3 Chicago Bulls Who Won't Be Back Next Season

The Chicago Bulls took a big step back this season... 8 steps if you look at their win totals from last year's 39 (and a Play-In spot) to this year's 31. They finished no less than a DOZEN games back of even a mediocre Play-In berth.

It's back to the drawing board for the Bulls. Let's have a look at three players who won't (or shouldn't) be back with Chicago next season.

Anfernee Simons

Simons was a decent scorer in his years with the Portland Trail Blazers. He averaged 20 pts a game for his last three seasons there. But the trade to the Boston Celtics last summer left him with a suppressed role, and a downturn in his production. He only got into six games with the Bulls after coming over as part of the Nikola Vucevic trade.

Simons is now a free agent, and as Andrew Hanlon wrote in Pippen Ain't Easy, "The Bulls don't need another score-first playmaker who can't defend.

Patrick Williams

The Bulls have been waiting for Patrick Williams to step up and become an impact player for six years. It just hasn't happened. He bottomed out this season, averaging just seven points and three boards, while shooting just 34.7% from long range. All of those numbers were career lows. He still has two more years remaining on his contract, plus a player option for a third, at an $18M annual salary. You have to figure the new front office will do everything they can to move on from the former No. 4 overall pick (2020 NBA Draft).

Alan Goldsher makes a bold prediction in Chicago Sports Stuff that the Bulls will most likely 'waive & stretch' Williams and eat the remainder of his contract.

"The new front office regime didn’t draft Patrick Williams, nor did they overpay Patrick Williams, so they’ll have zero affinity for Patrick Williams, because Patrick Williams is terrible at basketball."

Guerschon Yabusele

As part of the Knicks/Bulls trade at the deadline, Yabusele made the surprising move of declining his 2026-27 player option, essentially throwing away $5.8 million. He'll now be a free agent, and there's speculation that he could return to the EuroLeague where he spent five seasons before coming back to the NBA in 2024. But the French power forward has said he wants to remain in the NBA, so he'll peddle his services this summer. He averaged 10.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 24.7 minutes a night in his 26 games with the Bulls. That could get him a deal somewhere. Just not likely in the Windy City. At 30 years old, he does not fit the timeline of a rebuilding team.