It was a fine idea and a noble experiment. The Chicago Bulls had a star in Zach LaVine, and the front office did its best to put other stars around him to create an NBA title contender. They traded for Nikola Vucevic, did sign-and-trades for DeMar DeRozen and Lonzo Ball, and signed free agents like Alex Caruso, Andre Drummond, and Goran Dragic. But a month into the 2022-23 Bulls season, it’s time to make some Bulls overreactions and pass judgment on this experiment. And the verdict is, it didn’t work.
The Bulls are 6-9 after 15 games, which is good for 11th place in the Eastern Conference. At this point, they aren’t even in the play-in tournament! Yes, Ball’s injury absence is hurting the team, but when Ball comes back, the team still won’t have enough shooting or stout enough defenders.
Even just 15 games into an 82-game season, it’s clear that the 2022-23 Chicago Bulls aren’t a championship-level team. Even if Ball does come back and helps the team coalesce, or the team makes a Vucevic deal to bring in a player who is a better (more modern) fit, does that make the Bulls on par with the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, and Cleveland Cavaliers at the top of the East? The answer is no, so the one-month Bulls overreaction (that isn’t that much of an overreaction) is that it is time to blow the whole thing up.
Why the Bulls should trade (almost) everybody
Here is the case for the organization to tank the 2022-23 Bulls season. First, they’ve already got a great start. It’s only a month in, so almost anything is possible, but starting 6-9 is not ideal. At this point, the Bulls are equally as far away from having the worst record in the conference as they are being a top-four seed. If the Bulls were ever going to tank, now is the time because of the bad start.
Bulls have lost 5 of their last 6.
They are somehow bottom 10 in offense despite having these 3 players. pic.twitter.com/ATNft6BAiM
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 17, 2022
The next reason right now is the time to blow it up in Chicago is that other teams haven’t fully started tanking yet, which means the Bulls could get a jump on the competition.
The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t traded their last two first-round picks yet, Kyrie Irving is still a Brooklyn Net, and Luka Doncic hasn’t thrown a fit yet about not having any help. All these things will change in the next few months, and the teams that are quickest to jump on these opportunities will reap the rewards.
Here is how a few Bulls trades could go down, taking advantage of the biggest hot spots in the NBA right now.
The Lakers desperately want to get rid of Russell Westbrook and have two first-round picks (2027, 2029) they can use to do it. How about Zach LaVine (after January 14, 2023) and Coby White to LA for Westbrook’s expiring $47 million and the picks? That’s a nice start for a rebuild.
Equally (or even more) desperate are the Nets to get rid of Irving. How about Nikola Vucevic and Alex Caruso to the Nets for Kyrie’s $36 million expiring and a pick or two?
Then you can send DeMar DeRozan to a contender like the Boston Celtics for Al Horford, Grant Williams, and picks (and maybe flip Horford for another pick), and reunite the Ball brothers in Charlotte and get expiring Hornets contracts like Kelly Oubre Jr. and Mason Plumlee.
And there could even be a Bulls trade to reunite Goran Dragic (after December 14) with his countryman, Doncic, that gets the Bulls a pick and a low-level prospect like rookie Jaden Hardy in return.
The point is there are a lot of options out there right now, but the Bulls have to decide to pull the trigger on a rebuild as soon as possible.
The other reason this year makes sense for a tank job after the poor start to the 2022-23 Bulls season is that if their 2023 first-round pick turns out to be No. 5 or higher, it goes to the Orlando Magic from the Vucevic trade. If the Bulls tank, they may be able save that pick this year and even get the big prize: Victor Wembanyama.
None of that can happen if the Bulls finish, let’s say, 7th through 11th in the East this year. In that case, the team will head into the offseason getting nothing back for Vucevic, having LaVine, DeRozan, and Ball for at least two more years, and only the Portland Trail Blazers’ lottery-protected pick in the top-heavy 2023 NBA Draft.
Does any of that sound like fun?
It does not, which is why the Bulls need to trade everyone after one month of the 2022-23 NBA season!
Or maybe this is all just an overreaction.
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