No, the Bulls should not sign Jeff Teague this season

Coming out of the All-Star Break, most of the discussion surrounding the roster movement for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls concerns the buyout market. But there are still some pitches for the Bulls concerning veterans that were already available on the free agent market ahead of the trade deadline back on Feb. 10.

An opinion piece from Ben Stinar of SI Fan Nation this week noted how the Bulls and Phoenix Suns should be two teams to pursue the veteran former Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks point guard Jeff Teague. It looks like Stinar thinks that Teague could provide value coming off the bench to a respective postseason contender in each conference with the Bulls and Suns.

On the surface, there at least looks to be a decent argument for the Bulls to sign a veteran free agent point guard such as Teague.

And given the fact that the Bulls just missed out on the former Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors veteran point guard Goran Dragic to the Brooklyn Nets, you would think this front office could ponder Teague as a free agent target now. But there are flaws to this idea.

Stinar notes how the Bulls should pursue Teague since they could use the added backcourt depth and veteran voice in the locker room down the stretch this season. He notes how the absences of point guards Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball have created a void that Teague could help fill.

It doesn’t make much sense for the Chicago Bulls to go after Jeff Teague

Yet, it won’t be all that long before the Bulls get Caruso and Lonzo back in the rotation. And in the meantime, rookie point guard Ayo Dosunmu and third-year point guard Coby White are filling in admirably in bigger roles with those two out.

If the Bulls are going to sign a free agent to help get more backcourt depth at this point of the season, it should be with someone more solidified at this point of their career than Teague. It would also be preferable to see someone that has a better defensive prowess than Teague come to Chicago to help this backcourt unit.

It feels like the Bulls could go after someone such as Tomas Satoransky, Eric Bledsoe, and/or Kent Bazemore at this point of the season if they want to add backcourt/wing help off the buyout market. That also assumes those potential buyout market targets are waived by their various teams in the near future.

However, there is one final reason to wrap up this argument as to why it doesn’t really make sense for the Bulls to sign Teague this season. The Bulls need someone that just plays more efficient two-way basketball playing at the one than Teague. Last season, Teague registered a -23.2 on/off-court plus/minus per 100 possessions with the Bucks in the playoffs. He was also well into the negative in that same metric with the Bucks during the regular season.

That’s not really the type of two-way efficiency that the Bulls are looking for coming off the bench for the remainder of this season.

Donovan and the Bulls are set to host the Hawks at home at the United Center on Feb. 24 in their first game coming out of the All-Star Break. The Bulls will be looking to move their five-game winning streak to six in this meeting with the Hawks.