Central Notes: Bulls, Griffin, Oladipo, Bucks

The Bulls will have to make decisions on three young players, including two 2016 lottery draft picks, when those players become eligible for restricted free agency during the 2020 offseason. Whether or not retaining Kris Dunn, Denzel Valentine, and Shaquille Harrison makes sense for Chicago’s new front office is up for some debate, per NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer.

Though the 26-year-old Dunn (the No. 5 pick out of Providence in 2016) is a strong defender, his awful shooting will limit his usefulness for the Bulls. Schaefer anticipates that Dunn will play out the 2020/21 season on his $7.1MM qualifying offer for the 2020/21 season without reaching a longer-term deal with the club.

Schaefer also expects Harrison to play out his significantly smaller minimum-salary qualifying offer. Schaefer is less optimistic about the Bulls keeping injury-prone Valentine (the No. 14 pick out of Michigan State in 2016), who has appeared in just 170 of 311 possible games across his four-year Bulls tenure.

There is more out of the Central Division:

  • For the underwhelming Pistons, a healthy Blake Griffin could fetch a better return on the trade market than center Andre Drummond was able to this season, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.
  • Kevin Pelton of ESPN details the ramifications of Pacers guard Victor Oladipo‘s decision to opt out of the NBA’s Orlando season restart. Aaron Holiday looks to absorb most of Oladipo’s minutes, and Pelton anticipates the point guard will start in the backcourt alongside Malcolm Brogdon. Brogdon recently tested positive for COVID-19, but he expects to join the team in Orlando once he recovers.
  • During the NBA’s season pause, the team with the best record employed creative outside-the-box thinking to stay active, per Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Nickel details the 53-12 Bucks‘ intriguing practices. “It’s been weird,” All-Star Khris Middleton told reporters in a conference call today. “Usually we’re all encouraging each other, talking to each other, joking around with one another, playing music.”
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