Chicago Bulls: 3 drastically underrated players ready to breakout

Drastically underrated Chicago Bulls players ready to breakout: Tony Bradley

Another newly signed Bulls’ big man that should bring a lot of value to the frontcourt unit for Donovan and his staff heading into next season is the former Oklahoma City Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers center Tony Bradley. As one of the earlier free agent signings of this offseason for Karnisovas and the Bulls, Bradley looks to get backup minutes at the five behind star center Nikola Vucevic.

Bradley has found himself playing for three different teams over the course of his four seasons in the NBA thus far. He spent bits and pieces of three seasons with the Utah Jazz to start his career in the league. And then, he split last season (with around 20 games a piece) between the Thunder and Sixers.

The Bulls could be a spot where Bradley is able to find a more consistent role than he held with any of his previous three teams.

Throughout the past two seasons, though, Bradley has found a good niche role for himself as a reserve center that can rebound and defend well while protecting the rim at a high level. The Bulls need that with a center like Vucevic that isn’t the most capable rim protector in the world. Bradley also is a more proven rim protector than either Vucevic or rookie big man Marko Simonovic.

Bradley usually averages around 13 rebounds per 36 minutes and 1.5 or two blocks. That is the type of production that the Bulls should expect to get out of him next season. But he can also be an effective scorer near the rim, as he averaged just north of 17 points per 36 minutes in his nearly two dozen games with the Thunder down the stretch last season.