Former Bulls guard signs with a Turkish basketball club

Justin Backer

Former Bulls guard signs with a Turkish basketball club image

Former Chicago Bulls guard Talen Horton-Tucker won’t be returning to Chicago next season, as the 24-year-old is signing with Fenerbahçe Istanbul, a Turkish team, per Andrea Calzoni.

Tucker will be signing a one-year deal worth $1 million overseas. The six-year NBA veteran has spent time with the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz before ending up in Chicago last season. In 58 games, all off the bench, Horton-Tucker averaged 6.5 points per game while shooting 45 percent from the floor, and 34 percent from three-point range. 

Horton-Tucker was drafted in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft, and has carved out a solid six-year career so far in the NBA, despite some inconsistencies. He’s averaging 9.2 points per game for his career, shooting 43 percent from the floor and 30 percent from three-point range. 

The Bulls could be entering a rebuild phase

The majority of the Bulls’ offseason has been taken up by the ongoing contract negotiations with restricted free agent Josh Giddey. Additionally, they traded Lonzo Ball to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Isaac Okoro. With a roster that doesn’t have the most premier young talent, the Bulls enter next season as a bit of a question mark around the league. Given that the team’s main core of the last few seasons has been mostly shipped off elsewhere, it’s possible that 2025-26 serves as a bit of a transition year for the Bulls, with a larger focus on the future rather than the present. 

Justin Backer

Justin Backer is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. A graduate of Florida Atlantic University, Justin began his sports writing career in 2023 and has previously written for Empire Sports Media and currently covers FAU Athletics for The Palm Beach Post.