{"id":798593,"date":"2026-08-02T03:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798593\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T03:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:48:21","slug":"central-notes-bulls-mathurin-hezonja-pacers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/798593\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Bulls, Mathurin, Hezonja, Pacers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the Bulls view Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> as a talented player worth a potential flyer, their interest in the Clippers\u2018 restricted free agent swingman has been \u201coverstated,\u201d a league source tells Joel Lorenzi of The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Lorenzi explains, Chicago\u2019s top two priorities at this point are maintaining roster flexibility and acquiring future assets. A sign-and-trade would likely be necessary for the team to land Mathurin, which could mean sacrificing future assets (e.g. second-round picks) to acquire him. Additionally, a player acquired via sign-and-trade must cover at least three seasons, which could compromise the Bulls\u2019 flexibility going forward.<\/p>\n

While the Bulls could use more scoring, floor spacing and defense are greater areas of need, according to Lorenzi, who suggests the club doesn\u2019t really need a high-volume scorer who isn\u2019t a great passer or shooter. That doesn\u2019t mean the Bulls are out on Mathurin, but Lorenzi believes a union between the two sides is only plausible in a team-friendly scenario that doesn\u2019t require Chicago to offer him more than a short-term guarantee or give up valuable assets.<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Central:<\/p>\n

The one-year, minimum-salary contract that Mario Hezonja<\/a> signed<\/a> with the Cavaliers is non-guaranteed, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link<\/a>). According to Scotto, Hezonja\u2019s full $2,845,883 salary will become guaranteed if he remains under contract through November 15. Real Madrid reportedly had concerns<\/a> that the Croatian forward would be waived this fall and then join a EuroLeague rival after exercising his NBA out clause with the Spanish club, though one report out of Cleveland<\/a> indicated the Cavs envision Hezonja playing a regular rotation role and don\u2019t intend to cut him before the season.
\nThe Pacers\u2018 transactions since February\u2019s Ivica Zubac<\/a> trade have been mostly minor, but several of those smaller moves have been important, according to Tony East of Forbes<\/a>, who takes a look at how Indiana has added depth without having the flexibility to take major swings.
\nIn case you missed it, we published another round-up of Central notes this morning<\/a>, with items on the Pistons, Cavs, and Pacers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although the Bulls view Bennedict Mathurin as a talented player worth a potential flyer, their interest in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[56224,337383,355,99],"class_list":["post-798593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-mario-hezonja","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}