Happy Opening Night!
While the Bulls open up tomorrow night in New Orleans, the league tips off its new season tonight with the Knicks visiting the Celtics for banner night followed by the Timberwolves and Lakers in the nightcap in Los Angeles.
Let’s get to some bullets as we get ready to start the new season.
Bulls Bullets
- The NBA’s rookie extension deadline for the 2021 draft class came and went Monday. Unsurprisingly, no deal got done with the Bulls and Josh Giddey but several others got to the finish line around the NBA including a historic one between Jalen Green and the Rockets.
- Green became the first NBA player to get a nine-figure deal on a 2-plus-1 extension. So Green gets $32 million in 2025-26, $35 million in 2026-27, and has a player option for nearly $38 million in 2027-28. So if all goes well, Green can hit unrestricted free agency at the age of 25 and potentially be in line for a massive payday. Via Shams Charania, Green’s three-year deal provides him with not only financial flexibility in the short term but also the ability to earn more than $240 million total over the next five years.
- The Rockets weren’t done yesterday! They also came to an agreement with center Alperen Sengun on a new five-year, $185 million deal with a player option for the final season. Sengun had a phenomenal 2023-24 campaign before an ankle injury ended his season early. He finished third for Most Improved Player and was even getting some attention as a potential All-Star. Sengun averaged 21.1 PPG, 9.3 RPG, and 5.0 APG last season joining just Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, and Julius Randle as the only players in the NBA to do so.
- A few more rookie extension deals got done prior to Monday evening’s deadline as well. Jalen Suggs signed a five-year, $150 million deal with the Orlando Magic, and Jalen Johnson also inked a five-year, $150 million contract with the Atlanta Hawks.
- One deal that got done yesterday that wasn’t a rookie extension was Aaron Gordon with the Denver Nuggets. Gordon agreed to a four-year, $133 million deal keeping Denver’s 2023 championship core in place for the long term. The deal included Gordon opting into his $23 million salary for the 2025-26 season, and then adding three years of his max salary through 2028-29. However, Gordon does have a player option for 2028-29.
- Josh Giddey and the Bulls didn’t get a deal done yesterday, but that didn’t come as much of a surprise. The Bulls have a recent history of letting rookie deals go into restricted free agency as we saw with Coby White, Patrick Williams, and Lauri Markkanen. I went further in depth as to why no deal getting done wasn’t a surprise, or really a big deal in the long run. Expect Giddey and Chicago to get a deal done in the offseason unless something goes terribly wrong this season.
- Billy Donovan appeared on the Mully & Haugh show this morning to preview the season a bit. He talked about how he plans to handle the Bulls rotations and guard-heavy roster. Essentially he wants to play fast and keep an up-tempo pace which will allow him to expand his rotation from nine to 10 and rotate players in and out a little more often. Donovan also discussed his plan for Lonzo Ball and how he’ll factor in.
- As mentioned above, the Lakers begin their season tonight with a matchup at home against the Timberwolves. That means the debut of Bronny James and history being made with the first father-son duo sharing the court in NBA history. This morning on ESPN, NBA Insider Brian Windhorst said to keep an eye on the beginning of the second quarter for when that moment might happen. When Windhorst speaks on LeBron James, he’s usually got some information so if that’s something you want to see be sure to have the Lakers game fired up when the second quarter comes around.
- Not so great news for WNBA fans. The WNBA Players Association opted out of the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement on Monday which means a new one will need to be negotiated. The league took a massive step forward in ratings, attendance, revenue, and attention this season and the players want their cut. It’s still early and there’s a lot of time until next season tips off, but this situation seems like there might not be a quick resolution. Hopefully it doesn’t result in a lockout, but last season’s massive positive spikes in attention changed a lot of things for everyone involved. It would really be a bummer if one year after this jump in momentum the league had a work stoppage, but I also can’t blame the players at all for wanting to increase their share.
- Come to our Bears watch party on Sunday, November 3rd at Jefferson Tap! The Bears will be on the road to take on the Cardinals in Arizona. We’ll have a whole bunch of free stuff, and everyone loves free stuff. No Bulls game that night either. Come on out, hang with us, and watch some football for a Sunday Funday.