Likely the biggest free agency news of the day around the NBA landscape occurred when the Chicago Bulls pulled off a sign-and-trade deal with the San Antonio Spurs to land star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan. The Bulls had an enormous week thus far during the free agency negotiation window.
While we did see some now-former Bulls players such as veteran shooting guard Garrett Temple, combo guard Tomas Satoransky, center Daniel Theis, etc. land elsewhere, it didn’t outshine the free agency additions for this team. Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley put together a big week through two days.
Chicago Bulls now more firmly attain contender status by signing DeMar DeRozan
It all started off with the Bulls pulling off a sign-and-trade with the New Orleans Pelicans to nab restricted free agent point guard Lonzo Ball. In return for Lonzo, the Bulls shipped off Temple, Sato, and a second-round draft pick. That was a good deal for the Bulls.
On that same evening/night for Karnisovas and the Bulls on Aug. 2, another solid guard signing was made. The Bulls nabbed former Los Angeles Lakers point guard Alex Caruso on a four-year deal worth around $37 million in total.
But it was this move to nab DeRozan that really put an exclamation mark on the week already. The Bulls had to ship off two second-round draft picks, one first-round draft pick, forward Al-Farouq Aminu, and veteran forward Thaddeus Young.
That was a lot more for the Bulls to give up than when AK nabbed Lonzo from the Pelicans earlier this week. Here’s a look into the grades for the Bulls sign-and-trade deal with the Spurs for DeRozan.