The Chicago Bulls hope to make a significant playoff run with the addition of third-year guard Jimmer Fredette, who played his first game with the team Sunday against the New York Knicks.

Sports Illustrated reported the 33-26 Bulls announced the organization had signed the former BYU star Sunday morning after his former Sacramento Kings bought out the rest of his contract, making him a free agent.

Fredette got to play out the last three minutes of Sunday afternoon's game scoring one of two shots and getting two rebounds to help the team close their 109-90 victory at Chicago's United Center.

Bulls General Manager Gary Forman said in a statement, "we are very excited to add a player like Jimmer to the our roster. We've followed him closely throughout his collegiate and professional career, and believe he'll be the type of player that will fit in with our group and be an asset to the team."

The Kings signed the 25-year-old 10th overall lottery pick in 2011 after having a sensational four-year college career with BYU and becoming the national player of the year. The 6-foot-2 guard has a career average of seven points a game with 41.6 percent field goal average.

As the season begins to wind down the Bulls lack some depth on their roster as they traded Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers to free up salary space and lost Derrick Rose to another season-ending injury with torn medial meniscus in his right knee.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the third place Bulls desperately needed someone who can score. Fredette is currently having his career best record in three-point shooting with a 49.3 percent average.

"The more shooting you have, the more it opens up the floor," coach Tom Thibodeau told the Tribune. "We want to open things up to attack off the dribble, with our cuts, things of that nature."

Prior to Fredett's arrival, the Bulls went into Friday's game against the Dallas Mavericks as 27th in three-point shooting, 28th in field-goal shooting and last in scoring.