At the moment, the Chicago Bulls are in the midst of a fiercely competitive playoff positioning battle in the Eastern Conference.
Sitting at the fifth seed, the Bulls have the opportunity to avoid the play-in tournament on Tuesday, should they beat the Milwaukee Bucks or the Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the Orlando Magic.
As the Bulls prep for a playoff run, they are finalizing their roster by bolstering their depth in a certain area.
On Sunday evening, the Bulls finally chose to recall big man Marko Simonovic from the Windy City Bulls of the G League. Simonovic, a second-round pick back in 2020, has hardly played in his first two years with the franchise.
Marko Simonovic gives the Bulls a versatile option in their front court going into the playoffs.
This season, with the Windy City Bulls, Simonovic has averaged 17.0 points on 53 percent shooting, including 27 percent from three-point range. He’s also averaged 9.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 0.8 steals per game.
Simonovic dressed for nine games earlier in the season when the Bulls were ravaged by injuries, but only played roughly four minutes on average. Now, he’ll get the chance to help the Bulls as they make a push for Eastern Conference supremacy once again, just as they did early on in the season.
Although he may not play a whole lot, Simonovic could be a better bench option than Tony Bradley, who doesn’t offer much offensively and has been very soft on the defensive end this season.
Simonovic gives the Bulls a pick-and-pop shooting option who has range as far out as 18-20 feet and can occasionally knock down the three. He’s also accustomed to performing well in the pick-and-roll.
For the Bulls, they need an extra scoring option in their front court. As Patrick Williams gets adjusted, the Bulls’ only real offensive option in their front court is Nikola Vucevic. Should Simonovic get his opportunity, he could provide some scoring relief off the bench.
We’ll see if he gets any significant playing time in the near future, but for now, he will at least give the Bulls some insurance going forward.
