Chicago Bulls: 3 worst free agent signings ever by John Paxson

There were some truly bad free agent signings throughout John Paxson’s tenure with the Chicago Bulls, just like Jerry Krause had at the end.

Under the direction of the Chicago Bulls former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson, the results in free agency were less than desirable. The Bulls never really landed the players they wanted, at least by fan opinion. Even up through last offseason, seemingly good free agent signings at the time were cancelled out by poor play thereafter.

Entering the novel coronavirus pandemic-induced NBA season hiatus, the Bulls carried a record of 22-43 this season. As the season remained on hold last month, the Reinsdorfs finally made the move to hire a new lead executive in the front office and get rid of Paxson. The Bulls brought in the former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas to be the next lead voice in the front office, with an official title of executive vice president of basketball operations.

Even former general manager Gar Forman was replaced by the ex-Philadelphia 76ers vice president of player personnel Marc Eversley. The front office already looks much different, as the GarPax regime is finally over after more than 15 years in power.

Where GarPax did have some solid draft picks during their time in the Windy City, they weren’t able to build the proper roster around them (or even keep the proper staff in place) to reach that top level of league-wide prominence. From Ben Gordon and Luol Deng to Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler, the Bulls never quite managed to assemble a young core that could get in done in the Eastern Conference.

A poor job building supporting casts through free agency year-after-year is a big reason for that lingering problem.

Here’s a look back at the three worst free agent signings ever for Paxson with the Bulls organization.