Following an impressive preseason stint, the Chicago Bulls are slated to promote Exhibit 10 training camp signing Talen Horton-Tucker to their 15-man standard roster, reports Jamal Collier of ESPN.
With openings on both their 15-man standard roster and their three two-way contracts, the Bulls had essentially been using their preseason to explore the viability of a few tantalizing prospects.
After cutting small forward Onuralp Bitim and big man Kenneth Lofton Jr. on Wednesday, Chicago was left with a pair of Illinois-born and bred prospects in Talen Horton-Tucker and E.J. Liddell. Though Horton-Tucker will be the Bulls' eighth rostered guard, he had seen far more run in the preseason than had Liddell, a 6-foot-7 power forward.
In his five preseason contests off the bench for Chicago, Horton-Tucker averaged 13.0 points on .418/.333/.750 shooting splits, 3.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 0.8 steals a night, during 17.8 minutes per.
The 6-foot-4 shooting guard has had an uneven go of it in the league so far. He was selected with the No. 46 pick out of Iowa State in 2019 and logged three up-and-down seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
As a rookie, he won a championship, though he was merely a part-time contributor. He logged the last two seasons with a pair of lottery-bound Utah Jazz squads. For his five-year career, he's averaged 9.8 points on .396/.330/.807 shooting splits, 3.5 assists, 2.4 rebounds, and 0.9 steals in 247 regular season games (55 starts).
Horton-Tucker has a good handle and can build up a head of steam going downhill, but he's a below-average shooter and seems liable to be redundant given the team's obvious logjam in the backcourt.
For a rebuilding Chicago squad that seems ready to offload its priciest player, two-time All-Star shooting guard Zach LaVine, the 23-year-old Horton-Tucker represents an intriguing athlete with perhaps some untapped upside.
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Sources inform Michael Scotto of HoopsHype that Liddell has agreed to a two-way deal with the franchise. At that level, he'll join undersized shooting guard DJ Steward and power forward Adama Sanogo. The three players will likely be toggled between Chicago's Hoffman Estates-based G League squad, the Windy City Bulls, and Chicago proper. They're permitted to play for up to 50 NBA games on their current deals.
The New Orleans Pelicans originally selected the Belleville-born Liddell with the No. 41 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. He tore his ACL during Summer League, but was retained on a two-way contract that season. Although the 6-foot-7 forward was promoted to a standard contract in 2023-24, he only suited up for eight contests.
Across 26 contests with the Pelicans' NBAGL affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron, Liddell posted averages of 17.7 points on .504/.270/.791 shooting splits,7.8 boards, 1.9 blocks, 1.7 assists, and 0.6 steals a night.
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