On the afternoon of May 18, the Chicago Bulls got the news that veteran forward Al-Farouq Aminu intended to exercise his player option ahead of the 2021-22 season. The Bulls didn’t give much playing time to Aminu down the stretch last season, and he’ll have one year remaining on his current contract. And he’ll set to be due a little north of $10 million for the final year of his deal if he does wind up exercising his player option.
Aminu only got to play in six games with the Bulls after landing in Chicago at the trade deadline back on March 25. The Bulls got him in their big deadline day deal with the Orlando Magic. In that trade deal at the deadline, the Bulls shipped off veteran small forward Otto Porter Jr., third-year center Wendell Carter Jr., and two first-round draft picks. In return, they got star center Nikola Vucevic and Aminu from the Magic.
Obviously, the centerpiece to that trade with the Magic was Vooch. Aminu was thrown in to help get the deal done and match salaries. But it did look like the Bulls might be able to get some utility out of Aminu down the stretch this season. That largely hinged on how first-year head coach Billy Donovan was able to utilize him down the stretch.
Since Aminu was sparsely used, the Bulls front office might try to explore other options for him after exercising his player option this offseason.
Here’s a look at three trades the Bulls could explore this offseason involving the veteran Aminu.