The Chicago Bulls are late.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
It happens too often with this front office.<\/p>\n
Executive vice president of basketball operations Art\u016bras Karni\u0161ovas missed the window for every major trade he needed to make in the last three years. He took too long to move DeMar DeRozan<\/a>. And Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107<\/a>. And Coby White<\/a>. In the process, he missed out on the opportunity to secure a first-round pick in return for any of the team\u2019s main core from the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Who are the 7 new Chicago Bulls? Meet Jaden Ivey, Anfernee Simons and the rest of the deadline additions.<\/a><\/p>\n Now, the Bulls are behind again. Karni\u0161ovas finally committed to tanking<\/a> by shipping out every relevant expiring contract on the roster. The decision came two years late. The Bulls missed their chance for a shot at Cooper Flagg or any other prime pick in the stacked 2025 draft class. They also failed to begin their nosedive early enough to meaningfully compete for a top-four pick in the 2026 draft, whose prospects were tantalizing enough to encourage a slew of teams from to throw away this season.<\/p>\n Even though it came late, this was the right decision for the Bulls. The roster desperately needed improvements. To make meaningful change, Karni\u0161ovas needed to embrace the value of the draft as a talent-acquisition mechanism. Ultimately, it didn\u2019t matter if it came months or years too late. If the Bulls ever were going to rise above mediocrity, they had to make this commitment.<\/p>\n And then, two weeks after the Bulls made the painful turn toward prioritizing the draft, the league decided to crack down on tanking. Commissioner Adam Silver delivered an edict on potential changes for the 2026-27 season to deter tanking as a whole during a general managers meeting Thursday, according to an ESPN report<\/a>. Before the Bulls can even give tanking the ol\u2019 college try, the mechanism might be rendered obsolete.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n This shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise. It\u2019s simply the rhythm in which the Bulls live. A step slow. A second behind. Lagging behind the beat. Hesitation will always be the defining factor of Karni\u0161ovas\u2019 tenure in Chicago.<\/p>\n Outliers exist, of course. The Bulls were on the front foot with the league\u2019s recent trend toward up-tempo offenses, setting a pace in the 2024-25 season that ultimately matched the standard for the NBA\u2019s current breathless style of play. But even that alteration lacked agency, existing as an artifact of necessity as the Bulls simply tried to survive with an undersized lineup at every position.<\/p>\n The timing of this recent turn to tanking<\/a> is just another example of the helpless, tireless tardiness that has plagued the Karni\u0161ovas era in Chicago. The Bulls can never do the right thing at the right time. And if the league follows through on its threats to deter tanking, they will be trapped in a half-baked plan without any exit routes.<\/p>\n Silver\u2019s messaging is a harsh reaction to a building frustration throughout the league. Tanking isn\u2019t new. The strategy has existed for decades, often operating as a necessity for small-market teams to acquire high-level talent that simply would not be accessible in free agency.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The novelty this season is the volume of egregious tanking. Arguably one-third of the league is jockeying to tumble as far down the standings \u2014 and up the draft-lottery rankings \u2014 as possible. The league already handed out six-figure fines<\/a> to the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers for allegedly sitting players in the fourth quarter to throw games.<\/p>\n