OKLAHOMA CITY — Of all the hands to dish the blow, of all the places for it to occur, there’s something poetic about former Chicago guard Alex Caruso and his defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder extinguishing the flames on a Bulls season long reduced to ash.
With Friday night’s 131-113 loss, the Bulls were officially eliminated from postseason contention. Released from their Play-in Pledge. Free from another fruitless 39-win season. After a trade deadline fire sale and a winless February, they’ll go without a Play-In or playoff berth for the first time since 2021.
“It’s a weird thing because obviously mathematically we’re not eliminated, but we may as well be at this point,” guard Josh Giddey told The Athletic Friday morning before Chicago officially was eliminated from the postseason. “It’s tough because I think the hard part for, I’d say, for the guys who are in contract situations, is that these 10 games can be easy for them to start to kind of get into themselves and worry about what’s gonna happen with them at the end of the year. But I think the important thing is we continue to buy into each other and play for the people next to you, just play the right way.
“Whether we’re making the playoffs or not, it’s just important that we just finish this thing out the right way. We don’t throw the towel in. We get to play in the NBA for a living. So not taking it for granted and just kind of blowing these last 10 games by.”
Giddey began this season beside some semblance of a core. One that’d plateaued in Play-In territory, but something distinguishable. They were eroded by injuries, tantalized by Nikola Vučević’s game winners and composed of an unreasonable number of guards.
Months later, four players’ seasons have been shut down, two this past week. The Bulls acquired more guards at February’s trade deadline, all with varying timelines and priorities. Chicago’s deadline activity didn’t resemble anything suggesting cohesion, or even another go at the Play-In. It suggested that Arturas Karnisovas might be wiping his hands of his first team build.
A rebuild born in February. Perhaps too late to dip below any of the eight teams that currently own worse records than them, most of which decidedly pivoted much earlier.
On the final day of postseason contention for these Bulls, their longest tenured player, Patrick Williams, shot 1 for 8 in 18 minutes. Isaac Okoro and Collin Sexton, eight 3s between them, gave OKC a 36-minute scare. Leonard Miller hoisted 17 shots. Giddey finished 1 for 11 with five turnovers. Guerschon Yabusele, 6-foot-7 and 265 pounds, started at center.
Midway through one of OKC’s signature suffocating runs, which stretched as wide as 35-8 across roughly eight minutes in the second half, Giddey watched Sexton attempt to post up Thunder guard Isaiah Joe.
He used four dribbles with his back turned, missed Giddey on a backdoor cut and the Australian point guard jerked his head back in exasperation.
Coach Billy Donovan, who’s fielded questions about being attached to college openings and the prospect of a rebuild, said he’s struggled to find clarity in diagnosing this season as it relates to a rebuild. A coach trying to find color in a grim season, to find nuance in what he noted is a results business.
“You go through years, and you don’t maybe make a deep run in the NCAA tournament, the playoffs, and/or you have a losing season or it doesn’t go great,” Donovan said. “Like, does that mean everything’s just totally just a failure?
“How do you find meaning when you don’t reach those points? And the meaning I’ve tried to find is (that) I didn’t know for myself what we would be able to do with the trade deadline. The meaning for me is what happens to Collin Sexton, what happens to Jaden Ivey? What happens to some of these guys? Could we give them an opportunity to play and improve and continue on in their career, and how can I help them as players?”
Donovan, 60, remains a prideful coach. It’s likely that he won’t let the Bulls completely decompose over the next three weeks, even if they can stand to dip to better their lottery odds in a loaded draft. His roster is in the air, his core is unrecognizable. His season was all but written at the deadline.
But he doesn’t want the team to wear their fate.
“There’s things that I can control, and there’s things I can’t control, and there’s business decisions that people make on what is the best thing for the future of the Bulls organization,” Donovan said. “And for me, I try to get in line and do the best job I can with the hand that I’m dealt. What can I actually control? There’s a new group coming in, and that’s the reality of it. And I need to move forward. I don’t know what else I can do. And the players need to do the same thing, too, but I can’t expect the players to do it if the coaching staff is not doing that.
“On April 12, it’s all ending. And the reality is that’s our reality, but how are we going to handle that reality? And to me, that’s what’s really most important, is how we conduct ourselves.”
Caruso, still a premier perimeter defender, boasts the luxury of blending in with several others for a historically irritating Thunder defense. He hounded Chicago’s best creators. He helped squash a roster that features several refurbished lottery picks, all while playing alongside former two-way players turned rotation threats.
Williams knows better than anyone on this roster what it might take for the Bulls to return to meaningful basketball. He understands the shortcomings better than most. He sat through seasons where the Play-In felt inevitable. He played on the 2021-22 team that Milwaukee crushed in the first round, the kind of playoff berth Thunder general manager Sam Presti would classify as merely an appearance, not an arrival.
“You don’t want to go just to go,” Williams said. “To win it, you need talent, skill, you need a little bit of luck on your side. But to give yourself a shot is what you want.”
There’s no telling how many summers might stand between Chicago’s arrival. Who’ll be there to lead the way. Whether more Bulls, like Caruso, might be groomed by this adversity and poached by contenders before Chicago puts it all together. Whether their team-building priorities might change.
But only three weeks stand between the Bulls and the tombstone of this unsettling season. Before Matas Buzelis can work toward never feeling this way again.
“Just keep fighting, man,” the budding 21-year-old forward said. “You don’t want to go out just quitting. You have to finish what you started. Of course, it’s unfortunate; it sucks. But you have to keep fighting.”
Chicago isn’t exactly finishing as it started. Three weeks and nine games remain with no Play-In on the horizon. These Bulls will need something new to play for.