After another disappointing season that saw the Chicago Bulls go 31-41 and miss out on the postseason, it was a move Chicago made during the year that provided optimism for the future.
At the NBA Trade Deadline during the year, the Bulls acquired Orlando Magic all-star center Nikola Vucevic. Pairing him alongside fellow all-star Zach LaVine showed that Chicago's front office was investing to win now.
Chicago needs to continue that trend this offseason by adding around LaVine and Vucevic. One name that has been linked to the Bulls for quite sometime is Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball. Ball is set to be a restricted free agent and the Bulls are reported to be one of the teams heavily interested. Here are two reasons why the Bulls should go all in on Lonzo Ball in free agency.
Chicago is trying to win now and Lonzo Ball helps that cause big time
Even though the Bulls came up short on the playoffs, acquiring Vucevic was a move to solidify Chicago and get them back to the postseason in the years to come. Instead of opting to trade LaVine and start the process from scratch again, the front office made moves to drastically improve immediately.
Lonzo Ball made big strides in improving this past season especially from the perimeter and the foul line. Ball shot 38% from three-point range during the 2020-21 season and did so while shooting an average of 8 three's per game. In 2019, Ball shot a dreadful 56% from the free-throw line. For anyone that's horrible, especially a point guard. Yet, that mark at the time was the highest of his career in his first three years. This past season in year four, Ball elevated that average to a much more respectable 78%. He continues to peel back layers to his game and is getting better and better.
The Bulls aren't looking for projects or players who project to be good in four or five years. While they have young and promising players on the roster that could be categorized as that, there is a lot of attention being paid on who they should add that will help straight away in 2021. It's one of the reasons the Bulls were okay with yielding their first-round pick to the Magic this year. Orlando is in a rebuild and they get the top 10 pick, Chicago gets the proven all-star in Vucevic.
Adding Lonzo Ball would give the Bulls a solid core of him, LaVine and Vucevic and would elevate them to a playoff contender at minimum in the Eastern Conference.
The Bulls have question marks at point guard and Ball is an answer
Coby White has shown flashes of being dynamic at point guard in his first two years with the Bulls and Tomas Satoransky is a serviceable backup. Chicago is still missing that proven one guard that can elevate the players around him.
Lonzo Ball is one of the more gifted passers in the NBA and is tremendous at distributing to his teammates and putting them in advantageous situations. LaVine will fill it up with his shooting and Vucevic needs his touches, so the Bulls don't necessarily need a point guard that will come in and shoot it 20 times a night. Thankfully for them, Ball isn't that type of point guard.
Ball has never averaged below 5.4 assists during any of his four seasons and this past year he average 5.7 per pop. He would be the perfect compliment to LaVine and Vucevic.
Chicago needs a playmaker and a solution at point guard and Lonzo Ball provides just that.
It's likely that any move to scope up Lonzo Ball as a restricted free agent would require trimming other pieces on the roster. Fellow point guard Tomas Satoransky and forward Thaddeus Young could end up being cap casualties as a result.
The other route would be to go the sign-and-trade method, but if the reports are true the the Pelicans likely won't match a huge offer sheet for Ball, it's unlikely they will want to ingest other contracts just to help facilitate Ball going somewhere else. So while there are different options for the Bulls to go out and get Ball on their squad, the most likely is just offering a heavy contract to the restricted free agent and then hoping the Pelicans just opt not to match it.
Lonzo Ball's offseason will be one that is incredibly fascinating to follow along with. The Bulls are looking to wheel and deal after pairing Nikola Vucevic with Zach LaVine at the trade deadline last season. Now, they need that lead guard that can be the third piece and Ball would be the perfect fit.
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