More details emerged on Friday in the evolving Chicago Bulls connection to restricted free agent wing Bennedict Mathurin. HoopHype’s Michael Scotto provided an expansive report on Mathurin’s free agency market in his Friday column.
Reporting on James Harden talks with the Cavaliers, Peyton Watson sign-and-trade discussions, five teams in the mix for Bennedict Mathurin, Timberwolves interest in Jonathan Kuminga, and roster crunches for the Grizzlies and the Hornets on @hoopshype. https://t.co/Nlll89fcq5
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) July 31, 2026
The Bulls are not alone in expressing interest in acquiring Mathurin, as the New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks are also connected to Mathurin in Scotto’s reporting.
With stiff competition emerging in the Bulls’ presumed effort to acquire Mathurin, an obvious Bulls disadvantage has been illuminated in their pursuit of Mathurin.
Mathurin’s market math
Both the Pelicans and Bucks have access to the larger non-taxpayer mid-level exception to acquire Mathurin, estimated at $15.04 million for the 2026-27 NBA season.
Conversely, because the Bulls are currently a cap space team, estimated to be $1.9 million under the 2026-27 NBA salary cap according to Spotrac, the Bulls only have access to the $9.37 million room mid-level exception as a salary avenue to acquire Mathurin.
Scotto also added noteworthy context in that the Pelicans are estimated to be $8.22 million below the 2026-27 NBA luxury tax, which implicates the strong possibility the Pelicans would also prefer to move additional salary to acquire Mathurin and not trigger luxury tax penalties.
The Bucks, similar to the Pelicans, are also estimated to be $8.08 million under the 2026-27 NBA luxury tax. However, the Bucks present an additional pole-position advantage over both the Bulls and Pelicans in the Mathurin free agency market as they hold a $25.46 million traded player-exception (TPE), according to Scotto.
Logically, if the Milwaukee Bucks were to trade forward Kyle Kuzma’s $20.49 million expiring salary, it would clear the way for the Bucks to use their full $25.46 TPE and avoid the salary-matching complexities in sign and trade transactions, such as the constraints created by base year compensation rules in the NBA/NBPA collective bargaining agreement.
The Bulls are playing in the wrong market
The Bulls should be positioning themselves as a facilitator to either the Pelicans or Bucks to help those franchises in their pursuit to acquire Mathurin, provided there is a reasonable amount of draft compensation sent to the Bulls for their services.
Obviously, the Bulls don’t have the salary cap exception advantage of either franchise, and it would be questionable front office wisdom to make a radical roster move this late in the offseason to create cap space to make a competitive free agency offer to Mathurin.
A more appropriate move if the Bulls can’t be a facilitator to a Mathurin sign and trade transaction is to simply cut bait and focus on developing the roster that’s already inside the Bulls’ building.
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