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Can the Chicago Bulls become a contender as soon as next season? That largely depends on how well they are going to grade out in free agency.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Bulls could be a surprise player in the free agent market, via Kevin Anderson of NBC Sports Chicago.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Tuesday night that the Bulls “are going to be sneaky in free agency. They've got a young core that people want to play with… they have sped up the rebuild.”
The Bulls are coming off a disappointing 2017-18 campaign. On the heels of trading star shooting guard Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Bulls finished last season with a 27-55 record, their worst since going 23-59 in 2003-04. Snagging a top-tier free agent, however, could quickly turn things around in Chicago.
Anderson also mentioned how the Bulls’ financial situation is flexible enough to find a way to pay someone like LeBron James to a max contract.
The Bulls will have enough flexibility that they can fairly easily free up enough cap space to sign a free agent to a max contract when free agency begins July 1. Right now I'm projecting them to enter July with just over $24 million in cap space. They can increase that amount by not signing several of their own free agents like David Nwaba, drafting a European player with the 22nd pick and agreeing to keep him overseas, waiving a player and ‘stretching' his contract, or trading away salary to a team with cap space.
There are barely any rumors linking LeBron to Chicago, but the Bulls have a lot of targets they could go after in the summer, including big men like Clint Capela and Jusuf Nurkic, wingmen in Paul George and Jabari Parker, and guards like Chris Paul, Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Smart, and Elfrid Payton.
Chicago also holds two first-round picks (No. 7 and No. 22) in the upcoming 2018 NBA Draft.
