salary of $20 million is harder to buy. It isn’t an egregious overpay, but you wonder if Chicago could’ve saved some coin by letting him gauge his value before coming to an agreement to return.
The Grade: C+
The Contract: Three years, $20 million
The Analysis: With the Bulls staring at yet another season without Ball, they needed to add at least one external player to their point guard group.
Carter is an intriguing fit, as he might be the best equipped to mimic Ball’s role. The comparison isn’t perfect—Ball is the far superior passer—but it still highlights Carter’s potential to serve as a two-way connector.
The 27-year-old isn’t an advanced playmaker, but Chicago might be OK with that, since it already gets a healthy amount of passing out of Vučević, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. If the Bulls have enough ball movement, then Carter should thrive as a tone-setting defender and capable spot-up shooter.
Low-maintenance offense and high-energy defense is a formula that made Ball such an impactful fit before his knee betrayed him in January 2022. Carter should fit into that blueprint and could prove to be a much more significant signing than his salary suggests.
The Grade: B+
The Contract: Three years, $33 million
The Analysis: It’s possible the Bulls are still figuring out what they have in White, the No. 7 pick of the 2019 draft. It’s also possible they learned this past season that he’s optimized as a quick-strike sixth man.
In either case, he’s probably worth what Chicago is now paying him.
At 23 years old, he still has a chance to play his way into this contract becoming clearance-priced. For that to happen, though, he needs to build off the positive steps he made as a distributor and defender this past season and turn them into full-fledged leaps.
If that doesn’t happen, though, he could struggle to build on the 23.4 minutes he logged this past season—the least amount of floor time he’s received. Scoring is his most obvious strength, and the same is true of Chicago’s best (and highest-paid) players, which could make the pecking order tricky for him to ascend.
The Grade: B-