Chicago Bulls: 3 players most likely to be cut before free agency
1) Chicago Bulls that could be cut before free agency: Luke Kornet
Sometimes it’s alright to throw in the towel and admit that a low-risk gamble on a free agent signing for a minimum deal just didn’t work out as many thought it would. This is how the Bulls new front office regime might, and should, feel about the experiment from Boylen and John Paxson that was signing the former Vanderbilt Commodores seven-footer Luke Kornet out of free agency last offseason.
This 7-foot-2 and 250 pound 25-year-old Lantana, TX, native and former New York Knicks center Kornet had his least productive and most inefficient season to date in his NBA career in his inaugural run with the Bulls. Kornet arrived in Chicago coming off a solid 2018-19 season where he registered a career-best 2.1 box plus/minus rating, 0.8 value over replacement player rating, 14.8 player efficiency rating, and stellar 4.5 block percentage.
That turned into a season with the Bulls where Kornet registered a career-worst -1.2 box plus/minus rating, 12.7 player efficiency rating, 0.1 value over replacement player rating, and more injury problems than ever before in his run with the Knicks. Kornet played in 36 games during the shortened 2019-20 regular season with the Bulls (starting in 14 of them).
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In those three-dozen games played with the Bulls during the 2019-20 campaign, Kornet averaged 6.0 points per game, 2.3 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.7 blocks. He shot 43.9 percent from the field, 28.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 71.4 percent from the free-throw line.
Like Valentine, Kornet is another case of a player that is just not all that good of a fit with the Bulls given the current state of the rebuild, but is likely to get another shot on another NBA team in the near future.