Everyone deserves blame for the Chicago Bulls’ 5-13 start to the regular season. But nobody deserves more of it than the front office.
Arturas Kranisovas and Marc Eversley looked at a roster that went 40-42 and sat on their hands. They expected minimal change to lead to significant improvement, which is a strategy that typically only works for a roster built around promising young talent. Conversely, the Chicago Bulls are a veteran-laden team supposedly operating with a win-now mindset.
The greatest indictment against this front office isn’t their roster construction – as poor as it might be. Instead, I find the most egregious decision to be … well … the lack of decisions.
As I’ve already written many times before: You can’t stop in the middle of the highway. The Chicago Bulls chose the fast lane toward success in 2021 with their additions of DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, and Alex Caruso. What followed? Signing names like Tristian Thompson, Andre Drummond, Goran Dragic, Patrick Beverley, Jevon Carter, and Torrey Craig. Don’t get me wrong, there are some decent role players in that group, but do any move the needle? Does any signing honestly reflect that same aggressive mindset they initially opted for? Not in the slightest.
Teams in the NBA are constantly moving. If you decide to slow down, you might as well take the next exit and retreat. What the Bulls have done over the past year, however, is come to a screeching halt. And, to no surprise, it’s led to them getting ROCKED by an 18-wheeler.
The car is totaled. The only way out of this mess is for the front office to get out of the vehicle and walk themselves back to the dealership. Until they admit defeat and learn from the mistakes they made during this era of “continuity,” this will be a lost season AND an even more lost organization.
If you need a recap of last night’s epic collapse, I’ll direct you to our Enhanced Box Score here. Watching the team blow a 21-point lead was as painful as you’d expect, especially when we consider the Brooklyn Nets drained an opponent franchise-record 25 threes against the Chicago Bulls. Per Stathead, the previous high was set in October of 2018 when the Golden State Warriors hit 24 total threes. This was the same game Klay Thompson went 14-24 from long range.
Kevin Anderson over at NBC Sports Chicago shared a stat via Sports Radar that also underscores how depressing Sunday’s loss was. The Bulls are only the second team since the 1996-97 season to have a 20+ point lead in the first quarter and proceed to face a 10+ point deficit in the second quarter. So, yeah, if you thought blowing a lead that fast was nearly impossible … you’d be right!
According to Sports Radar, the Bulls became only the second team since 1996-97 to lead by 20+ at any point in the 1st quarter and trail by 10+ at any point of the 2nd quarter in the same game— Kevin Anderson (@Kevin_NBCS) November 27, 2023
On the one hand, there has to be an element of luck when you’re draining 25 threes in a game. On the other hand, you have to play atrocious defense to get outscored 44-19 in the second quarter and lose a game you once led 30-9 by 9 points. Without Alex Caruso on the floor, we unsurprisingly saw numerous defensive breakdowns and an overall tremendous lack of ball pressure. We knew heading into this matchup against the fourth-best 3-point shooting team in the NBA that closing out strong and playing on a string would be pivotal. The Bulls clearly failed to do that.
Nikola Vucevic spoke to reporters after the game and cited poor communication as the reason behind the Nets’ ability to get hot. The fact this remains a problem in Year 3 continues to tell us all we need to know.
Vooch on defensive breakdowns: "We don’t do a good enough job communicating to each other or honoring the call when somebody calls (coverage). Even if it’s wrong, we have to honor the person who feels that that’s the right call."— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) November 27, 2023
Even more telling, the Bulls’ “Big 3” remains one of the worst trios in the NBA. Both K.C. Johnson and Tony Gill of NBC Sports Chicago shared some ugly stats about where Chicago’s three-man lineup ranks:
I’m gonna add something small because I thought it was kinda funny. Out of that top 11, the Bulls hold 3 spots in the most minutes played by a trio. All have a negative net rating and are the ONLY trios in the top 11 that have a negative net rating https://t.co/Hwp0cEqRCQ— Anthony (Tony) Gill (@thetonygill) November 27, 2023
The three-man lineup is netting a -15.0 points per 100 possessions, per Basketball-Reference’s lineup data. Once again, the fact the front office doubled down on this core is a major point of concern. As obvious as it is that a rebuild is needed, trusting them to properly rebuild it is far more difficult than I want it to be.
Hey, at least we got a surprising Patrick Williams game! Taking Caruso’s spot in the starting lineup, Williams looked the most comfortable he ever has next to the “Big 3.” We watched him show zero hesitation from downtown, as well as put his head down for a couple of nice drives to the rim. While there hasn’t been a tremendous improvement on the bench, there is no question he’s played with a slightly more forceful mindset, so it was nice to see that finally translate over to the first unit. Williams finished with 20 points on 7-9 shooting in a team-high +14 performance. More of that, please!
Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.
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