We Need to Talk About the Chicago Bulls

We Need to Talk About the Chicago Bulls

They all fooled us. The Chicago Bulls got off to a 5-0 start this year and since then they are 4-14 and one of the worst teams in the NBA almost by any metric. And it’s not like they beat some bottom feeders to start off the year. They beat the Detroit Pistons who were the one seat in the Eastern Conference. They beat the Orlando Magic with Paul Beno and France Vagner. The Atlanta Hawks when Trey Young was healthy. They beat the Sacramento Kings and then they beat the New York Knicks to go to 5-0 on the year. We were all making videos talking about how the Chicago Bulls were fun again. Josh Giddy looked like he was on his way to being a firsttime all-star this year, maybe even an AllNBA player. And they’ve just looked like such a different team since pretty much the team that we thought they were going to be going into the season. They’ve had some competitive losses and they’ve had some bad losses as of late. Over the last two weeks, they have the third worst point differential in the NBA, worst than New Orleans, Sacramento, the Clippers, and the Hornets. Over their last 15 games, they have the fourth worst net rating in the NBA, the third worst offensive rating and the fifth worst defensive rating. They lost recently to the Golden State Warriors without Steph Curry and Draymond Green by 32 points. They also lost to the Indiana Pacers twice, the Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Pelicans, and Jazz. And they barely beat the Washington Wizards by one point. And the only two teams that have a worse record than the Chicago Bulls over the last two weeks, the New Orleans Pelicans, who actually beat the Chicago Bulls, and the Washington Wizards, who Chicago barely beat by one point. And to make things worse, their lottery pick, Noah Essen, is out for the year. He had season ending shoulder surgery. And I’ve been starting to see some things kind of come up where Chicago selected Noah Singay over Derek Queen, who was one pick later. I actually really like the fit of Derek Queen in Chicago, but it makes it look a little bit worse given how good Queen has been this year and that SNK only has two games at the NBA level to show for his rookie year. He was actually playing well in the G-League before suffering this season ending shoulder injury. He was averaging around 23 points, shooting 50% from the field, 23% from three, 84% from the free throw line, eight and a half rebounds, and two and a half assists. But we knew that SN was going to be a long-term project in this league given the intangibles that he was bringing over from Rashio Farm. They drafted a similar player last year in the lottery in Matas Buzzelis who’s definitely had an up and down year number two. I still think he’s taking strides this year. He’s hitting maybe a little bit of a sophomore slump, but all his numbers are better across the board. He kind of looks like the same player he was in the second half last year with Chicago. He’s averaging around 14 points, five and a half rebounds, an assist in half a night, an encouraging block in half a night, shooting 46% from the field, 33% from three, and 82% from the free throw line. He is still just 21 years old. There’s going to be some ups and downs. He’s still just a guy that’s played around 100 games in his career. But when I was talking about the Chicago Bulls in the offseason, I just always felt like they are delaying the inevitable every single year. They are too good to be competing for a topic in the NBA draft. And they are too bad to have any type of confidence in winning a playoff series. They’re right in the middle around the playing tournament every single year. Basically, NBA Purgator, the worst spot to be in any sport, not just the NBA. And they’re going to be an interesting team moving forward. Josh Giddy has been their best player this year, who is still averaging close to a triple double every single night. 20 points, nine assists, nine and a half rebounds, shooting 47% from the field, and 39% from three. He’s under a fantastic contract going forward. Technically, any team could have offered Josh Giddy a contract in the offseason. He signed a little bit later. It was a four-year deal worth $und00 million. 13% of the Bulls cap space in 2029 is going to be going to a 27year-old Josh Giddy. This was a really nice move by the Bulls front office and they’re going to have a lot of expiring money off the shelf as well. Nicole Vuvich making $21.5 million is a free agent at the end of the year. It’s felt like they’ve tried to trade Nicole Vuvich over the last few years, but nobody realistically wants to give the Bulls any type of valuable asset in return for Vuvich, who’s 35 years old, who’s not a great defender. He has been a good offensive player and has had his moments in the clutch this year. He’s definitely had some bad moments in the clutch this year, but I think is still a viable offensive asset. Zack Collins, a piece they got in that Zack Lavine trade last year, is an $18 million expiring contract as well. Kevin Herder also involved in that trade, a $17.9 million expiring contract. Then you have guys that they may look to resign in Kobe White and Iodunu who were free agents at the end of the year. Kobe White recently came back after missing the start of the season. He’s kind of struggled a little bit around the rim and is shooting just 30% on seven and a half threes a night. It does feel like they sacrificing a ton of defense having Kobe White, Josh Giddy, and Nicole Vuchic all on the floor at the same time, but that’s something we all knew. What direction is the front office and ownership going to want to go in? Do they want to be aggressive? They’ve been linked to Anthony Davis trades at one point this year. There was an article that came out that Chicago views Josh Giddy as their Tyrese Hallebertton and they’re trying to find their Pascal Seakum to pair up with Josh Giddy. They’re currently ranked 11th in the Eastern Conference at the moment behind Milwaukee, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Philly in the playing tournament. They’re just barely ahead of Charlotte, Brooklyn, and Indiana. If I were running the show, I would just want to go towards the bottom. I want to have this team get a top 10 pick at the end of the year and give yourself the best odds at pairing Josh Giddy and Montas Buzzelis with Camboozer, Darren Peterson, or Agent Abansa during the 2026 NBA draft. And I’m not taking the Chicago Bulls over any team right now ranked ahead of them in the regular season standings. I didn’t expect any of those teams to be worse than Chicago going into this year. Right now, they’re the team that we or at least I thought they were going to be going into the year. They could score a lot of points here and there. There’s not really a reliable player to go to offensively in crunch time and their defense is just going to be all over the place this year. And you look at their cap sheet as