The 3 most underpaid Bulls players in the 2023-24 season
With 17 roster spots filled for next season, the Chicago Bulls are all almost done making moves this offseason. Managing to add free agents Torrey Craig and Jevon Carter for cheap while retaining Nikola Vucevic, Coby White, and Ayo Dosunmu on long-term deals, I believe the Bulls have done as well as they could negotiating team-friendly deals that won’t hurt in the long-term.
But as happy as I may be with the deals signed this summer, the best deals on the team’s payroll have already been signed for quite some time now. In my opinion, the ink on the front office’s best contracts already dried up over a year ago.
The players on this list have already proven to produce at a high level for Chicago, especially relative to the amounts on their paychecks. Having already proven to be capable of outplaying their deals, I expect this trio of players to become an even better deal for the Bulls in a league where contracts are ballooning to exorbitant levels at an alarming rate.
These are the 3 most underpaid Chicago Bulls players ahead of next season.
3. Andre Drummond ($3.4 million)
Entering this offseason, I was always concerned about Andre Drummond‘s willingness to opt into his deal for the 2023-24 season. After Derrick Jones Jr. chose to decline his player option and search for greener pastures, that concern was only magnified. Fortunately, Drummond decided to return to Chicago and serve as one of the league’s best backup centers once again.
That isn’t a hyperbolic compliment either, as the advanced metrics all indicate Drummond was incredibly effective despite playing a career-low 12.7 minutes per game. Drummond posted a ridiculously high 29.6% rebounding percentage last year, which was not only the highest mark in the league but several percentage points, but was also the highest mark he’s ever achieved in the NBA — and he’s led the league in this stat a whopping six times.
Believe it or not, it’s entirely possible the Bulls win the play-in tournament if Drummond had been given a longer leash. Down 60-62 with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, he came in to help a Bulls team that was desperate to grab a rebound and helped push the Bulls to an 81-75 lead in just seven minutes of action. When he was subbed out with 8 minutes left in the game, the Heat would go on to crush Chicago on the boards and end the game on a 27-10 run.
Andre Drummond is inarguably better than any other player in the NBA at rebounding, and for that reason alone, I believe he’s an underpaid asset that can tilt the scales in close games.