Chicago Bulls: 3 free agent targets to replace Cristiano Felicio

3) Chicago Bulls free agent targets to replace Felicio: Damian Jones

A very realistic way for the Bulls to look this offseason, if they do in fact want to buy out the current contract of Felicio, is to sign a younger big man that won’t cost all that much. In this particular discussion, the Bulls could look into signing the towering 6-foot-11 and 245 pound former Vanderbilt Commodores center Damian Jones.

This 25-year-old Baton Rouge, LA, native was the 30th overall pick in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft out of the Vanderbilt hoops program, by the Golden State Warriors. Jones did already get two NBA Championships over the course of his first few seasons in the league. He would bring a pretty special presence to the table for the Bulls.

What the Bulls would be getting out of Jones is a big man that is still largely improving, even during his inaugural season with the Atlanta Hawks. Jones played in 55 games during the shortened 2019-20 regular season with the Hawks (starting in 27 of them). And he averaged 5.6 points per game, 3.7 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.7 blocks.

Jones also shot 68.0 percent from the field, 22.2 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.8 percent from the free-throw line.

The body of work for Jones was still rather limited given his more than two-dozen starts during the 2019-20 campaign. That led to him registering an inconsistent set of advanced metrics, including a -1.5 box plus/minus rating, .152 win shares per 48 minutes, 2.8 total win shares, 0.1 value over replacement player rating, 71.2 true shooting percentage, and 15.6 player efficiency rating.