Six days into the 2024 NBA playoffs, sixteen teams are vying to become the league champions and raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The other fourteen clubs on the outside looking in are already working to get better for the upcoming season, even though their 2023–24 campaigns are completed.
Among those teams was the Chicago Bulls, who ended 39-43 and fell to the Miami Heat in the second play-in game for the second year running. After NBA MVP Derrick Rose was traded away in 2016, Chicago has only had one successful season and has not won a postseason series in its two trips.
Notwithstanding their nearly ten-year run of bad luck, the Bulls may improve significantly in the upcoming year. First, they integrate 6-foot-9 forward Adama Sanogo into their starting lineup on a daily basis.
The 2023 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Danogo, finished his rookie season as a consistent starter with the Windy City Bulls, Chicago’s affiliate in the NBA Gatorade League. The 2023 Honorable Mention All-American averaged 22 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks in 29 games—all but one of which were starts.
Of the Indiana Mad Ants’ 23 games, only G League Rookie of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe ended with more rebounds per game (16.1). During his three seasons with the UConn men’s basketball team, Sanogo increased his average playing time from 5.3 minutes to 30.3 minutes per game.
In 12 of his 39 games during his junior season, Sanogo played fewer than 25 minutes, a rare occurrence in the G League this season. The native of Bamako, Mali, was chosen for the All-NBA G League Third Team based on his performance in his rookie season.
But Sanogo’s success this season extended beyond the G League. Despite playing in nine NBA games and averaging just four points and four rebounds, the 6-foot-9 forward reserved his best play for the last stretch of the regular season. The 22-year-old recorded his first big-league double-double on April 12 in 35:05 against the Washington Wizards, scoring 22 points on 8–18 shooting and grabbing 20 rebounds (10 of each).
Two weeks prior to his historic performance in the NBA, Sanogo had scored twenty-nine points and pulled down twenty rebounds against the Milwaukee Bucks’ G League club, the Wisconsin Herd. Victor Wembanyama, the front-runner for Rookie of the Year, was the only other rookie in the association this season to have two 20-20 games. The 22-year-old Mali native made history by being the youngest player to play for the six-time NBA champions since 2001’s Elton Brand, a former first overall choice.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the two-time finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award is a starter for the Bulls’ club next season, given their present personnel situation. Other than the power forward from Mali, no other player on the team is listed on Spotrac, a database that lists contracts for every player across several leagues. With two years remaining on a $60 million contract, center Nikola Vucevic is the lone frontcourt player being paid by Chicago.
The only Bulls players left under contract are seven-year veteran Torrey Craig and 2023 second-round draft pick Julian Phillips, both of whom are capable of playing four small forward positions. The organization recently extended an offer of $40 million for two years to DeMar DeRozan, an unrestricted free agent who began his career as a shooting guard and was selected three times for the All-NBA team. Patrick Williams, a former fourth-round pick who spent most of last season playing power forward for Chicago, is also a free agency.
With about $130 million in cap space available, it’s feasible that the Bulls may attempt to sign a good forward in the first few days of July’s free agency. This previous season, the combined salary of forwards like Pascal Siakam and Tobias Harris was less than $40 million. Chicago may try to sign both veterans to help with their frontcourt needs, though this is quite improbable. I do not see the Bulls making an offer to either Harris or Siakam that would exceed $40 million in annual salary, in contrast to what they did with DeRozan this past week.
In the second half of an NBA basketball game on Friday, April 12, 2024, in Washington, Washington Wizards guard Jared Butler (4) drives to the basket past Chicago Bulls guard Andrew Funk, left, center Adama Sanogo (21), and forward Torrey Craig, right. Photograph by AP/Mark Schiefelbein.
In addition, the NBA Draft is about to take place, with Chicago currently possessing the 11th overall pick. On Monday, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report made a prediction stating that they might choose Cody Williams of Colorado, a forward with excellent defensive skills who was previously expected to go first overall. I anticipate that C. Williams will either start the season as a small forward or as the backup power forward if the Bulls choose to choose him in June. Even though he might see some action at the four during his rookie season, I believe Sanogo should start there the next season.
However, everything I’ve mentioned is conditioned on Chicago extending a qualifying offer to the 22-year-old forward during the offseason. By this coming Saturday, June 29, if the Bulls do not extend that offer to him, the 2023 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player will become a restricted free agent.
This implies that Chicago is able to match any offer sheet that Sanogo signs with a team in the league. In that scenario, I wouldn’t be shocked if opposing teams extended qualifying offers to the Honorable Mention All-American.
Since the end of the Michael Jordan era in 1998, the Bulls have not had a true franchise power forward, with the exception of four seasons of Carlos Boozer, an All-NBA pick in the early 2010s. Making Sanogo a starter is currently the Bulls’ best course of action out of the three choices I have described.
When the 2022–23 national champion and Vucevic collaborated down low, they formed one of the association’s most formidable frontcourts. The combination of those two players with finalist Zach LaVine and Most Improved Player Coby White will launch the Windy City’s offensive assault to new heights.
Despite having a losing record the previous two years, Chicago has the talent to contend for a postseason position in the Eastern Conference. In addition to helping the Bulls score more points, Sanogo might be the key component that puts them back in the running for the NBA title.
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