There was once a time when the Chicago Bulls were the class of the Eastern Conference. For a decade, in fact, no team in the East won more games than the Chicago Bulls. Led by a roster with a league MVP, multiple All-Defensive Team candidates, and an NBA Coach of the Year, the Bulls consistently gave their fans in the Windy City a team to get behind.
No, these are not the 1990's Chicago Bulls that we're talking about.
We're actually looking at a run from 2006 to 2016 where only the Texas trio of the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets won more games than the Chicago Bulls did (461, to be exact). The league MVP was Derrick Rose, those multiple All-Defensive Team candidates were Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich and Jimmy Butler, and the Coach of the Year was Tom Thibodeau. But what's wild is, the amount of time between the end of that run and now encompasses just as much time as when Michael Jordan's run with the Bulls ended and the year 2006. So that raises the question, is another Chicago Bulls run coming?
Well, the answer to that question lies in how much faith you have in the Bulls' young core and the two men who have been mostly responsible for building it: executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas and general manager Marc Eversley. Karnišovas and Eversley both came to Chicago in 2020, as did head coach Billy Donovan. Since then, with a roster built around Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and later, DeMar DeRozan, the Bulls have gone just 156-162, with just a single Playoff appearance to their name.
This particular core stayed together longer than many analysts around the league expected. Vucevic and LaVine had been in trade rumors for the better part of two years, though neither player is commanding any type of return that the Bulls would be excited about. As for DeRozan, the writing was on the wall for his eventual Chicago exit all last season. With middling results all four years, it raises the question, why did the Bulls front office decide to keep the group together for as long as they did?
“We felt that we owed to that group to give them a chance to figure it out,” Karnišovas said in a sit-down interview with Bulls insider K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. “And when we cannot figure it out, that's when it's up to us to have direction of the team and make changes. And that's what happened.”
Finally, following a fourth consecutive season that ended in disappointment, the Bulls decided to pull the plug and enter a full-blown rebuild… something that Artūras Karnišovas hinted at after the Chicago Bulls season concluded.
“After the season, I kind of said about the changes coming. We were telling the truth,” Karnišovas said. “In terms of youth movement, per se as a word, I would say that we have a lot of experienced young guys that are moving in the right direction. And I think the changes that are happening right now are going to help us to build for the future. That's the best way to do it. And it's still not a final product. There's going to be constant adjustments.”
The adjustments thus far have included a sign-and-trade deal that sends DeMar DeRozan to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Chris Duarte and a pair of 2nd round picks, and a straight one-for-one deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder that sends Alex Caruso to the reigning Western Conference #1 seed in exchange for Josh Giddey, a young and promising wing who saw his minutes cut last season as the Thunder continue to assemble one of the NBA's best rosters.
If those moves aren't doing it for ya, don't worry, you're not alone.
Is there reason for hope in Chicago?
In addition to shipping out DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso, the Bulls took care of their own, handing 2020 1st Round pick Patrick Williams a surprising five-year, $90 million contract, which is probably the largest contract ever given to a player who A) Has missed more games in his NBA career than he's played, and B) Averages fewer than ten points per game.
The primary catalysts of hope in Chicago are likely Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, a young backcourt with high upside that was a respectable -2.6 points per 100 possessions when they shared the floor with one another last year. The 11th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Matas Buzelis — a supersized point forward who has some experienced-beyond-his-years craft to his game — could fit nicely alongside those two guards.
And then there's the question of what to do with Zach LaVine. If the Bulls had it their way, they'd likely move on from the oft-injured, approaching 30, and increasingly expensive wing who is under contract for another three years. The Bulls have spent months making phone calls, trying to find a trade partner in a deal for LaVine, but predictably, they've had little luck. Now, the Bulls seem to be pivoting, with the expectation that LaVine will be ready to go when the 2024-25 season begins.
“We expect Zach being fully healthy. And he is healthy. I think he can help this group next year. He’s been professional,” Karnišovas said. “Again, he’s healthy. We expect him to be with us at the start of training camp.”
Not exactly the outcome the Bulls were looking for on the Zach LaVine front, but now they need to take their medicine and slowly continue to try to find ways to revamp their roster and return to a spot atop the Eastern Conference.
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