July 16, 2018
It’s no secret the Bulls are in the midst of rebuilding their team to try and become the great Chicago Bulls team they have been in the past. In recent years, they have slowly traded away all of the big name players and have focused on building a solid young core. After a couple of draft picks and deals, the Bulls might be closer than ever to finally securing a strong rebuilt young roster.
First off, the Bulls already had a quality group of players on their roster. Bobby Portis, Lauri Markkanen, and Kris Dunn to name a few. However, they needed more to keep rebuilding and bolster the team on both sides of the court.
This offseason, the Bulls went full rebuild and went after young talent in the draft and with deals. First, they drafted Wendell Carter Jr. and Chandler Hutchinson. Both are great players who have shown a lot of promise in the summer league. Then they inked a 4-year $80 million deal with Zach Lavine and a 2-year $40 million deal with Jabari Parker. The Bulls do have a lot of cap space, so these moves weren’t a huge deal in that regard. However, they did put a lot of faith into two players that have had serious injuries in the past. If they both stay healthy and continue to grow as players, the Bulls could have gotten amazing deals out of both of them.
Another great player the Bulls have is Antonio Blakeney. He went undrafted in the 2017 NBA Draft, but signed a two-way contract with the Bulls. He split time between the Bulls and their G League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls. He is a fantastic player who can ignite an offense and doesn’t need help getting buckets. Even Kevin Durant posted on his Instagram story about Blakeney when he said “Somebody needs to take Antonio Blakeney OUT the summer league and sign that man for the season. Stop playing! Smh” He has been playing very well in the 2018 NBA Summer League, and has proven he deserves a roster spot.
Adding a number of great young players to their already young roster puts the Bulls in a great position. I think that this is a very talented young team that could begin to grow together and get better each season moving forward. They only won 27 games last season, so I’m pretty confident that the Bulls are going to surprise some people this season and perform a lot better. They’ll definitely be a young rebuilt looking team, but I think the rebuilding process is close to being over in Chicago.
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