Chicago Bulls lucky they didn’t re-sign Luol Deng

Before the Chicago Bulls decided to trade Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers last season, they offered the forward a three-year, $30 million dollar contract.

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While not exactly insulting, it was far too cheap for Deng who quickly rejected the deal. Not wanting to lose the veteran for nothing, the Bulls ended up moving on and according to Nate Duncan are ‘lucky’ Deng didn’t accept their contract offer.

"While the Bulls’ 3/$30 offer to Deng was viewed as insulting, in retrospect they are lucky he didn’t take it."

Why is that you ask? Well, if the the Chicago Bulls still had Deng’s $10 million dollar on their salary cap they couldn’t have made some of their big offseason moves like signing Pau Gasol or Nikola Mirotic. In fact, it’s very possible the Chicago Bulls aren’t in the position to draft Doug McDermott either as first-round pick salaries are guaranteed.

The Chicago Bulls have shown a reluctance to put themselves in the NBA’s luxury tax and much of their offseason couldn’t have been completed without doing so had they kept Luol Deng around.

Deng certainly played well during his tenure with the Bulls but it seems as if Chicago dodged a bullet when he turned down their contract offer.

Luol Deng signed a two-year, $20 million dollar with the Miami Heat this offseason.

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