The Chicago Bulls Future is Not THAT Bad

The Chicago Bulls Future is Not THAT Bad

We are just a couple weeks away from media day, less than two weeks actually. The Bulls media day is scheduled to be on September 29th with training camp following right after that. It’s been a long offseason. I don’t know about you guys, but this really has felt like an offseason has dragged on without much going on around the NBA. We needed the Kawhi Leonard conspiracy controversy I should say to save all of us NBA sickos for some drama. But soon enough, training camp will begin. The Bull’s first preseason game is less than 3 weeks away on October 7th. I’m really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things in this upcoming season. But while we look forward ahead at this season, I do also want to look beyond just this upcoming season for the Bulls because that’s really as Bulls fans what we’re most focused on, right? We know this season the Bulls are not going to be competing for a title. We know it’s a very good chance they might not even make the playoffs, but what we want to know is can this team eventually get there? Can they get back to relevance and start competing at the highest level in being title contenders? And it probably won’t surprise you that most media outlets, national media outlets, are not high on the Bulls, not just for this upcoming season, but for their future as a whole. And while I do think there is a lot of things to be critical about when it comes to the Bull’s future and would never claim that they have one of the brightest futures ahead of them in the league, far from it, I do think though the Bull’s future is brighter than most people are probably giving them credit for. And why this is the first time in a long time I’ve been more optimistic on this team. before you write me off and just click on the next video. I’ll explain why. So, what’s going on everyone? You’re listening to Bull Central here. Hope you’re all doing well. I did want to say real quick for those that have been supporting me over on the second channel, the NBA channel, and One Hoops, I cannot thank you all enough for helping get the channel to 100,000 subscribers. Never in my life would I have expected that when I started doing YouTube four to 5 years ago that it would turn into two channels growing in the manner that it has and really just a testament to the great community and support you guys have shown as uh I do have a lot of subscribers that I know are Bulls fans that started over here on this channel. Uh the Bulls really do have some of the best fans in the world. Now it’s just a matter of this franchise actually trying to give us a quality team and championship results which is what we’re here to talk about. So, as I’m sure some of you saw by now, earlier this week, ESPN came out with their future power rankings, not their power rankings for this upcoming season, which also was not good for the Bulls where they had the Bulls finishing 11th in the East this season. Talked about that in a prior video and why I think that’s underrating this team, especially in a weak Eastern Conference. but their future power rankings where they look at the trajectory of all teams throughout the league three years from now looking at five different factors. Their current players that they have on their roster, money, so their current future and cap sheet, their draft capital, the market that they’re in, how attractive is the market, and their management, meaning the front office and ownership. Now, based on all those factors, ESPN listed the Bulls 28th. The only two teams they felt were in a worse shape than the Bulls were for their future outlook three years from now were the Phoenix Suns and the New Orleans Pelicans, which okay, fine. But let’s break this down a bit further. Here’s how they ranked the Bulls based on all these categories. Their money and draft rankings were actually in decent shape, but where they really lagged was their players and management, both in the bottom five. Now, the one I was a bit confused by was ranking the Bulls 12th in terms of market. Because regardless of what you think about the Bulls, regardless of the fact that being in a big market isn’t what it used to be in the NBA, Chicago is still a top 10 market. I don’t care what anyone else says. I would argue it’s even top five. But we won’t harp on that for the moment because we do have to admit that historically the Bulls have not really taken advantage of being in a big market and landing big free agents as a result of it. But what I do want to focus on, because it’s not just ESPN, by the way, the Ringer, NBA.com, The Athletic, all of these major publications believe the Bulls are one of the bottom five teams when it comes to their overall future. But what I want to focus on is a few things that I think are so critical when it comes to a team’s future success. And I’ll start with the players because I do think the Bulls current roster, or at least the player assets they have available to them, is being underappreciated. Look, everyone knows when the Bulls had Zack, Demar, Vuchevich from a talent perspective, it was better than what the Bulls have right now, just the talent in a vacuum. But the reason I felt the Bulls future was more bleak than ever during that time period was because all of those guys were aging out. Their value in the trade market was so bad that the Bulls would have had to give up assets just to get off of their contracts. But also, the Bulls did not have control, a good amount of control over their first round draft picks. Traded three first round picks between Buchvich and Demar. Their cap sheet was also a mess when they were just barely under the tax line because of all the money they owed to Zack Lavine and Vuchic as well as Demar De Rozen. And then don’t forget the dead money to Lonzo Ball. It was a mess. If the Bulls were in a similar state now, I would 100% agree. They’re at the bottom when it comes to their overall future. But now, and like I said this before, I’ll start with the players. You’re talking about a team that maybe isn’t that talented on paper, but is shown to be even though it’s a small sample size, but shown to fit pretty well together. The Bulls closed out the final 20 games of the season, 15-5 post All-Star break over the 29 games, they still had a winning record, were top 10 in the league on offense during that span. And look, even if you take that stretch with a grain of salt, which you should, they were playing a lot of teams that weren’t at full strength. They were going up against teams that were tanking or resting up before the playoffs. Even if you take that end of the season stretch out, it still doesn’t change the fact that unlike just two seasons ago, the Bulls actually have young, talented players that show a lot of promise and young players that actually fit the style of play of modern NBA offenses. The Bulls will have going into the season one of the youngest teams in the league by average age. Seventh youngest in