3 free agents with ties to Billy Donovan the Bulls could sign

1. Jerami Grant

I’ll admit it, this one is a swing for the fences here. After being paid $20.9 million this past season and excelling as a third option on offense, Jerami Grant did a lot to prove to the doubters that he can maintain a high level of production while not necessarily being ‘the guy’ like he was back in Detroit.

Grant averaged 20.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while shooting an outstanding 40.1% from deep (the first time he’s ever crossed the 40% threshold) this past season. When used properly on a team with outstanding spacing like the Trail Blazers, it should come as no surprise that Grant proved he can be an elite 3-and-D talent.

Back in 2021, Grant was a heavily rumored trade target for the Bulls. The only issue was that the alleged asking price was second-year forward Patrick Williams. Having not seen what Pat had to offer yet, I can fully understand why the front office was hesitant to make a deal. With the benefit of hindsight, however, we can see that Grant’s tenure with the Pistons was not a fluke and he is indeed a substantially better player than Williams at this moment in time.

The Bulls may get another chance at bringing Jerami Grant aboard this summer.

Whether or not the Bulls would have reached their ceiling and competed for a title with Grant on the roster instead is definitely difficult to say for certain, but they would have absolutely been a better team these past two years. Fortunately, they may get another chance this summer, as Grant is set to become an unrestricted free agent.

That being said, while adding Grant to the roster may no longer cost the developing Williams, it would still come with a heavy price tag. Jerami has no doubt played himself out of Chicago’s price range at this point, so this move would necessitate a sign-and-trade, much like how the Bulls acquired DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball in 2021.

This could mean the Bulls flip an accomplished player like DeRozan or Vucevic to a contender, or may mean Chicago allocates some of their young talent and assets to another team. As I said earlier, it’s a stretch, but there aren’t many players out there on the market better than Jerami Grant. Having already played very well under Donovan in the past, we can’t rule it out until all is said and done.