NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Bulls have possibly filled their final roster spot. Well over a month into free agency, the organization has announced the return of forward Terry Taylor. The 23-year-old who is entering his third year in the NBA first joined the franchise midway through the 2022-23 season. Beginning his career with the Indiana Pacers, they waived Taylor before the Bulls swiftly gave him Malcolm Hill’s two-way contract slot.
Heading into this offseason, Chicago’s interest in keeping Taylor around was clear from the beginning. The front office extended qualifying offers to Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, and Taylor. All are now in line to return for the 2023-24 season.
While I guess there is a slim chance this is a training camp deal, all signs point to Taylor receiving a full-time slot (the contract details have yet to be released). And, well, that catches me off guard! Taylor has just 64 NBA games under his belt thus far and appeared in only five total games for the Bulls last season.
All things considered, he felt like the kind of player that would have to prove himself on a two-way deal, yet again, this season. With Justin Lewis, Adama Sanogo, and Onuralp Bitim currently taking up the team’s three two-way slots, however, I guess the Bulls wanted to ensure Taylor remained in the mix and handed him that 14th roster spot.
As surprised as I am with the decision, I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad one. Underwhelming? Sure. But at least Terry Taylor is a 23-year-old who has shown some interesting flashes. I like the level of physicality he brings to the floor, and he did shoot an eye-popping 61.4 percent from the field over his 33 games with Indiana in 2021-22. He may have a lot of work to do when it comes to proving he belongs on an NBA roster, but he possesses a big 230-pound frame that can help on the glass and with scoring inside.
We’ve seen this front office have a liking for undersized, multi-positional players, and Taylor undoubtedly fits that mold. He’s only six-foot-four but has clocked the majority of minutes during his career in the frontcourt. I suppose there is potential there for him to fill the small-ball roll-man and second-chance points role that we saw guys like Derrick Jones Jr. and Javonte Green succeed in the past couple of years.
For what it’s worth, Taylor has consistently dominated at the G-League level. He’s averaged 23.0 points and 11.3 rebounds over his 12 regular season games. He also showed more promise when it came to expanding his range, shooting 38.0 percent on 4.2 attempts per game.
The Chicago Bulls do, technically, have a full 15-man roster now, but the decision to fully guarantee Carlik Jones’ contract still looms. Assuming they let him walk, it’s still possible they head into the year with only 14 men to dodge the luxury tax. We’ll see. I’ll also try to get a post out later this week on where the cap sheet stands after we get an idea of what Terry Taylor’s contract might look like.
