The Chicago Bulls, more likely than not, will be missing Lonzo Ball for the entirety of the 2023-24 season. The young floor general has suffered setback after setback after suffering an injury to his knee on January 2022, and he hasn't been able to return to action since. However, there is a silver lining to Ball's extended absence; the league has granted the Bulls' application for the Disabled Player Exception (DPE) worth $10.2 million.
Alas, there are no guarantees that the Bulls even use the entire exception. The team's ownership group rarely (if ever) dip into the luxury tax, and they couldn't even do that even if they tried after signing Jevon Carter using the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. They're hard-capped at around $172 million, and given how close they are to approaching that threshold, the list of targets they could pursue with that exception, should they even use it, may not be as extensive as fans would hope.
Moreover, the salary cap rules dictate that the Bulls can only acquire someone with one-year left on their deal (including option years) or sign a free agent to a one-year deal, limiting their targets even further.
Regardless of those restrictions, the Bulls should still be able to make use of the DPE to bolster the roster even further, preventing them from landing in the league's dreaded middle ground. Taking into account all their roster needs, here are the players the Bulls must pursue with the DPE.
Bulls trade targets without outgoing salary:
Thaddeus Young
Thaddeus Young may not be the player he was back when he donned a Chicago Bulls uniform during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. But just how bad could it be to bring back a familiar face to the Windy City?
Young has always been a fill in the gaps, do-it-all power forward, a versatile player with an underrated playmaking touch. But during his last season with the Bulls, his versatility reached new heights that fans haven't seen ever since the team dealt him away in the sign-and-trade that brought back DeMar DeRozan.
The now 35-year old veteran power forward averaged 12.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in his last go-round with the Bulls, even earning the nickname “Thagic Johnson” for his highlight-reel passing ability. Fans knew that bringing in DeRozan was a worthwhile thing to do, but that didn't mean that losing Young was something to celebrate.
Young is now two seasons removed from that, however, and is starting to slow down given his age. But perhaps the Bulls, should they strike a deal with the Toronto Raptors for his services, could bring out the best in him, given how comfortable he was in Billy Donovan's system back then.
