The Chicago Bulls finally fired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley. Next on the franchise cleaning list is sweeping a handful of unrestricted free agents out the front door.
Guards Anfernee Simons and Collin Sexton, forward Guerschon Yabusele and centers Nick Richards and Zach Collins must follow Karnisovas and Eversley out of the Windy City this summer.
That quintet of veteran role players shouldn't be in the plans of an organization that seems, at long last, mercifully, committed to a rebuild.
5 free agents the Bulls must let walk this summer
These aren't the only decisions new leadership will have to make this offseason. But the roster needs to be pruned, and these guys are the most obvious unnecessary branches.
Anfernee Simons
Simons came to Chicago in the trade that sent Nikola Vucevic to Boston.
The 26-year-old is a combo guard who leans more toward scoring than passing. From 2023-2025, Simons averaged 20.7 points and 4.7 assists while shooting 37.4 percent from 3-point range on 8.8 attempts per game with the Portland Trail Blazers.
He fell back into a sixth-man role in Boston, but only played six games after arriving in Chicago before being shut down with a wrist injury. The Bulls don't need another score-first playmaker who can't defend.
Collin Sexton
Sexton was pleasantly productive in Chicago. Acquired from the Charlotte Hornets in the Coby White trade, he averaged 17.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals across 25 games. He shot 48.1 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from three.
At 27 years old, though, Sexton doesn't necessarily fit the Bulls' timeline.
If he'd accept a team-friendly deal and a role off the bench, Chicago shouldn't slam the door shut on a return.
Guerschon Yabusele
Yabusele waived his $5.8 million player option for 2026-27 to move from New York to Chicago, where he was serviceable. Out of necessity, Billy Donovan often played him out of position as a small-ball center.
The 30-year-old averaged 10.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game across 26 contests while connecting on 38.3 percent of his 3-point tries. Yabusele may have better luck returning to Europe.
Nick Richards
Karnisovas made a(nother) blunder in re-routing Ousmane Dieng, whom the Bulls received in the White deal, to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Richards. The Bulls had no healthy centers on the roster, so maybe Richards was an immediate necessity.
But those kinds of short-sighted moves helped cost Karnisovas his job.
While Dieng flashed potential in Milwaukee, Richards, a journeyman third-string center, averaged a meh 9.4 points and 7.6 rebounds in Chicago.
Zach Collins
Maybe more than any other player on this list, Collins is a candidate to return to the Windy City. When healthy, the 28-year-old is one of the more useful reserve centers in the league.
But Collins often finds himself sidelined with some kind of injury — he played just 10 games for the Bulls this season due to a sprained toe that required surgery.
On a minimum-salary deal, he wouldn't be a bad option as break-glass-in-case-of-emergency frontcourt depth. Chicago needs that, and Collins won't find himself in demand this summer.