Chicago Bulls
The Bulls were one of the few teams aggressively pursuing Lonzo Ball at the NBA trade deadline this year and in NBA free agency during the offseason, expect this interest in him to continue. The Bulls desperately need a point guard and with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, they have the capability to be a playoff team in the East for many years to come.
Adding Lonzo Ball to this team not only puts them in the playoff conversation in the East, but the Bulls could quickly turn themselves into one of the top teams in this conference. They have two All-Star players, a bunch of young, high-level talents and would have a terrific floor general and facilitator in Lonzo Ball.
Coby White is a fantastic young guard and has a lot of potential to grow into a great combo-guard, but he has been a much more effective player coming off-the-bench. Having him in the second-unit as a combo-guard that can backup both Ball and LaVine would do wonders for the Bulls and give them even more production than the Bulls would already have.
With Kris Dunn gone and Tomas Satoransky not being a true reliable point guard, the Bulls need to solidify the depth in their backcourt. Lonzo Ball can be the “do-it-all” guy for the Chicago Bulls and help speed up the development of some of the other young players on this team.
Overpaying Ball though could be detrimental to the Bulls as they also look to build themselves back into championship contenders in the Eastern Conference like the Knicks. Chicago is only going to have about $12.6M in cap space this offseason and with Zach LaVine entering the final year of his deal next year, they will need to have future cap space to be able to offer him a max-contract.
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If they wind up paying Lonzo Ball close to $20M per year, then the Bulls could put themselves in a very tough situation financially, causing them to pay a ton of luxury taxes to re-sign Zach LaVine next year. Giving Ball $14M/year seems like the optimal amount for the Bulls to offer Lonzo Ball, but both Ball and his agent may request more because of the season he has been having.
