3 Chicago Bulls players that won’t be brought back next season

2. Marko Simonovic

I know, this one may come as a bit of a surprise. After all, it’s pretty easy to forget that Marko Simonovic is even on the Bulls roster at all. In the three seasons that have passed since being drafted 44th overall in the 2020 NBA Draft, Simonovic has only played a minuscule 16 games and 55 total minutes.

Despite being named to the 2022 All-Summer League Second Team before the regular season tipped off, Marko was unable to convey that momentum to earn a spot in the rotation. He was only allowed to play in excess of three garbage time minutes just once this year, in the season finale against Detroit.

In eight minutes, Simonovic was largely ineffective, shooting 1-for-3 from the field and reeling in just one rebound. He also committed three fouls in that span, indicating he’s probably still not ready to defend big men at the NBA level.

Marko Simonovic hasn’t shown enough on the court to justify the Chicago Bulls’ patience with his development.

To put things into perspective here, Simonovic was fifth in the depth chart at center behind Nikola Vucevic, a one-dimensional Andre Drummond, a player who isn’t even a center in Derrick Jones Jr., and a player who was cut from the roster in Tony Bradley. If Marko can’t get minutes over these players after three seasons in the NBA, is it really realistic to expect that he’ll ever be able to?

After making $1.56 million this season, Simonovic is on the payroll for $1.83 million next season before hitting free agency in the summer of 2024. However, his deal is structured to be completely unguaranteed, meaning the Bulls have the option to cut Simonovic at no cost this summer.

If the front office is serious about keeping this team in a state to win games, moving on from Simonovic and finding a quality role player to replace his roster spot has to be on the front office’s offseason checklist.