Did Bulls take step forward or step back? They're in same place they always are

New York Times

30-06-2025

Depending on your perspective, the Chicago Bulls either took a step forward or a step back this season.
'We took a step forward this year,' Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas said in his season-ending news conference on April 17.
'We took a step back this season to reposition and retool,' general manager Marc Eversley said after the draft Wednesday.
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The funny thing is they finished 39-43 and in ninth place in the East for the second straight year. So, with apologies to Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat, maybe the Bulls took one step forward and one step back.
To be fair, Karnišovas was talking about the progress the young players (well, some of them) made during the season, and Eversley was speaking about the team's strategy going into the season. But no matter how you look at it, the Bulls remained constant: a sub-.500 team known mostly for infuriating its fans.
Did I mention these two guys reportedly got contract extensions, along with coach Billy Donovan? Never let it be said Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf's standards are too high.
On Wednesday, the Bulls made a move that I championed by drafting a long-term project in 18-year-old French forward Noa Essengue. Because I have little to no faith in the front office, I think this move made the most sense if the goal is to be relevant. Like a degenerate gambler, they need a bet to hit. Essengue might not amount to anything, but he embodies hope. He's raw, but he's young, tall and gifted. This team must take risks because the front office gives it a disadvantage. Whether the Bulls develop Essengue is another question.
To follow that move, on Friday, Chicago traded Lonzo Ball straight-up to Cleveland for Isaac Okoro. Once again, no draft picks are coming the Bulls' way.
This is why I stressed that they need to take chances like drafting Essengue over ready-made college players like Derik Queen or Carter Bryant.
For the second straight summer, the Bulls did a favor for a contending team and received the bare minimum in return.
The failures of this front office to sustain a competitive team and their disregard for a common-sense approach to rebuilding have again made the team a curiosity in the NBA and an object of ridicule in Chicago.
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Last year, the Bulls dealt Alex Caruso, their most valuable trade chip, to the Oklahoma City Thunder for point guard Josh Giddey, whom the Thunder were looking to move. Caruso was the kind of player OKC needed to win a title, and lo and behold, it worked out exactly as planned.
This time around, Cleveland, which should battle Indiana as the top team in the East next season, was looking to get out of the last two years of Okoro's three-year, $33 million deal and add a backup point guard capable of meaningful minutes. We'll see how that unfolds this season.
Giddey, meanwhile, had his moments. Chicago is obsessed with being an uptempo offensive team and Giddey can be the perfect kind of point guard for that strategy. But as a restricted free agent, with free agency starting Monday, he'll likely be asking for a deal so offensive your father-in-law will be complaining about it for the next four years.
Okoro averaged about 14 minutes per game for the Cavs in the playoffs (five fewer than the regular season) and scored a total of 41 points in nine games. He's a defensive wing, which the Bulls could use, but not a difference maker. He'll be a rotational player for a losing team. In the deal, the Cavs got out of an extra year of his contract (around $11 million) and acquired Ball, who could play a productive role off the bench, provided he stays healthy.
In the Caruso trade, it was especially maddening that the Bulls didn't get a draft pick along with Giddey, considering that the Thunder had a treasure trove of picks in the future. It's like going trick or treating at the biggest house in your neighborhood and not getting a full-size candy bar.
After this year's trade deadline, The Athletic's John Hollinger wrote: 'According to a league source, the Bulls had a firm offer to get a first-round pick and take on future money for Lonzo Ball and extended him instead.'
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So they traded Ball for presumably less future money and no draft pick. That's the mark of a mark.
As a general rule, rebuilding teams should be focused on hoarding assets. Timelines may differ, and there should be an ethical concern for competitive play and the general idea that sports are an entertainment product, but really, the whole concept revolves around the accumulation of talent.
In Major League Baseball, that means acquiring minor-league prospects. In the NBA, it's draft picks.
