Chicago Bulls: Roster predictions for 2018-19 NBA season

Players on the bubble

Justin Holiday signed a two-year deal during the offseason and proceeded to post career highs across the board in points (12.2 per contest) rebounds (4.0) and assists (2.1).

As was the case with Lopez, Holiday saw his minutes fall off a bit during the second half of the season and like Lopez, he accepted the role without much fanfare. His $4.4 million option for next year isn’t too big of a cap hit, but he could become expendable should the Bulls select a wing player in the upcoming draft.

Jerian Grant started off the season as the lead point guard only to have Dunn return to the lineup and establish himself as the team’s starting point guard of the future. In addition to that, Paxson went on record stating that he feels good about going into next season with Dunn as the starter and Payne as the backup.

I found that statement to be somewhat surprising being that Grant’s averages (8.4 points and 4.6 assists per contest on 41.6 percent shooting) are very similar to Payne’s numbers. Considering that he played well coming off the bench and posted a respectable 3.84 assist-to-turnover ratio — the fifth-best mark in the association — it’s difficult to foresee a scenario where Grant would want to be the third point guard on the roster, but only time will tell.

Paul Zipser, who played well enough to earn some minutes off the bench last season, has taken a step back. With the exception of 3-point shooting, which remained steady at the 33 percent mark, Zipser’s numbers were down across the board in Year 2. In a scenario similar to Holiday, Zipser easily becomes expendable should the Bulls land a 3-and-D player in the draft.

Noah Vonleh, who was a late-season pickup, played reasonably well, posting averages of 6.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. But with Markkanen and Portis occupying most of the minutes at the 4-spot, the odds of Vonleh seeing significant minutes next season are very slim.

The last guy on the list is Sean Kilpatrick, who was another late-season acquisition. Following stints with the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks, few knew what to expect from a guy who would be playing on his fourth team within the same season.

In just nine appearances, Kilpatrick averaged 15.4 points and 2.8 rebounds on 43.9 percent shooting and 39.6 percent from 3-point range. On the positive side, SP picked up the offense relatively quickly and proved to be a capable scoring option off the bench. On the flip side, the small sample size of games may not warrant much consideration from the front office.

Next: Full two-round 2018 NBA Mock Draft

All in all, the Bulls will not have a major roster overhaul going into next season. With that being said, it will be interesting to see what positions they address in the draft and if they will be major players during the free agency period.