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When the Chicago Bulls come up in conversation, the following words or phrases come up: “mediocre”, “treading water”, or “middling”. Hovering around the .500 mark and hoping for the best has been the Bulls' M.O. over the past few seasons, and considering their moves (or lack thereof) this offseason, nothing is about to change for what was once such a proud winning franchise.
At the moment, all the Bulls are dealing with is the restricted free agency of Josh Giddey, who showed towards the end of last season that his demise was a bit overblown and that he still has a long future in the NBA stuffing stat sheets. He even shot the ball well from deep last year, ending up with a 37.5 three-point percentage to end the season.
But even with Giddey breaking out in the Windy City, the team still has the problem of not having too many good players to supplement their core. Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu are good, and Nikola Vucevic is helpful, but there are just too many question marks up and down the roster for this team to be more than play-in fodder.
There seems to be no sense of urgency among members of the Bulls front office for this team to take the next step. They choose not to bottom out, so they don't get a chance to pick high in the draft, and yet they do not attract free agents nor make a push for the best players in the league via trade.
This has to change for the Bulls to return to playoff contention. But every Bulls fan knows that their front office is defined by inaction. However, in a hypothetical universe, this was a move that they could have pursued with the hopes of finally playing winning basketball again.
Bulls take a risk and trade for Zion Williamson
If the Bulls refuse to bottom out to increase their lottery odds, then it will be nearly impossible for them to build through the draft. The reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder had to endure a few terrible seasons before they blossomed into a title-winning squad.
Since 2020, the Bulls have drafted the following players in the first round of the NBA Draft: Patrick Williams, Dalen Terry, Matas Buzelis, and Noa Essengue. Buzelis did have a promising rookie year, ending the season on the starting lineup. Essengue shows some promise as a two-way wing, but he's only 19 years old — he's not changing the fortunes of the franchise anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Williams is about one bad season away from cementing himself in bust territory and Terry has failed to emerge as anything more than a fringe rotation piece.
The Bulls have no blue-chip prospects to build around, nor do they have an All-Star-caliber player ready to lead the team to at least a 45-win season. In terms of poor roster-building, the Bulls are up there in terms of how lacking their front office has been in planning for the future.
Seriously, no one will take a look at the current Bulls roster and think that any of those players should be anything more than a third option on a contending team.
Risks have to be taken in the name of trying to build a contender. Not every team has the incredible executive maneuvering of a Sam Presti, nor do they have the small-market magic that the Indiana Pacers have — managing to stay mostly relevant despite rarely picking atop the draft.
Enter Zion Williamson.
Williamson's stock has fallen off a cliff in recent years, and it's not hard to see why. He's been facing plenty of off-court issues, and is currently facing allegations of rape and other sexual/violent misconduct. That, of course, is not something that should be overlooked.
Moreover, Williamson's injury problems have come to define his career. He's played at least 70 games in a single season just once, and even that season ended in heartbreak when he injured himself during the play-in tournament — a game in which he was dominating.
Simply put, Williamson has fallen far off from being what any team would expect from its franchise cornerstone. He's been a trainwreck both on the injury and legal front, and that kind of baggage would make nearly every team stray far away from him.
But the Bulls are in a position where they have to take a risk lest they rot in the middle of the pack with no way of getting out other than to hope that they get lucky in the draft or that they get to capitalize on another team's stupidity.
If the cost to acquire Williamson in a trade falls to the point that it becomes a no-brainer to acquire him, then the Bulls should do it.
Of course, whether the New Orleans Pelicans give up on him or not is another matter. There is a new regime in the Big Easy, after all. Perhaps they view Williamson differently and they give him a few more chances to prove himself.
Whatever the case may be, the Bulls should be lying in wait, watching the Williamson situation very closely.
Bulls look to acquire another Pelicans player instead
The Pelicans have been very confusing in terms of how they operate recently. Perhaps the Bulls, yet another front office with plenty of turbulence, could take advantage of another team in this regard.
New Orleans, according to rumors, hasn't ruled out the possibility of trading either Trey Murphy III or Herb Jones — two of their talented young wings. If anyone were to be available, the Bulls should be setting their sights on Murphy more than Jones.
Murphy broke out last season in a bigger role before suffering a season-ending injury, averaging 21.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game on 45/36/89 shooting splits across 53 games. He flashed a deeper scoring arsenal, able to score from all three levels while being mostly a bomber from beyond the arc.
Placing him on a team with a talented, unselfish playmaker like Giddey while making him the co-number one option alongside White could lead to an even bigger breakout from Murphy.
