The Chicago Bulls currently sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with their 25-19 record, but many people see them as the biggest threat to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East. The Bulls have had plenty of issues to wade through this season, but one of them has been frontcourt playing time, as they had too many guys with not enough minutes to go around. Because of that, almost every frontcourt player was on the trading block including Pau Gasol. Since Joakim Noah's injury, the Bulls have had a complete change of heart and now have no plans to trade Gasol, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
Before Noah separated his shoulder, for the second time this season, and underwent season-ending surgery, the Bulls were reportedly quietly checking into deals for Gasol. Gasol is signed through next season with the Bulls, but it is a player option and Gasol has made it clear that he will opt out of that final year, which is worth about $7.8 million.
With Gasol set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, it made sense for the Bulls to see if they could get something for him before he walks away for nothing, but now the Bulls will reportedly try to re-sign him. Noah is also in the final year of his deal in Chicago, and he is fully expected to sign elsewhere this offseason, so the Bulls want to be able to at least retain Gasol so that they don't lose too much from this year's team.
Gasol signed with the Bulls before the 2014-15 season on a three-year $22 million deal, which, at the time, was a bargain and now looks like even more of a bargain, as he has been great for them. Gasol is having another very good season and could be headed to his second consecutive All-Star game with the Bulls, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that they want to retain him. The Bulls do consider Bobby Portis the center of the future, but he may not be ready for that big of a role next season, so signing Gasol to a short-term contract makes sense for them.
Despite the fact that Gasol will be 36 next season, he should garner plenty of interest on the free agent market, so it is no lock that he decides to re-sign in Chicago. Gasol took a bargain deal to come to Chicago last time around so that he had a good chance to win, but it is likely that he will want to cash in this time on what might be his final NBA contract.
