Chicago Bulls: Adam Mokoka extended a qualifying offer

The former two-way contracted shooting guard/wing Adam Mokoka just got a qualifying offer from the Chicago Bulls on the night of Nov. 16.

The pattern for which newly hired Chicago Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has extended qualifying offers out of late is a bit confusing. If there were any Bulls impending free agent guards that received qualifying offers this offseason, it was figured to be one of a group of shooting guard/wing Adam Mokoka, point guard Kris Dunn, and/or combo guard Shaquille Harrison.

The one impending restricted free agent guard that was not anticipated to get an offer to come back heading into the 2020-21 season was the former Michigan State Spartans 27-year-old shooting guard Denzel Valentine. But as it stands now, the two impending free agent guards that got qualifying offers for the Bulls were Mokoka and Valentine.

It is already clear that the Bulls don’t plan to bring back Dunn and Harrison heading into next season. That is pretty surprising given that those two were the most proven and efficient guards among these four impending free agents in the last two years.

Mokoka is reportedly the latest impending free agent Bulls guard that received a qualifying offer from Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley. If the Bulls continue to see promising flashes from Mokoka, like they did in the Las Vegas Summer League last year and the 2019-20 regular season, then it would be worth bringing him back for at least one more year.

Splitting most of his time last season evenly between the Chicago Bulls and G-League affiliate Windy City Bulls, Mokoka saw some nice appearances at both levels. He played in 31 games in the G-League last season (starting in all but one of them).

And Mokoka averaged 10.9 points per game, 5.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.3 blocks in the G-League last season. He shot 37.1 percent from the field, 32.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 69.2 percent from the free-throw line.

At the NBA level last season, Mokoka played in 11 games with the Bulls (none of which he started in). And he averaged 10.3 points per 36 minutes, 3.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.3 steals,. He shot 42.9 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from beyond the arc, and 50.0 percent from the free-throw line.

Last year, the Bulls signed Mokoka to their Summer League roster, and then in a two-way contract slot. The two players that got the two-way contract slots last offseason for the Bulls were Mokoka and fellow shooting guard/wing Max Strus.