The window appears shut on DeMar DeRozan staying with the Chicago Bulls. Why the mutual parting might have a silver lining.

CHICAGO — For the last three seasons, the most valuable player for the Chicago Bulls remained consistent: DeMar DeRozan.

DeRozan wasn’t the highest-paid player on the roster, but that never mattered. Wherever DeRozan went, the Bulls followed.

In his 15th season at age 34, DeRozan played more minutes than any other NBA player and led the league in fourth-quarter production. He fueled scoring and cemented standards of effort, inviting the team’s youngest players to train with him in the offseason. And the Bulls loved him for it.

During the last year of his contract, the front office remained adamant: DeRozan’s future was in Chicago and the Bulls would do what it took to ensure that stayed true.

Yet barely two days into NBA free agency, the window for DeRozan to remain in Chicago had all but shut. The Bulls are out of salary-cap space to re-sign the veteran — and regardless, DeRozan’s free-agency focus has shifted elsewhere.

So what changed?

In the final days before free agency opened Sunday, it became clear something had shifted. On draft night last week, Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas refused to commit to any intention to re-sign DeRozan.

Karnišovas already had taken a swing toward a rebuild by trading Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey. And as the Bulls loaded up on young talent — re-signing 22-year-old Patrick Williams, drafting 19-year-old Matas Buzelis, picking up 24-year-old Jalen Smith in free agency — the space for a veteran like DeRozan shrank into nonexistence.

It seems DeRozan has followed suit in a mutual parting of interest, reportedly seeking a one-year deal to free up his options for free agency in 2025, according to ESPN. The Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers could emerge as leading suitors for DeRozan, according to reports by ESPN and the Miami Herald.

Despite the insistence of both DeRozan and the Bulls front office all year, there were signs of this potential change of heart long before this week. In the emotional aftermath of the team’s season-ending play-in tournament loss in Miami, DeRozan voiced his own inner conflict. He was sick of losing, wary of his age and facing the reality that the next contract he signed might be his last.

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