Is It Time For The Bulls To Start Over Again?
It seems like for years now, the Chicago Bulls have been looked at around the NBA as the “team that could have been.”
Since they won the 1998 NBA Finals, this has been the case for the Bulls, as they could have possibly sustained success for at least five more seasons with Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and others remaining with Chicago.
From their poor 1998-99 season, fast-forward to 2008 when the Bulls drafted Derrick Rose first overall and then he went on to win the 2010-11 MVP award. Rose then ended up dealing with some significant knee injuries that completely derailed his success on the floor, as well as the Bulls’ overall potential to win a championship.
Just several years ago during the 2014-15 season, the Bulls won 50 games and made it to the Eastern Conference Semifinals with Jimmy Butler as the focal point and leader of their team. Then Tom Thibodeau was fired in 2015, Derrick Rose was traded to the New York Knicks in 2016 and Jimmy Butler was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2017.
Now, Chicago is facing yet another “what could have been” scenario with their current group, as injuries and inconsistent play could once again derail a franchise that has been rebuilding ever since the 1998-99 season.
Currently 23 games into the 2022-23 NBA season, the Chicago Bulls find themselves 9-14 in the Eastern Conference and if the season ended today, they would not be in the playoffs.
While they started off strong defensively, the Bulls have struggled to stop their opponents from getting to the rim in recent weeks and while they have three key offensive talents in All-Stars Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, the Bulls’ overall depth is once again being challenged.
Averaging 32.3 points per game from their bench this season, Chicago currently ranks 22nd in the league in bench scoring and getting guys outside of DeRozan, LaVine and Vucevic to step up has been extremely inconsistent to this point.
Is it time for the Bulls to consider starting over yet again?
Well, there are certainly pros and cons to Chicago looking to blow things up once more and tear down what they have built over the last few seasons, but we also have to look at this organization from a big picture perspective and understand where they are at.
Chicago has been hesitant to invest a lot of money into their stars through the years and quite honestly, they have had some of the worst luck in this league since the start of last season.
Not only has their bench and secondary talents been hit hard by injuries, but Zach LaVine missed a handful of games last season, including the team’s final playoff game, due to a lingering knee issue, and Lonzo Ball has only played in 35 games for Chicago since signing a four-year, $80 million deal ahead of the 2021-22 season.
It seems like everyone is waiting on Lonzo Ball to return for the Bulls before writing this team off, which is definitely reasonable given how great they looked with him on the floor, but time is of the essence in Chicago and his status heading towards the trade deadline will be very telling as to what the future looks like for this franchise.
The Bulls have always attempted to put themselves in a position to compete at the highest-level possible and while they have done so again with the roster they have on paper, this is not necessarily the roster that shows up on the floor each and every night.
Looking at one of the moves they made as well, the Bulls traded for Nikola Vucevic in a deal that ended up giving the Orlando Magic Wendell Carter Jr., Franz Wagner and possibly yet another high-level prospect in the 2023 NBA Draft, as the Magic own the rights to Chicago’s first-round pick this upcoming offseason as long as it does not fall inside the Top-4.
The idea of starting fresh and adding assets for the future is absolutely something the Bulls should be thinking about right now not only because of Lonzo Ball and his status moving forward, but because they will be tight on cap space over the next couple of seasons and DeMar DeRozan is now 33-years-old.
Obviously DeRozan could continue playing at a high-level for many years to come, but Chicago needs to be questioning themselves about DeRozan’s longevity and if they can continue to solely build this roster around him, a 32-year-old Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine, who has begun to be labeled as “injury prone.”
Feeling out the trade market for guys like DeRozan, LaVine and Vucevic could offer the Bulls some insight as to what their future could look like in terms of gathering assets.
Should Chicago show a willingness to discuss their options in trade talk ahead of February’s trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers will be the first in line to talk with general manager Marc Eversley and team president Arturas Karnisovas about potential deals, especially given that the idea of pursuing DeRozan has been something the Lakers have internally discussed.
In a hypothetical scenario, taking on the final year of Russell Westbrook’s contract opens up a ton of cap space for the Bulls in 2023 and if they could get their hands on two future first-round picks from the Lakers in 2027 and 2029, they could begin to formulate a long-term plan to hopefully find success, especially since things do not look great for the Lakers past the 2023-24 season in terms of LeBron James possibly retiring or leaving.
On the flip side of things though, the Bulls could also be aggressive ahead of the trade deadline and fully go “all-in” with what they have, something that seems more likely at this point given all the assets Chicago has gambled with and lost over the years in regards to Wendell Carter Jr., Lauri Markkanen and draft assets.
Chicago owns Portland’s 2023 first-round pick with Top-14 protections, they own their own 2024 first-round pick, their own 2026 first-round pick and all of their picks from 2027-29. Not to mention, the contracts of Alex Caruso ($9 million), Patrick Williams ($7.7 million), Coby Whtie ($7.4 million) and rookie Dalen Terry ($3.1 million) could all be utilized in different trade discussions.
This endless cycle of disappointment and potential for the Bulls does not seem to be coming to an end anytime soon and right now, this team’s success over the course of the next two months will determine whether or not the Bulls will once again start over.
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