A potential buyout market target that sounds great for the Chicago Bulls to pursue is the former San Antonio Spurs small forward DeMarre Carroll.
Whenever a name surfaces on the buyout market like veteran former San Antonio Spurs small forward DeMarre Carroll, the headlines will command a lot of attention. And rightly so. Carroll will be one of the more valuable players to surface in free agency over the course of the stretch run of the regular season. This is a player that the Chicago Bulls should really be trying to nab if they have any plans of attempting to make a playoff run this year.
But whenever there’s a move that just seems entirely too obvious for John Paxson and Gar Forman to make for the Bulls, it doesn’t seem to get done. While Carroll might not want to sign with the Bulls even if they pursued him really hard, it is worth the effort. This is the one positional need that will trump any other for the Bulls once they start getting healthier.
The report that the Spurs were buying out the contract of Carroll came from ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter on Feb. 17. It appears that the Houston Rockets are the current frontrunner to sign Carroll once he clears waivers, as they’re keeping two open roster spots to likely nab him and Jeff Green.
San Antonio and forward DeMarre Carroll have agreed to a contract buyout, agent Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports tells ESPN. Houston is a frontrunner to sign Carroll once he clears waivers, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 17, 2020
If the Rockets somehow don’t appeal to Carroll, then the Bulls are definitely a team that should jump into the discussion to land him. Free agency might not afford a player that fits with the Bulls as well as Carroll does this coming summer.
By no means is the 2019-20 campaign the best that we’ve ever seen from Carroll over the course of his lengthy NBA career. So far this season, he’s played in 15 games while averaging 2.2 points per game, 2.1 rebounds, and 0.7 assists, while shooting 31.0 percent from the field and 23.1 percent from three-point land.
Moreover, Carroll is a career journeyman who’s played for eight different NBA teams over his decade-long run in the league. He also hasn’t played for any one team for more than two seasons. His longest runs came with the Atlanta Hawks and Brooklyn Nets, where he played in at least 140 games for each team.
Whatever team signs Carroll would be trying to tap into the production he showed last season. He averaged 11.1 points per game, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists, while shooting 40 percent from the field and 34 percent from beyond the arc.
The Bulls seemed like a good fit at the trade deadline if the Spurs were to deal him. Head coach Jim Boylen really has a need to add wing depth at the moment. Second-year small forward Chandler Hutchison is about all the Bulls have in terms of a healthy true wing. Former Washington Wizards small forward Otto Porter Jr. is still recovering from a foot fracture that’s held him out of all but nine games with the team this season.
Holding a record of 19-36 at the All-Star Break, the Bulls are pretty far out of playoff contention right now. They could still make the playoffs as an eight seed in the Eastern Conference, but it would be very challenging. Granted landing a buyout market target like Carroll to fill the void on the wing would definitely get the Bulls one step closer to playoff contention and provide another veteran voice in the locker room.