Bulls forward Isaac Okoro enters another offseason of uncertainty

DALLAS – There’s a business of basketball that Isaac Okoro has become very accustomed to.

In his previous few seasons in Cleveland, the forward was seemingly a trade rumor several times a calendar year. February, his name was typically floating around at the deadline, and then of course during the summer months.

That was until rumor became reality for him last July, and the Bulls acquired him in the Lonzo Ball trade with the Cavaliers.

So with the regular season officially ending on Sunday for the veteran and the lottery-bound Bulls, it would seem like Okoro could finally put his feet up the next few months, focus on his game, knowing that he still has one year left on his current deal and the skills he brings to the team are highly regarded.

Think again.

With so much unknown around the franchise – including who will run the front office and if coach Billy Donovan will even stick around – Okoro knows he needs to be prepared for anything and going anywhere.

“Yeah, I think I’ll just control what I can control,” Okoro said. “I’ll go into the offseason and try to figure out how I can be a better player for next season. It’s the NBA, it’s the business, and I can be traded again somewhere. I love being here and I love the culture we’re trying to build, so I just have to try and control what I can control.

“But I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve only been traded one time, but in Cleveland come every offseason I felt like I could have been traded.”

Whoever takes over the front office duties will have a lot to digest with Okoro. He came over as almost a finishing piece to a roster that lacked a true wing defender and physicality. He did lead the Bulls in drawing charges with 14 (Coby White led them last season with three), but there was only so much he could do on the defensive end, especially when the roster was flipped at the trade deadline and all the new faces led to a lot of confusion night in and night out on that end of the floor.

Would he be better served as a finishing piece on a contender rather than a rebuild? Obviously, but do the Bulls want to keep him around to also help with the culture in doing the ugly things that need to be done?

That’s the wait-and-see.

“It was definitely a unique season, my most unique season yet,” Okoro said. “But it’s the NBA; you’re going to have guys that go down to injury, players moved, and that can’t be an excuse.

“There were games we should have won and didn’t. You can’t go back and think about, ‘Oh, we should have done this.’ You just got to be better.”

Summer fun

Noa Essengue has had a very uneventful rookie campaign, injuring his shoulder and having just six minutes on his NBA resume.

With season-ending surgery behind him, however, he’s hoping the business of basketball is about to pick up, cleared to start playing one-on-one and two-on-two in the next couple weeks. The goal is to get him up and running, ready for full contact and Summer League play by early July.

“I think it’s helped me to just understand the game,” Essengue said Sunday of all the down time. “When you’re on the bench you see a lot more than when you’re on the court.”

Sitting it out

The ankle injury suffered by Matas Buzelis late in the Orlando game did in fact keep him from finishing off his second year by playing the finale, but he still led the Bulls in games played this season with 77 and was third in average minutes played with 29.2 per game.