4. Luke Kornet, Center
Contract: $2.25 million
The Chicago Bulls used their room exception to ink down the former New York Knicks rangy center Luke Kornet this summer. Landing him for less than $2.5 million per year has to be one of the most underrated moves by any team in the Central Division this summer too.
As one of the most undervalued big men in free agency this offseason, Kornet was actually a brilliant find by the Bulls. Any big man that can drive, shoot from range, and hit the glass hard on both ends of the floor is very valuable for a young team like the Bulls. He shot better than 35 percent from downtown last season and has a polished two-way skill set.
Not only does Kornet help modernized this Bulls rotation under Boylen, he adds depth to a frontcourt that lost Bobby Portis and Robin Lopez earlier this year between the trade deadline and free agency. He’ll also add a stop gap between the starters at the four and the five and rookie former Arkansas Razorbacks big man Daniel Gafford. That could give Gafford ample time to round out his game playing for at least one year with the G-League affiliate Windy City Bulls.
The fact that a room exception free agent signing from the summer is already on a list like this goes to show how improved the work was from GarPax in the open market. Hopefully this trend of adding modern and underrated value players continues from this front office moving forward.