The Bulls made a mistake not resigning Max Strus, but he's better off

Photo Courtesy of Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Former DePaul Blue Demon Max Strus caught fire in the Miami Heat’s 101-94 victory over the Houston Rockets. The Strus got loose for a career-high 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including five 3-pointers.

His performance took me back to the times I’d be sitting at the baseline, calling the DePaul men’s basketball games. As a color analyst, I’d yell the famous line, “The Strus is LOOSE!” as he did his thing on the court, erupting Wintrust Arena.

This time, he erupted Toyota Center.

As a Blue Demon and Chicagoan, my first reaction to his performance was that the Bulls should've resigned Strus.

After going undrafted out of DePaul in 2019, Strus signed a two-way contract with the Boston Celtics. They bumped him up him up to a regular NBA contract and then waived him. This led him to sign a two-way contract with the Bulls.

He only totaled five points in two games last season with the Bulls before he tore his ACL while playing for the Windy City Bulls, the team’s G League affiliate.

His G League performance was promising. Strus averaged 18.2 points per game, 5.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists. This led him to a training camp contract with the Heat going into 2020-21, which then turned into a two-way contract.

The Heat suddenly needed him after all the injuries and players sidelined by COVID-19 protocols. He’s made 14 appearances for the team since, and now he’s dunking on five-time All-Star John Wall.

Imagine Wall, who most likely didn’t even know who Strus was going into the game, and then casually getting posturized by him.

Strus credits his amazing performance to his teammate and former Bull Jimmy Butler.

Butler gave him the confidence to do his thing and shoot the ball, after recognizing how hard he works even when no one is watching him.

According to coach Erik Spoelstra, Strus had five different intense workouts on a recent game day. Before shootaround, at shootaround, after shootaround, before the game and after the game. He'd been putting in constant work just to prepare for a night like he just had off the bench.

Now for the Bulls, Strus is like that one situationship that got away. The one that you were unsure about, tried to give a chance but didn't keep around long enough because you just weren't feeling it. But now he's successful with someone else, and you're just left thinking... what if?

Strus seems to be thriving in the Heat environment, so while I think the Bulls made a mistake not resigning him during a developmental season, he's probably better off having Butler and that kind of energy around him to bring out his full potential.