NEWSLETTER
Acquiring the draft rights to Julian Phillips in exchange for two future second-round picks represents the only Chicago Bulls trade in 893 days.
Filter out the offseason, and Arutras Karnisovas’ front office hasn’t made an in-season trade in 1,050 days. The last time the team took advantage of the NBA trade deadline came on March 25, 2021, when they acquired Troy Brown Jr., Javonte Green, and Daniel Theis in a three-team trade.
That’s right – with the 2:00 p.m. CT deadline officially passing on Thursday – the Chicago Bulls have done the unthinkable. The organization has sat out three consecutive NBA trade deadlines.
The first year came despite a knee injury to Lonzo Ball. Chicago was near the top of the Eastern Conference and had a fair reason to consider adding talent for their first playoff run since 2014-15. Instead, they opted to sign Tristian Thompson off the buyout market. They would proceed to stumble into the 6th seed and lose to the Milwaukee Bucks in non-competitive five games.
The second year came despite sitting 26-28 after Arturas Karnisovas prefaced the season with the following statement:
“The expectations last year, we knew we were going to be in the playoffs. This year shouldn’t surprise us that we’re going to be in the playoffs, but we have to do better than last year. Yearly improvement is what I’m looking for. Ultimately, winning it. That’s the goal. High expectations,” Karnisovas said before the 2022-23 season.
Chicago would go on to sign Patrick Beverley in the buyout market and lose in the second round of the Play-In Tournament to the Miami Heat.
The third year now comes despite … *deep inhale* … a 24-27 record, 9th-place standing in the Eastern Conference, season-ending injury to Zach LaVine (who also wants a trade), expiring contract for DeMar DeRozan, expiring contract for Andre Drummond, and an overwhelming market for Alex Caruso. This is what we call organizational malpractice.
I can’t underscore how hard it is to be this inactive in the modern NBA. The Chicago Bulls have made the single-fewest moves in the league since the calendar flipped to 2022, which is mind-boggling when we consider the product they’ve put on the floor. Not to mention, things only become all the more infuriating/dumbfounding/perplexing when we couple that with the repeated mindset of this management team. Winning and “remaining competitive” is reportedly the priority, but they aren’t doing a single thing to promote that in the short-term or long-term.
Indeed, while most believe the Chicago Bulls should press self-destruct (including myself), they could at least save some face by maintaining an aggressive mindset. They could continue to rework the pieces around their spoiled core of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic in an effort to win games. They could also finally pay the luxury tax, which is something they’ve only done once in franchise history. But they won’t even go down that reckless road.
By not trying to improve the roster around their pre-existing core, they are telling us they don’t believe that core is good enough to invest in. And, if that core isn’t good enough to invest in, the process of building one that is must begin. Any decision other than that is directly accepting mediocrity. Plain and simple.
The only other explanation would be that this front office is delusional. They look at a three-man core that scores a -10.1 points per 100 possessions and a team that holds the 21st-ranked net rating in the NBA and see a title contender. They believe that they’re on the path toward success and everybody else is on a sinking ship. Even in my fit of rage, however, I refuse to believe they’re that dumb.
Karnisovas and Marc Eversley know how low the ceiling resides for this current team. They fully understand that they lack both superstar talent and meaningful future assets. That’s not the problem. The real problem is that they just don’t care.
No seats are hot. No expectations are written. The pressure starts at the top, and ownership has failed to make winning at the highest level a priority for years. Let’s not forget that both Arturas Karnisovas and Billy Donovan (among others) received contract extensions following the team’s one trip to the playoffs. If a sixth seed and first-round blowout were satisfactory, why would we expect a trip to the Play-In Tournament to be any different?
The Chicago Bulls are who they are, and they’re fine with it.