well. Patrick Williams is still under one of the worst contracts in the NBA. He’s slated to make $72 million over the next four years. He is an $18 million player option in 2029. I guarantee you he is opting into that. He’s shooting 36% from the field this year, 40% on threes. They’re playing him about 20 minutes a night. and they have to pay Isaac Aor $1 million next year. Jaylen Smith $9.5 million. I don’t mind Trey Jones as a backup point guard, but he is making about $8 million next year as well. I would just like to see an influx of youth here in Chicago. Yes, there’s technically young guys on the roster, but it just feels like it’s a group of misfits and it’s just a hodgepodge of guys out there that don’t really fit together and I just feel like have limited ceilings on where this team could eventually go. Maybe they can get bailed out by a lucky trade or a free agent that wants to go to Chicago, but we haven’t seen that in quite some time, I guess, since Demar De Rozan. And Billy Donovan has been here for a little bit now. He’s basically been coaching the Bulls since 2021. And has a below 500 record as the Bulls head coach, but pretty much keeping them around 500. 31 and 41 in 2021, 46 and 36 in 2022. That was the Lonzo Ball year before he unfortunately went down with an injury in January. They went 40 and 42 in 2023. That should have been a sign to maybe go in a different direction. Then they decide to go 39 and 43 in 2024 and in 2025, essentially giving them just late lottery picks. And I think Kobe White is a good player and he’s in his age 25 season, but he probably has the most trade value on this roster. I wouldn’t be opposed to them trading away Kobe White for some youth or maybe some draft capital, something they don’t really have an influx of outside of just their first round picks. They have a water protected Portland Trailblazers pick that I don’t think he’s going to go to them this year. I don’t think Portland is going to make the playoffs the way they’re looking right now. And I think Jerry Rinorf just has to be okay with this team going 20 and 62 or at least going 25 and 57. I know you don’t want to see this team in which they have one of the best fan bases in the NBA that are always selling out the United Center and are always at the top of every attendance metric really have a lost season. But I just feel like you’re not going to give yourselves the best shot to have long-term success if you’re just going to be a little bit shortsighted about every single decision. And I know you can look at Washington or Charlotte and Utah and tanking isn’t always the answer. And it’s easier said than done for what San Antonio did looking into the number one overall pick in 2023 to select Victor Wimyama. I just feel like that’s the direction Charlotte has to go right now. I mean, I don’t know what you expect. The Eastern Conference is wide open this year, but I still think it could be an obtainable conference to win in 2026, 2027, and 2028. I don’t think there’s any OKC Thunder on the rise in the East right now because this is the time where OKC is probably going to cement themselves as a dynasty in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls, even if they somehow miraculously went to the NBA Finals this year or next year, I don’t think would beat a team like OKC, like Denver, or like Houston. But do you hear myself? like the the Bulls are not making it to the NBA finals anytime soon and I just feel like there’s just been some bad losses as of late for this team and they do have some notable injuries right now outside of Noah SN with Kevin Herder out with the hamstring injury but I’m not saying that he’s a ceiling razor. Trey Jones is dealing with an ankle injury. Jaylen Smith is dealing with a knee injury and Isaac Aoro is dealing with a lumbar injury as well. It’s just kind of the same old story with Chicago. They’re just better than the bottom feeders in the NBA, but they’re nowhere close to being taken seriously as a team that could win a playoff series right now. And I’m going to be very fascinated to see what direction they end up going in. They could maybe end up trading for somebody like Jonathan Kuminga. Maybe thinking that he could be a lot better in a completely different environment. I definitely think that they would have some appealing players like Nicolola, Idrisimumu, Kobe White that could be interesting to Golden State. I just don’t think they should go the route of trading for somebody like Anthony Davis unless you’re pretty much just getting there with Sally Filler. Maybe they take a chance on somebody like Zion Williamson who could be a little bit better in a completely different environment where you can cut him out of that contract at any point and you don’t have to give him that guaranteed money. But I’m only making that move if it’s not going to cost you anything. If there’s really no risk in doing so because there is massive risk in giving up valuable assets for a Zion Williamson or for an Anthony Davis. These guys have been very injuryprone over the last few years and there’s going to be some intriguing free agents this offseason as well that Chicago can look to take a chance on. I already mentioned Jonathan Kamingo. They could also look at guys like Mitchell Robinson. Maybe they have a conversation with Austin Reeves if the Lakers go in a different direction. Probably not going to happen. Or maybe they go after somebody like Quitting Grimes that fits this timeline a little bit more. Maybe they could throw an offer at one of those 2022 draft guys like a Benedict Mathan or a Jaden Ivy or a Jaylen Duran. But I assume Detroit is probably going to match any deal Darren gets. and Ivy could be on a new team next year. Maybe they take a chance on somebody like Usman Jang who’s probably not going to be an OKC next year because of financial reasons. Or maybe they could throw a big contract at Tory Een where Houston is a little bit skeptical about matching that. But yeah, Chicago is no better right now than they were pretty much a year ago and we’re doing the same song and dance. And I feel like I sound like a broken record because I’ve said this so much about Chicago. And I just feel bad for their fan base, especially the fans that go to the games every single night that really just locked in to what’s on the court, but don’t realize that they’re not going to get any better right now if they’re operating the same way that they’ve pretty much done over the last half decade and pretty much since the Derek Rose era ended in Chicago. So yeah, you guys can let me know if I’m being maybe too harsh on Chicago or you pretty much agree with me that they need to shake up somewhat of what their philosophy has been over the last few years. If you guys did enjoy the video, I’d appreciate you dropping a thumbs up. Let me know what you think about Chicago and the direction they’re headed going forward. And I’ll catch y’all in the next one. Peace. [Music]

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