According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Andre Drummond has picked up his player option for the 2022-23 season and will remain with the Chicago Bulls. The option is worth $3.36 million. Drummond will return to Chicago to presumably back up Nikola Vucevic, who just signed a three-year, $60 million contract extension with the Bulls.
This news conflicts with a previous report from Marc Stein, who noted that Drummond was expected to sign with the Dallas Mavericks at the start of free agency. However, in an update he posted to Twitter, Stein noted that Dallas’ pursuit of Drummond was contingent on another trade going through.
Ultimately, the veteran big man will stay with the Bulls, which has supposedly been his plan for a while. He said as much on a podcast appearance back at the beginning of June.
Andre Drummond has exercised his $3.36M option to return to the Chicago Bulls, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 29, 2023
During an appearance on I AM AN ATHLETE’s podcast, “Paper Route,” Drummond stated that he planned to pick up his player option and return to the Bulls, which is what he ended up doing.
With Drummond on board, the Bulls now have both him and Vucevic to run their center position, but there’s still plenty of work to do this summer if they hope to bounce back and make the playoffs next year.
Chicago needs to address their need at the point guard position, as well as their need for three-point shooting. Lonzo Ball helped solve both of these issues, but he is slated to miss the entirety of next year.
With free agency inching closer, things should get busy for Chicago.
