NEWSLETTER
Fortunately for all of us, basketball is basically a never-ending sport.
The gameplay might come to a close mid-June, but with the NBA Draft and then free agency, the league is always running full force. Teams use both of these processes to become more familiar with the way their roster will look down the road, but one of the next, key steps toward a new season is NBA Summer League, where unproven NBA talents young and old alike take the court to try and prove their worth.
In the Bulls case specifically, that means we will all get our first look at new draft picks Coby White and Daniel Gafford.
Technically, Summer League began yesterday (July 1) for some teams in Salt Lake City and Sacramento; however, the main event that will feature all 30 NBA teams, the Las Vegas Summer League, tips-off later this week on the 5th.
If you’re unfamiliar with how the league usually works and want a look at the Bulls upcoming schedule, make sure to check out our previous article where we walk you through all of that.
Nevertheless, what most people really care about heading into Summer League play isn’t who their team is matching up against, but rather who will be putting on their team’s uniform.
The Bulls roster isn’t set by any means, but we do have an idea of at least some players we will be seeing later this week.
Right now the Bulls are looking at the following roster, per HoopsHype:
Comparatively, the Bulls have one of the smaller Summer League rosters as of today. Of course, this number will increase over the next couple days as the team will continue to add players they’re interested in evaluating or getting back on the court. For example, Townes, the Loyola standout, was reportedly added to the Summer League roster by the Chicago Tribune’s Shannon Ryan just earlier today. Not to mention, the team also just signed Frenchman Adam Mokoka to a two-way contract, so it could make sense for him to join this team’s roster shortly, too.
The Windy City Bulls G-League team shared a lot of back-and-forth players (two-way contracts) with the Bulls last season, so it wouldn’t be shocking if the team decided to take a look at any of these players future.
Also, plenty of undrafted free agents will continue to float around, and considering the Bulls worked out right around 60 players that qualified for a late second-round or UDFA title, there are some options with which the organization is already familiar.
I decided to look through every player the Bulls brought in for their pre-draft workouts and pull out who remains undrafted or NOT on an NBA Summer League team (I don’t know why I put myself through this, but I found it interesting):
The bolded players represent guys the Bulls have worked out and remain available.
With that said, it’s totally possible none of these guys end up on the Bulls roster for Summer League, BUT Happ, Simon and Hall were all worked out by the team before being added to the roster… so it clearly means something.
Only three days remain before the Bulls take the court, so we’ll keep our eyes out for new names added to the list. Remember, if you’re interested in seeing Coby White in action (which you are), Chicago faces off against the Lakers first at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.
