Chicago Bulls: 3 impending free agents likeliest to return in 21-22

Chicago Bulls impending free agents most likely to return: Al-Farouq Aminu

While it would serve a good amount of value to the Bulls’ rotation to get the likes of Temple and Theis back heading into next season, the final player on this list might not make this team so lucky. Veteran forward Al-Farouq Aminu was acquired by the Bulls at the trade deadline in the deal with the Orlando Magic that also landed them Vooch.

Aminu was tossed into the deal to help match salaries, with the Bulls shipping out third-year center Wendell Carter Jr., veteran small forward Otto Porter Jr., and two first-round draft picks.

This offseason, Aminu has a player option that he can exercise that would pay him roughly $10 million in the final year of his current contract. And it sounds like Aminu is already set on picking up that player option heading into next season. Unfortunately for the Bulls, that does strap them cap-wise a little bit this summer.

There could still be some value that Aminu brings to the table for the Bulls next season, depending on what role Donovan wants to give him. Or there could be a trade out there this offseason for the Bulls front office to throw Aminu’s contract in with. Aminu is still a good defender and it wasn’t that long ago that he still contributed some value offensively.

We’ll see what the Bulls decide to do with Aminu. The options seem to be keeping him in a role deeper down the bench, or use his contract for salary matching purposes in the coming months.

Either way, it looks like Aminu is very likely to be bought out at that waiver period next year.