Chicago Bulls: 3 players who should be gone next season

3. Cristiano Felicio, Power Forward

The fact that the Chicago Bulls still have to give relevant playing time to a big man like Cristiano Felicio just shows how dire times are in the third year of this rebuild. It’s hard to argue that Felicio would even be a starting quality big man in the G-League at this point. He doesn’t have much of any coordination or off-ball awareness.

There are times where Felicio manages to find himself in the right place at the right time. His enormous frame that has him at 6-foot-10 and 270 pounds can help out his positioning in the paint from time-to-time. But that doesn’t even come close to making up for his lack of actual production mostly as a power forward this season.

The results just keep getting worse and worse for Felicio throughout the course of the brutal contract the Bulls gave him. So far this season, Felicio is averaging 4.4 points per game, 5.1 rebounds, and 0.7 assists, while shooting 62.3 percent from the field and 78.3 percent from the free-throw line.

You have to look deeper into the advanced stats or just simply watch Felicio’s film to find how ineffective he can really be. His turnover rate is very high, above 22.0 percent, and his box plus/minus rating is worse than 3.0.

This summer could be the first time where it is actually worth stretching and waiving Felicio’s overpaid contract. He’ll have a little more than $7.5 million that he’s owed next season, so waiving him could be a wise move if there’s other options that the Bulls can go with to fill the frontcourt rotation. They do have a good start with center Wendell Carter Jr., center/power forward Daniel Gafford, and power forward Lauri Markkanen.