Bulls roll the dice on Otto Porter, make their free agency splash in February

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Keep your torches and pitchforks in the closet and delete your hashtags asking for the dismissal of two particular front-office members: On Wednesday the Bulls made a calculated risk and added a talented player who fits the timeline of their rebuild and did so without much downside.

The $56 million the Bulls will pay Otto Porter Jr., acquired in a deal with the Wizards, the next two seasons is a hefty figure, and it’ll scare off some fans who believe the Bulls overpaid for the small forward. That’s not entirely wrong, as Porter has struggled mightily in Year 2 of the contract extension he signed with Washington prior to the 2017-18 season. It’s a big contract. He’s now the highest paid player on the Bulls. He’ll turn 26 in 4 months, which doesn’t exactly make him a young part of the rebuild.

But Wednesday’s move was, in a sense, the Bulls spending in free agency. Prior to the trade they projected to have $47 million in cap space. But if past summers were any indication the Bulls weren’t going to have a seat at the table for the cream-of-the-crop free agents, and even guys like Tobias Harris and Khris Middleton seemed like long shots for a Bulls team that hasn’t made up much ground in Year 2 of their rebuild. So the Bulls went out and secured their own “free agent” by dealing for Porter, a lengthy wing who will immediately slot in at small forward, a position the Bulls have rotated players through since dealing Jimmy Butler two seasons ago.

Is he worth the money? Probably not. The Wizards haven’t exactly made the smartest financial decisions over the last three seasons, and even when Porter ranked third in 3-point field goal percentage last year he was still a hefty salary.

Does it matter that Porter isn’t worth the $56 million? Probably not. The Bulls understood they weren’t going to be players in free agency this summer, and the 2020 class isn’t exactly full of world-beaters. They’ll still have around $21 million to play with in cap space this summer, enough to continue working toward filling out a bench in desperate need of upgrades, in addition to the likely top-5 pick they’ll add in June.

Plus, Porter is an obvious bounce-back candidate. Washington has been an absolute mess this season, from Dwight Howard’s signing to John Wall’s injury to an ugly 22-31 record following a playoff appearance last season. It’s possible that Porter got sucked into the mess and struggled because of it, and the team randomly adding Trevor Ariza in December while sitting at 11-18 did him no favors.

He may not flirt with top-5 3-point field goal percentage like he did in 2017 and 2018, but a change of scenery playing without much expectations and around a young core might help. Don't forget that one short year ago Porter had a +11.2 net rating, a 58.1 effective field goal percentage, 1.5 steals and an 18.3 PER. Only Porter and Steph Curry had an eFG percentage of 58% or better and 1.5 steals per game. This came a year after he had an eFG of 60.8 percent, second to Nikola Jokic among players with 9 or more attempts per game.

There's potential here, even with the current down year he's having. The key to unlocking Porter will be a point guard who can get him the ball; for all Wall's faults and his outrageous contract, he was still one of the league's best passers and found Porter, who also got open looks as teams respected Bradley Beal on the perimeter.

There's also a hesitation that Porter improves the current Bulls. For a team playing for the most Lottery balls on May 14, the Bulls are now in better position to win games now than they were before the trade. Porter fills an immediate need – the Bulls were 23rd in defensive efficiency and last in 3-point makes per game entering Wednesday – and increases the talent level of the team.

The bench scoring will struggle but the defense will also improve by taking Bobby Portis and Jabari Parker out of the rotation. Yes, the Lottery odds have changed and there isn’t all that big a difference between the top-3 spots and Nos. 4 and 5. Still, the Bulls want as many chances at Zion Williamson as they can get.

Then again, Porter isn’t Anthony Davis. He might make the Bulls better, but they’re still six wins clear of the Atlanta Hawks; it’s almost guaranteed that the Bulls will have top-4 lottery odds, at worst, when May 14 rolls around.

Porter wasn’t free. Portis had been playing his best basketball, finally looking healthy after missing 23 games with a sprained MCL and seven more with a sprained ankle. But the Bulls were in a bit of a catch-22 with Portis: either he played so well that he priced himself out of Chicago, or he continued to struggle and the Bulls offered money to a sixth man coming off an injury-plagued season.

So the Bulls made their decision early. If they were going to move on from Portis, deciding not to give an eight-figure salary to a backup, they did so while using that money to add a starter in Porter on fewer years.

All that considered, the Bulls rolling the dice on a player who fills a need was one worth making. He’s expensive, but the Bulls weren’t going to convince a better player to come in free agency and they still have money to spend. They’ll (hopefully) be in better position in 2021 when Porter’s contract is up, and in a best-case scenario he re-finds his shot and there’s mutual interest in bringing him back.

That’s looking too far ahead, but for now the Bulls acquired a piece to the puzzle they needed and assured themselves an improved roster this offseason; it just so happened to occur during the season.

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