The Bulls, who are definitely rebuilding, have chosen to go about their process differently by not tanking and forgoing draft picks almost entirely in their quixotic approach to building a deep, balanced contender that is preparing to contend one day down the road. They don't acquire picks in trades, and when they trade second-rounders away, they do it for money, not more second-round picks down the road. (They moved down 10 spots in the second round this year and got cash in return.)
There is a thought process to the plan, though. It's a bad one that is likely to continue being unsuccessful, but it exists.
After the season, Karnišovas said the goal is to 'minimize the timeline' of that strategy by targeting 'young players with experience,' which speaks to why they acquired Giddey and Okoro. But it doesn't mean he couldn't also add draft picks. The Bulls had the leverage.
ISAAC OKORO OVER THREE DEFENDERS
🤯 🤯 🤯 pic.twitter.com/qn65VjUpMn
— ESPN (@espn) December 16, 2021
In Karnisovas' first season running the team, he showed what kind of negotiator he is when he traded two future protected picks in a midseason deal for Nikola Vučević. One of those picks turned into potential star Franz Wagner (No. 8 in 2021), and the other became the disappointing Jett Howard (No. 11 in 2023). 'Vooch' has been a nice player for the Bulls, but not one who has accomplished a lot.
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Four years ago, the Bulls felt great about their new core of Vučević, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Caruso and Ball. It represented an exciting new strategy for the franchise, which hadn't had much success in free agency.
But once Ball got hurt midway through his first season, the Bulls couldn't adjust, falling from first to sixth in the East. Their return to the playoffs was brief, and in the next three seasons, they had losing records and couldn't get out of the Play-In Tournament. Which brings us to where we are today, another rebuild.
Four of those five players are now gone, and the only first-round pick the Bulls acquired for them was their own. They're trying to trade Vučević this summer.
The Bulls nearly lucked into Cooper Flagg in the lottery, but a lost tiebreaker to Dallas kept them in the No. 12 spot. Without a superstar to save them, the Bulls can point to the Indiana Pacers as a model.
'In terms of moving forward, I think there's different structures that you can try to get to your championship,' Karnišovas said at the trade deadline. 'There's (having) two, three star players and a lot of role players or you can build a (team) of nine or 10 very good players. I think now we're leaning towards having a lot of solid good players, nine or 10, that can last through the season because there's going to be injuries. I think more and more teams are doing that.'
With the era of the superteam seemingly over, the success of the Thunder and Pacers in this year's playoffs can give validation to his plan.
The Thunder and Pacers were right there with the Bulls two years ago when OKC and Chicago finished with 40-42 records and Indiana was 35-47. But then last season, as the Bulls finished 39-43, Indiana traded for Pascal Siakam and improved to 47-35 while the Thunder's young players flourished and they finished first in the West at 57-25.
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Last season, Indiana went on a run and finished 50-32, fourth in the East, and the Thunder won the West again, this time with a 68-14 record. The Bulls were again 39-43.
The Thunder should be the paragon for any team doing a rebuild, but OKC has Sam Presti running the show, which is the difference. If Presti is the Michael Jordan of his job, Karnišovas is Denzel Valentine. (No offense to Denzel.)
I'm sure the Bulls are selling the Pacers as their model to their bosses, and the Reinsdorfs will probably buy it. Here's what Eversley said about them after the draft:
'I think the thing I take away from Indiana is just their style of play. They continue to come at you over and over, and they play fast. In spite of what the score is, what quarter it is. I think that's kind of how we played a little bit this year. We've got a bunch of players who can play on both sides of the floor, and that's exactly what we want to build here in Chicago — players who are versatile, both offensively and defensively. Everybody can guard, everybody can defend, everybody run, everybody make a shot.'
The Bulls' collection of talent is not only inferior to Indiana's, but to really win like the Pacers did, you also need a Tyrese Haliburton, who lifted his team by being almost unbelievably clutch in the playoffs. Do the Bulls have that guy? Not yet. Maybe it's Matas Buzelis or Coby White. But I wouldn't bet on it.
So what's next?
Chicago doesn't have much space to add in free agency, and it's likely to make a trade or two, though I wouldn't count on the Bulls getting much in return.
Regardless, Eversley said they won't skip steps or chase short-term success in this iteration of their rebuild. They won't tank either. Maybe they'll get lucky and Essengue and Buzelis turn into stars. Maybe next year's draft lottery will go better.
But my guess is they'll find themselves in the same position as a once-proud team toiling in irrelevancy.
(Photo of Noa Essengue: Melanie Fidler / NBAE via Getty Images)