NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Bulls have made their 2023-24 roster officially official. Set to begin their regular season against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, the team’s 15-man unit looks nearly identical to last year’s group.
The only new faces on the roster are Jevon Carter, Torrey Craig, and Julian Phillips. Carter and Craig were both free-agent veteran additions who are expected to immediately play significant minutes off the bench. As for Phillips, the organization traded into the 2023 NBA Draft to select him with the No. 35 pick. A road to consistent minutes for the 19-year-old is unclear, but he showed flashes of his elite athleticism with some jaw-dropping dunks in the preseason.
Chicago has also made some changes to their two-way contracts, adding both undrafted free-agent Adama Sanogo and overseas sharpshooter Onuralp Bitim. With the NBA’s new CBA now allowing three two-way players on each roster, Sanogo and Bitim will join 2022 UDFA Justin Lewis in splitting time between the G-League and the pros
Here’s a look at the complete roster:
As things currently stand the Chicago Bulls will have a clean bill of health – minus Lonzo Ball, of course – for their home opening matchup with the Thunder. Andre Drummond (personal) and Zach LaVine (illness) both sat out the team’s last preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves but are expected to be in the rotation to tip off the year.
Anyway, with the roster now set, I thought this would be a good time to briefly map out what this group is costing ownership. The chart below will show each full-time player’s 2023-24 salary, as well as how close the franchise is to the luxury tax …
| Zach LaVine | $40,064,220 |
| DeMar DeRozan | $28,600,000 |
| Nikola Vucevic | $18,518,519 |
| Coby White | $11,111,111 |
| Patrick Williams | $9,835,881 |
| Alex Caruso | $9,460,000 |
| Ayo Dosunmu | $6,481,481 |
| Jevon Carter | $6,190,476 |
| Andre Drummond | $3,360,000 |
| Dalen Terry | $3,350,760 |
| Torrey Craig | $2,528,233 |
| Julian Phillips | $1,600,000 |
| Lonzo Ball | $20,465,117 |
| Terry Taylor | $2,019,706 |
| OPEN ROSTER SPOT | — |
| Bulls’ Total Payroll | $163,765,504 |
| NBA’s Luxury tax threshold | $165,294,000 |
| Bulls’ Tax Space | $1,528,496 |
Waiving Carlik Jones’ non-guaranteed contract last week confirmed that the Chicago Bulls would head into the season under the luxury tax. This also means they currently have just 14 of their 15 roster spots full. While this leaves them an avenue to sign a player to a position of need later on, we should also remember that … um … this is the Chicago Bulls we’re talking about!
The organization avoids the luxury tax harder than my sophomore homecoming date avoided me at the dance (as you can tell, I’m totally over it). But, on the off chance that ownership does write a check, we should note that Chicago is hard-capped. This means they can not exceed the $172,346,000 mark, which gives the Chicago Bulls approximately $8.6 million in wiggle room right now.
Chicago has a $10.2 million Disabled Player Exception due to the Lonzo Ball injury, as well as roughly $6.0 million remaining from the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. They could use either one of these pots to add a player and go over the tax. However, the DPE has some very specific rules, which we mapped out in detail here.
Again, the chance of the Chicago Bulls ending the season over the tax feels extremely slim (just based on precedent), but this is also why the February trade deadline will be fascinating. Considering how close the team is, if they are doing well and want to add anyone of real value, they’ll almost certainly have to pay the price. Would that only give them more incentive to, instead, sell off and look to retool? I guess we’ll find out.
