DeMar DeRozan says he wants to ‘end my career’ as a Bull. But would a 4-year extension be the right move for the team?
CHICAGO — Less than a week before the Bulls gather in Nashville, Tenn., for training camp, DeMar DeRozan reiterated his commitment to remain in Chicago — potentially for the rest of his career.
In an interview with Sportskeeda’s Mark Medina this week, DeRozan said he hopes to retire as a Bull.
“That’s a place I want to be and end my career,” DeRozan said. “I want to be able to accomplish everything I’ve set out to accomplish. That’s all I can worry about and control. I have the utmost confidence in myself.
“I’ll let my agent and the organization deal with that side of things, to be honest, man. From their standpoint, they want me to be there long term and vice versa. We’ll see what happens from there.”
This season marks a critical turning point for the Bulls and DeRozan, who is in the third and final year of his initial $82 million contract. Once that contract expires, DeRozan will be eligible for a four-year extension worth about $179 million.
It would be a big commitment for the Bulls as they seek to answer this question: Is it worth it to keep DeRozan in Chicago?
DeRozan has been a clear leader on and off the court for the Bulls, averaging 26.2 points, five assists and 4.9 rebounds to earn back-to-back All-Star selections. His leadership has been a key to setting the locker-room culture, especially in the guidance of young players Patrick Williams, Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White.
Throughout his tenure in Chicago, DeRozan has been vocal about wanting to remain a Bull. And a four-year extension would keep him in Chicago until he’s 38, making his aspirations of retiring with the team realistic.
But despite the six-time All-Star’s impact on the Bulls, it’s not clear if retaining him would be the correct move to turn the team into a consistent playoff contender.
The pieces haven’t clicked together for a Bulls roster built around DeRozan and Zach LaVine. They missed the playoffs last season — losing the second game of the play-in tournament to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat — after crashing out of a first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2022.
That could change this season as the Bulls again opted to stick with continuity on a relatively untouched roster.
DeRozan told Sportskeeda that people suggesting the Bulls should tear down and rebuild “really don’t understand basketball at all.”
“There’s no telling how long that route is going to even last,” he said. “That route doesn’t necessarily always work in a timely fashion that you may think it will take. With that, it’s hard to find and create talented players like the players that we already have assembled.”
He said correcting mistakes could have changed the outcome in “10 to 15 games” last season.
“That changes the whole dynamic of everything,” he said. “It’s always easy when something goes bad just to say, ‘Scratch it.’ But you really don’t know where you’ll end up from there. So when I hear people say that, it lets me know and understand that they don’t understand basketball at all.
“From my standpoint, you just control what you can control. That’s going out there, working your butt off, being a leader and understanding what needs to be corrected and go from there.”
Whether or not this group can work around DeRozan this season will be a make-or-break decision for the Bulls.
