Chicago Bulls: Cristiano Felicio’s NBA run ends, heads to Germany

There are quite a few Chicago Bulls players that were expected to not be with the team heading into next season. Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley were much busier this offseason in free agency than they were last fall. And that led to a plethora of moves that will likely help this team to get over the postseason hump once and for all.

Among the former Bulls players that won’t be returning with the team next season is the Brazilian 6-foot-11 and 270-pound 29-year-old big man Cristiano Felicio. After the former Bulls front office regime of John Paxson and Gar Forman handed Felicio all too sizable of a contract extension four years ago, his salary is finally off of the books.

For the past four seasons, Felicio remained one of the biggest salary cap anchors in the entire NBA. He was paid more in total salary figure (roughly $32 million) in the past four years than he scored total points last season. Felicio registered just 23 total points, 26 rebounds, nine assists, four steals, and no blocks, in 84 minutes over the course of 18 regular season games.

It was crystal clear that Felicio’s role with the team was dwindling down last season, especially once the new front office regime and coaching staff were brought in. There wasn’t much of any value that Felicio could bring to the table for head coach Billy Donovan last season.

Era comes to an end for the Chicago Bulls with Cristiano Felicio going overseas

According to a report from Eurohoops.net this week, the former Bulls big man Felicio signed a deal with Ratiopharm Ulm to take his talents overseas to Germany next season. For now, that brings Felicio’s run in the NBA to an end, which is likely what should’ve happened a good while ago.

Felicio did spend the entirety of his NBA career with the Bulls prior to getting this contact with Ulm. He played for the Bulls over the course of bits and pieces of six seasons. And during that time, Felicio averaged 4.3 points per game, 3.9 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.2 blocks.

Getting Felicio off of the books is a day that Bulls fans have waited for a long time. The Bulls do have more cap space to effectively utilize now, and an extra valuable spot in the frontcourt rotation.

Karnisovas and the Bulls have already added the likes of star center Nikola Vucevic, center Tony Bradley, and star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan (likely to start at the three or the four next season), to round out this new forward/center rotation. And there’s likely more moves on the way to round out this rotation for Donovan heading into next season.

Felicio taking his talents overseas to Germany marks the end of a weird era for the Bulls. It was one where Felicio actually got nearly two dozen starts since 2016, and where he became one of the more inept big men in the Central Division in that time.