Chicago Bulls Off-Season Grades: Point Guard
With the re-signing of Spencer Dinwiddie, the Chicago Bulls have essentially filled all of their roster spots for the 2016-17 season and it is time to hand out grades for what the front office did in July.
We’ll break this down positionally this week. That should help keep everything clear and simple. Well, at least simple. Or Clear. Perhaps, since we are talking about the Bulls, it will be neither.
More from Bulls News
- The dream starting 5 for the Chicago Bulls 5 years from now
- Bulls’ Ayo Dosunmu inspires the future with new school program
- Chicago Bulls NBA 2K24 full roster ratings, risers, and fallers
- Bulls sign a pair of promising guards to Exhibit 10 contracts
- When does NBA Training Camp start? Dates Bulls fans need to know
The point guard position was mostly an afterthought for the better part of the last decade thanks to Chicago native, Derrick Rose. Rose was the man and for a majority of his injury-marred career it was for good reason. As long as he was healthy and a top 10 point guard in the league, he was going to be the guy. His fall was unfortunate, but due to those pesky injuries, also inevitable.
For the first time in a very long time the Bulls had some work to do for the future of their point guard situation and it’s time to give that activity a grade.
Keep in mind, while the roster is pretty much full and a lot of moves have been made, it is only August 1st – we’ve got a couple of months to go before we have an opening day roster so this is going to be subject to change.
Point Guard Grade: C+
There was so much going on that we should probably break this down into two categories: additions and subtractions.
Subtractions
This is the more fun one to lead with because it signifies, in some small way, that the Bulls are finally looking to move on from a promising past that never came to fruition.
Mostly, the Bulls just did the obvious and that was a huge win. You don’t re-sign Aaron Brooks. It just isn’t a smart fit for where the Bulls are headed. Brooks found employ somewhere else, which makes sense, there are worse options out there.
More from Pippen Ain't Easy
- The dream starting 5 for the Chicago Bulls 5 years from now
- Bulls’ Ayo Dosunmu inspires the future with new school program
- Chicago Bulls NBA 2K24 full roster ratings, risers, and fallers
- Bulls sign a pair of promising guards to Exhibit 10 contracts
- When does NBA Training Camp start? Dates Bulls fans need to know
The Bulls also made a huge move and found a new home for Rose in New York. Trading him to the Knicks was a great idea. There was no possibility that Chicago was re-signing him in 2017. The writing had been on the wall since his press conference last summer when he was already going all TMI Tuesday to reporters about his intentions to get paid a year from now, which would have been a full two years from when he made the remarks. Unloading his contract, and not dealing with the free agency circus surrounding that, is a big win for the Bulls. When the return is figured in – Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon, Jerian Grant – things turned out so much better than what most would have anticipated.
The Bulls made quick work of moving Calderon’s agecontract, so Bulls fans only had about three days of the front office grandstanding Jose as the starting point guard of the 2016-17 Bulls. It was about two days too long, but look back and laugh, my friends.
Additions
Spencer Dinwiddie has had himself a very busy off-season. First, the Bulls trade Cameron Bairstow to acquire the young guard from the Detroit Pistons. Then, they waive Dinwiddie. Next, Dinwiddie shows up on the bench, suited to play, for the Chicago Las Vegas Summer League squad. Then Dinwiddie is back with the Bulls on a deal that was not announced. Likely, Dinwiddie has a non-guaranteed deal and probably isn’t going to be seeing a lot of money. The move will give the Bulls some serious depth at the point guard position, though it is unclear if any of their options really add up to be much more than the sum of their parts.
The reason the Bulls have the point guard depth is because they also added two other point guards this off-season. Next up is Jerian Grant. Grant was a Knick last season, but was probably always destined to be a Bull, just like his uncle, Horace Grant. He’ll probably get a pretty good look this season as they’ll have Dinwiddie on reserve if Grant falters, but neither of these young, unproven players will carry too large of a load thanks to the Bulls big point acquisition, Rajon Rondo.
How Rondo ended up a Bull is both bewildering and exactly what you would expect to happen to this franchise in 2016. The veteran guard has some kind of championship pedigree thanks to Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Doc Rivers and Tom Thibodeau carrying him to it. He’s a gifted passer with a knack for irritating players and coaches alike – on the other team and his own. He was coming off of a one-year deal with the Sacramento Kings and got two years in the neighborhood of $27 million. It looks like he is set to make at least $13.4 million per year.
Next: ESPN Says Rondo is the Worst
The Rondo deal is the most expensive, by far, and also the least welcomed. Fortunately, the second year of his deal is only guaranteed for $3 million and there may not be a second year for the fiery guard. It will all depend on how this season goes, but isn’t that true of most of this Bulls roster?