Rumors have surfaced that the Chicago Bulls have interest in free agent Julius Randle after he opted out of his $9 million option with the Pelicans.
NBA Free Agency opens Sunday at 6 PM EST and the Chicago Bulls were granted $3 million to their salary after Omer Asik‘s contract was removed by the league.
Bringing the Bulls cap total upwards of $23 million, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Asik was on the Bulls books after being traded to Chicago in 2018 along with a first-round draft pick from the Pelicans.
The first-round pick was used on Chandler Hutchinson and in return, New Orleans received Nikola Mirotic.
The NBA has removed Omer Asik's deal from the Chicago Bulls' salary books via career-ending injury/illness, freeing up an additional $3M in space, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Chicago now has upwards of $23M in salary space for free agency.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 26, 2019
The Bulls enter free agency after ending last week’s NBA Draft on a high note with two picks that fit the teams’ immediate needs.
The front office was focused on finding a difference maker at No. 7 and adding depth in the frontcourt at No. 38. There were few to no complaints from fans, media, and players on how the Bulls went about their draft process and selections.
Chicago selected North Carolina point guard Coby White seventh-overall to compete for the starting point guard role with Kris Dunn.
In the second round, the Bulls added center/forward Daniel Gafford at No. 38 out of Arkansas as a potential replacement of Cristiano Felicio.
With the latest draft moves, the current roster, and the removal of Asik’s contract the Bulls future is starting to look promising heading into free agency.
Rumors have started to pick up steam that the Bulls front office is interested in Julius Randle after he opted out of a $9 million player option with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Randle averaged a career-high 21.4 points to go along with 8.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 30.6 minutes per game in his lone season with the Pelicans.
The 24-year-old Kentucky product will be on the market for a multi-year deal. Randle’s agent, Aaron Mintz, will likely be looking for a three or four-year contract with a player option that will cost somewhere in the $60-80 million range to seal the deal.