Chicago Bulls Where is he now: Omer Asik

A saga between forward/center Omer Asik and the Chicago Bulls that lasted two seasons and just four games could be ending soon.

The recent news that broke that the Chicago Bulls front office personnel is asking for a release from the overdue contract of big man Omer Asik on the books from his more than $11 million base salary. Omer Asik was barely more than a useless sign for the Chicago Bulls since he only played in four games in that particular uniform.

The 2017-18 campaign in general for Omer Asik was a disaster, not just with the Chicago Bulls. He posted a player efficiency rating below five and couldn’t do much of anything to help the cause that season. The best season for Omer Asik came back in 2012-13 when he averaged a double-double for the Houston Rockets.

He did also have a few good seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, next to superstar big man Anthony Davis. But that was all for naught as those Pelicans teams weren’t very good and he wound up flaming out.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Chicago Bulls requested that Omer Asik be removed from the books on April 25 to free up $3 million in cap space for the summer. His large base salary that was owed for this season is now paid and the dead money he’s owed from the 2017-18 campaign would be done after the off-season.

It is unfortunate the way that this happened for both Omer Asik and the Chicago Bulls. Both parties could be a good match if Asik was in the form he was a few years back with the Rockets and Pelicans. It was a career-ending injury/illness that rounded everything out for Asik. He had inflammatory arthritis that kept him out of Training Camp and likely for the rest of his basketball career in general.

As it pertains to Asik the player and person, we should all hope that this condition isn’t that bad now that his basketball career is over. But as it pertains to the Bulls, this is a move that seemingly happens a lot with this front office now.

Asik was an interesting fit at the time when the Bulls signed him during an interesting run in 2017-18. The Bulls haven’t accomplished much the past two seasons, and this Asik contract situation was a good example of that.