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.
2. DeMar DeRozan ($28.6 million)
It might seem ridiculous to call a player being paid nearly $30 million a year underpaid, but with the big money being tossed around these days, signing DeMar DeRozan has proven to be an extremely good deal for the Bulls. Any team in the league would be happy to shell out that price tag if they knew they were going to get an All-NBA caliber player in return.
Since joining the Bulls, DeRozan has played arguably the best basketball of his entire career. Despite already having a dozen seasons of experience under his belt, DeMar has turned it up to average 26.4 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds per game over the last two years.
DeMar DeRozan provides star-level production for the Bulls on a discount.
His play has even earned him two All-Star selections with Chicago and even an All-NBA Second Team nomination, making him just the fifth Bulls player to be named to an All-NBA Team this century. Considering this, DeMar has to be considered one of the league’s most elite talents, whether the media wants to give him credit for that or not.
Although he may be one of the NBA’s best players, DeMar isn’t paid like he’s one. Despite being a top-30 player (at worst), he’s only the 46th-highest-paid player. Many of the players below him are due massive extensions once their rookie deals expire, so DeRozan will soon fall out of the top 50 before we know it. To us, $28.6 million is a life-changing amount of money. To the Bulls, however, $28.6 million is a bargain for a talent such as DeMar.
1. Alex Caruso ($9.5 million)
In the summer of 2021, the Chicago Bulls had arguably their most aggressive offseason in franchise history by dealing away their former young core to acquire players that could support All-Stars Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic in an effort to win now. Some of those moves were lauded, like signing Lonzo Ball. Some were critiqued, such as signing DeRozan. But the one that went under the radar most was inking Alex Caruso to a four-year deal on the Mid-Level Exception.
At the time, I imagine the front office hoped Caruso could be a complementary role player. I doubt they ever expected Caruso would become an All-Defense First Team talent. As one of the best point-of-attack defenders we’ve seen in the last decade, Caruso has dominated on the court and on paper, leading guards in just about every defensive advanced metric there is.
The Bulls’ Alex Caruso just might be one of the NBA’s most underpaid role players.
This deal looked great at the time it was signed, but with the increasing value of role players all around the league, it has only aged better and better as time has progressed. This summer alone, we’ve seen less productive (or at the very least, similarly talented) guards such as Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Austin Reaves, Donte DiVincenzo, and Dennis Schroder get paid significantly more money than Caruso signed for in 2021.
For this reason, it’s no surprise there’s been high demand among contenders for Caruso on the trade market. Fortunately, Chicago’s asking price for the guard has remained exorbitantly high, so we should see the fan favorite back out there on the court for the Bulls again next season. If the front office ever did decide to blow things up, however, Caruso would be an invaluable asset to kickstart a potential rebuild.