the NBA going into the season based on current roster projections, and that’s including Vuvich, who is about to be turning 35 at the start of the season. If the Bulls end up trading Vuchovic, or at least if you look beyond this season, because Vu most certainly will not be on this team after this year when his contract expires, then the Bulls are actually one of the five youngest teams in the NBA. And it’s one thing if you say, well, they have young players, but what’s the trajectory, the upside of these young players? Because it’s one thing if the Bulls have these quote unquote young guys when it’s Dalen Terry, Julian Phillips, or even Io for that matter. Yeah, not much to get excited about. But the Bulls have in my view have very promising young players and Monos Bucellis who showed great strides last season. Even just his development from the start of the year to the end of it 20 years old a lot of room to grow has that competitive edge the athleticism the tools and skills necessary on both ends of the floor. Then the Bulls have one of the youngest players in the league actually second youngest player in the league only behind Cooper Flag in Noah Sen. I mean we obviously have no idea how Asen is going to show up in the league. He’s incredibly raw prospect and probably isn’t going to get that much run for this upcoming season. But if we’re looking out into the future, the future beyond this season, you’ve got these promising young players in Modis and Asen who haven’t even come close to their primes. You also have Josh Giddy who, say what you will about him. I know there are a lot of Bulls fans who are not high on Giddy, but he’s a talented young player who also hasn’t hit his best years yet and is one of the highest IQ players in the league that the Bulls got on a good contract. when you’re getting your young starting point guard for $25 million a year in today’s NBA. But then you also have Kobe White who I’m looking at from two perspectives. A young player that’s in his prime who had an incredible end of the season that fits the style of offense the Bulls want to play. But then of course the other side, he’s a tradable asset that you can dangle to a contender that maybe would overpay for him where the Bulls can get a solid return for more future assets. So, while I won’t deny that the Bulls roster isn’t some amazing group of guys filled to the broom with talent and depth or future superstar level talent, but this isn’t a team where you look at their current roster and you say, “Yeah, the third worst in the league in terms of their players futures.” Not when I’m looking at teams like Brooklyn, the Wizards, the Jazz, the Hornets, the Pelicans, even the Kings who have a lot of great veteran players right now, but from a group of players 3 years from now, I don’t know how you put that team ahead of the Bulls. Now, when it comes to the Bulls financial situation and their draft assets, the Bulls have control of all of their future picks. No more picks owed to any team. So, they have the ability, of course, to use those picks to draft future talent, but even potentially use those picks to bring in more readymade players in the form of a trade. I’m sure the Bulls will be hesitant to trade first round picks after the move they made for Vuvich, but we’ll see. The Bulls still own the Blazers first round pick that is lottery protected. that could actually convey this year as the Blazers have indicated they want to start winning, especially now with new ownership. So unlike a fair amount of teams in the NBA who have been shelling out draft picks to try and compete now and have mortgaged their future for players that haven’t gotten them over the hump to win a championship, the Bulls actually have a fair amount of draft capital to work with for the future. And then of course when it comes to their cap sheet, the Bulls actually have one of the cleanest cap sheets in the NBA. Like aside from Patrick Williams, that contract, they really don’t have any bad contracts on the books. And while I don’t think Pat is going to turn things around at this point, you also never know. He’s only 23 years old and maybe he’ll wake up and start remembering how to play basketball. But aside from that contract, they don’t have any unwanted long-term money on their books. Javon Carter and Nicolvich, they’re expiring. They’re not coming back. Kevin Hurder, Zack Collins also expiring contracts. Those contracts are coming off the books. Jaylen Smith and Isaac only have one more year after this one, and both of those guys are on deals below the mid-level exception. Like I mentioned, even with the new contract of Josh Kitty at $25 million per year, the Bulls are still projected to have over $80 million in cap space going in next off season. Only three teams at this point in time will have more cap space than the Bulls will. And while yes, the Bulls don’t have a history of signing bigname free agents, yes, it’s possible that with the way the NBA landscape is today, a lot of current free agents may end up resigning with their current teams by the time July 2026 rolls around. Obviously, the Bulls still need to figure out what they’re going to do about Kobe White and whether they’re going to have to pay him. But my point is, the Bulls now have more flexibility both in terms of their financial flexibility, but also with the draft capital they have at their disposal, as well as the current players, their young players, and even tradable assets, mainly Kobe and IO. That would lead one to say this team’s future isn’t as bleak as people are making it out to be. Not saying it’s great. I wouldn’t even put their overall future in the top 15. And a lot of that is because of their management who have yet to prove to us that they can turn this thing around. But to say they’re 28th when you look at the totality of the league and ranking team’s futures. To say the Bulls are bottom three with the Suns and Pelicans, it’s just not a fair assessment in my opinion. It’s short-sighted. I don’t even agree that the Pelicans and Suns are bottom two. Like, how are the Kings not last with everything they’ve been doing? The Wizards, what’s great about their future outside of failing at tanking. The Nets, what are they doing where they just drafted five players in this draft and hoping that just one sticks? Anyway, I think the Bulls are in better shape than people give them credit for. That’s not something I would have said two years ago. Management is the biggest question mark, but as of late, their moves, their decisions have been decent. They still have a lot of work to do to build back our trust when they first took over from Gar Pax. But the jury is out on what they can now do with this new roster iteration. I would love to hear what you guys think though. You let me know in the comments. As always, be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next

Discussing the Bulls future outlook and why isn’t AS bad as some are making it out to be.

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