Who's ready for another round of restricted free agency? Didn't we have so much fun last time, folks? Why is everyone booing? Jokes aside, the Bulls probably are heading toward another grueling summer of negotiations with a backcourt player. Last summer it was Josh Giddey. This year it will likely be Jaden Ivey, who the Bulls recently acquired and who will be an RFA in the offseason.
This round of negotiations might actually be worse than the Giddey standoff. At least with Giddey, it was clear that both sides wanted to agree on a long-term contract (and they did, ending up at 4 years, $100 million). There was never any doubt that Giddey factored into the longterm plans of the Bulls after his breakout last year.
Ivey is still such a toss-up though. After returning this season from a broken fibula, he hasn't been the same player. Duh. Breaking your fibula will do that to a player.
But with such a serious injury, it's fair to question whether Ivey will ever get back to the player he was before missing so much time. When there's a question of what exactly a player provides hanging over restricted free agency negotiations, it throws a wrench in just about everything.
Jaden Ivey's free agency is a huge question mark
Right now, it's sort of impossible to gauge what Ivey's value is — and how the rest of the league sees him. Early in his career, he often played like Cade Cunningham's co-star in Detroit. A real franchise cornerstone!
If you told Pistons fans in 2024 that Ivey would eventually be part of a multi-guard trade that was essentially salary shedding for one team involved, they would have burned you at the stake.
But here we are. Is there anything Ivey can show in the second half of this year that makes the Bulls front office confident he should be signed to a longterm deal? Is there anything he can do to show that he shouldn't get a deal at all? If he averages 20 per game for the Bulls in an expanded role, do the Bulls throw the bag at him? If he can barely stay in the rotation, do they let him walk?
It's so tough to judge players returning from serious injury, and because of that, the Bulls are barrelling toward another long, drawn-out RFA saga this summer. Fun!