A freshly added Chicago Bulls signing is slated to wear an ex-Bulls All-Star’s old jersey number.
Following a solid Summer League stint, free agent guard Yuki Kawamura inked a two-way deal with Chicago over the weekend. He’ll be toggled between the Bulls proper and their G League affiliate in Hoffman Estates, the Windy City Bulls.
Beyond trading point guard Lonzo Ball to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for forward Isaac Okoro, drafting forward Noa Essengue and power forward/center Lachlan Olbrich, and re-signing point guard Tre Jones, the Bulls did precious little to alter their 2025-26 team from the 2024-25 iteration. Adding Kawamura to a two-way deal functions as one of the confoundingly lazy club’s big free agent signings by default.
Last worn by Zach LaVine https://t.co/x3P8vJ5YVj
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) July 21, 2025
The 5-foot-8 point guard will once again be the shortest player in the league this season, according to Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune.
“I believe I still can play in the NBA,” Kawamura said following his Summer League debut for Chicago, per Poe. “I want to get a contract — two-way, whatever. I just want to get a contract.”
Second-year Chicago small forward Matas Buzelis, who suited up for the Bulls in a second straight Summer League despite probably having done enough as a rookie to not need the seasoning, raved about what he saw out of the pint-sized point guard.
“He’s the definition of heart over height,” the 6-foot-10 Buzelis said. “He plays so hard. To be on the floor with him, it means a lot to me. I’m not going to take it for granted because he’s an amazing player and an amazing human.”
During his five Summer League bouts in Las Vegas, Kawamura notched averages of 10.2 points, 6.2 dimes and 2.2 swipes a night.
Surprisingly, Kawamura will don the jersey number of a recently departed two-time Chicago All-Star: shooting guard Zach LaVine’s No. 8.
LaVine was moved to the Sacramento Kings as part of a multi-team exchange.
Across seven-and-a-half seasons, the UCLA product averaged 24.2 points on .474/.390/.834 shooting splits, 4.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 0.9 steals a night. He’s a great isolation scorer and shooter, and a respectable supplemental distributor. But a lackluster defensive effort, injury question marks, and a predilection for ball-stopping have made him a difficult player to build around, as Chicago discovered.
The team made the playoffs exactly once during LaVine’s tenure, when he was clearly just the second-best player on the club behind six-time All-Star swingman DeMar DeRozan, now also his teammate in Sacramento purgatory.
Kawamura may not have All-Star upside like LaVine did, but his assumption of LaVine’s jersey at least signifies that Chicago is truly moving on from its failed experiment with the 6-foot-5 swingman.
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