One of the hardest places to be in all of sports is in the middle of the NBA. Not a championship contender, but also not a bottom-of-the-league, lottery-bound team with no hope. That is exactly where the Chicago Bulls are right now.
Since making moves to create the quality quartet of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball the team has played in five total playoff games.
Now Chicago has to look in the mirror and ask itself the toughest question in sports – Is it time to hit the reset button for the franchise?
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Short answer, yes.
While the team’s record over the past two-plus seasons has not been as bad as the dregs of the NBA, this iteration of the Chicago Bulls has not worked outside of a 38-game stretch in the 2021-2022 season.
That stretch directly correlates to the only time Ball has been healthy and played with the other three.
Ball was always the key to making this group work with his ability to keep the ball moving on the offensive end and lead a defense from the point of attack. Without Ball, the team has two good isolation scorers and a pick-and-roll big man without a partner.
Overall Chicago is just 90-88 (including the playoffs)in two seasons and change, with the trio playing 141 of those games together.
The one bright spot for Chicago came two years ago with Ball leading the team, which was lightning in a bottle and would be fun to see again. However it is not realistic to think they can get back there with Ball’s injuries, each player now two years older and DeRozan’s impending free agency this summer.
Going from an above-average team to a below-average team to what Chicago is today is enough of a reason to start planning for the future.
When you start to dig deeper there are more and more reasons for Chicago to cash in on their current crop of talent that are all ready to win today for future building blocks.
This season Chicago has a payroll of $164,705, 069 which is 12th in the league this year. Every team ahead of them either has some championship equity or is building a contender around young stars
Next season $130,261,397 is on the books without factoring in a DeRozan extension. Chicago is paying for a contender while rolling out a team that has to grind nightly to hope for a Play-In Tournament seed.
So the team is not winning on the court and is one of the most expensive off the court. Not a great mix.
Chicago is finally getting some control of the NBA Draft again after trading their 2021 (Franz Wagner) and 2023 (Jett Howard) first-round picks in the Vucevic trade. The team owns its first-round picks every year outright other than 2025, which could go to the San Antonio Spurs, but is top 10 protected.
With how competitive the NBA has been early this season, there is an opening for a team like Chicago to catapult to the bottom.
Right now Chicago already has the sixth-best odds in the NBA Draft Lottery if the season ended today, but finding new homes for DeRozan, LaVine and veteran Alex Caruso would put the team in a great position to secure top four odds, which are flat for the number one overall pick.
If DeRozan or Caruso were on the market today they would both fetch at least a first-round pick. LaVine is a wildcard as a young scorer who is capable of going for 30+ points nightly but is not in the right position to impact winning with his scoring.
Rebuilding can look ugly at the beginning. Look at the Portland Trail Blazers this year. Rebuilding is also necessary and can lead to a new bright era for a franchise, just ask Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
So how can Chicago get this rebuild started in a reasonable, respectable way?
The first step is having an honest conversation internally on what the team’s goals are right now, this season, next season and building a plan for the next 3-5 seasons overall.
Are Patrick Williams, Coby White, Dalen Terry or Ayo Dosunmo building blocks?
Is Billy Donovan the right coach to steer the ship towards a rebuild with a young roster? Do you have the right internal scouting team to build a championship roster?
From there Chicago has to canvas the league to get the best return for players like DeRozan, Caruso and potentially LaVine. With their current contracts, moving LaVine and Vucevic is not mandatory unless there is a great offer on the table.
Caruso will be the easiest move with virtually every contender in the NBA lining up to bring in arguably the best perimeter defender in the league today who is a career 36.8% shooter from three and has just 19.2 million left on his contract between now and next season.
Regardless of your favorite trade machine version of these trades, there is very little basketball logic in keeping this current iteration of Chicago together past the trade deadline.
Getting stuck in mediocrity is the worst place you can be in the NBA. Since putting together this ill-fitting quartet in Chicago, the team has gone from a good team, to an average team to a below-average team in quick succession.
It is time to hit the reset button in Chicago and see what the future holds for a franchise that has won one playoff game with an All-Star trio that does not seem to have the formula for winning basketball together.
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