NEWSLETTER
And then there were four.
The Chicago Bulls have officially parted ways with undrafted free agent Ethan Thompson and second-year center Daniel Oturu, per NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer.
Bulls waived Ethan Thompson and Daniel Oturu today, per Billy Donovan. Donovan sounded hopeful both will stick around with Windy City Bulls during season.
— Rob Schaefer (@rob_schaef) October 11, 2021
The organization signed both Thompson and Oturu as training camp invites earlier this summer with two roster spots and one two-way contract spot open. Now, unless the team decides to look elsewhere last minutes, Alize Johnson, Stanley Johnson, Matt Thomas, and Tyler Cook will duke it out for three of the final four roster slots (Technically, Chicago could also leave a roster spot open to acquire a player later with their $5 million player exception from the Daniel Theis sign-and-trade).
As we discussed in Monday’s bullets, Alize feels like the best suited to be on the Bulls bench come opening night. The 25-year-old has done nothing but impress over his three games of action, displaying real potential as a small-ball five in Billy Donovan’s revamped system. Stanley Johnson and Matt Thomas have struggled to show as much, but the upside each possess as a specialist (Stanley on defense and Thomas behind the arc) could keep them around. Cook, on the other hand, might be on the outside looking in, as he’s seen only 12 total minutes of action this preseason.
We’ll now wait and see if Thompson and Oturu end up playing for another organization or stick around to be a part of the Windy City Bulls. Thompson, specifically, has been on this front office’s radar since Summer League, so I’d say his chances of playing in Hoffman Estates this season are pretty high.
