Chicago Bulls: Re-signing Garrett Temple wouldn’t be based on production

Just like it was last offseason for the Chicago Bulls‘ new front office regime, a lot of decisions made this year could be vastly different than in years past. That aforementioned new front office regime of executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley will have the option to sign veteran shooting guard Garrett Temple, but that decision wouldn’t be made based on traditional thinking.

Last offseason, Karnisovas and the Bulls signed the former Brooklyn Nets veteran Temple to a one-year contract worth around $5 million. The goal in mind with that signing looked to be replacing some of the perimeter defense lost by letting guards Kris Dunn and Shaquille Harrison walk.

That decision also looked to be made based on the logic that the Bulls needed another veteran voice in the locker room and a more experienced player to bolster the bench. And Temple surely provided that for the Bulls in bits and pieces in the season that was.

But his complete body of work last season was anything but consistent statistically. He finished up the 2020-21 campaign by averaging 7.6 points per game, 2.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks. And he shot 41.5 percent from the field, 33.5 percent from beyond the arc, and 80.0 percent from the free-throw line.

Although the Bulls didn’t bring Temple in originally to beef up the stat sheet, it would be nice to see more efficiency coming out of the team’s veteran players. The Bulls did get some efficiency out of other veterans in the rotation such as forward Thaddeus Young and combo guard Tomas Satoransky (at least at times early in the season).

Numbers don’t jump off the page at you for Chicago Bulls SG Garrett Temple

By no means is a -3.5 box plus/minus, -0.6 value over replacement player, and .050 win shares per 48 minutes, advanced metrics worth admiring. Temple also posted one of the lowest player efficiency ratings of his career at 8.2.

Really about the only thing that Temple did better than the league average was free-throw shooting. And even that waned down the stretch for him.

With all of that said, I personally believe there are much worse free agent signings out there for the Bulls than Temple. Head coach Billy Donovan knows what Temple offers for this rotation, and there’s more consistency in that than with other guards like Coby White and Denzel Valentine.

Re-signing Temple this offseason is a move that sounds like it is very possible, and something that both the Bulls front office and the 35-year-old Louisiana native would like to get done. If there is a clear better option to fill this veteran role coming off the Bulls bench in free agency, then I’m all ears.

Yet, Bulls fans should largely be fine with the idea that bringing back Temple on another short-term deal could still be a good thing for this team, despite his lack of production in his first year here. Temple was brought in largely to do things other than give the Bulls efficient numbers off the bench, and he did a good job filling that role to help along younger guards like Zach LaVine and Coby.

Donovan, Temple, and the Bulls finished up the 2020-21 regular season with a record of 31-41 following a May 16 win at home over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bulls also missed the postseason for the fourth straight year.