The Miami Heat, playing without Jimmy Butler, kept the Chicago Bulls out of the playoffs. The Eastern Conference’s final play-in game was a blowout, with Miami winning 112-91. Chicago’s loss sends them into the offseason and raises questions about the direction of the franchise and what is to come of this veteran-laden team.
The Chicago Bulls have been reticent to make moves over the past two seasons. The team has been under the leadership of Arturas Karnisovas for the last four seasons after the extended tenure of Gar Forman and Scott Paxson. The long-awaited move was lauded by Bulls fans at the time, and after his initial set of transactions, it was warranted.
Building this Current Chicago Bulls Team
Karnisovas hired Billy Donovan and made trades to acquire DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, pairing them with Zach LaVine. The offseason saw the team sign Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, rounding out the roster that would be the foundation of the team. The Bulls went from the cellar of the East to a playoff threat and fan attraction. This plateaued after the 2021-22 season, with the team on their own to make the best of their talent. Karnisovas did not trade for any players and made relatively insignificant changes to the roster.
After a 46-36 record in the 2021-22 season, Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine’s injuries have derailed Karnisovas’ vision for the Chicago Bulls. DeRozan and Vucevic have kept the team afloat, finishing with the nine seed in back-to-back years. The vision for what Chicago could’ve been is distant in the rearview mirror, and despite his hesitancy to make wholesale changes to the roster, Karnisovas acknowledges that something has to be done.
“I’m not here to stay in the middle. I thought the formula that we came up with three years ago worked until a couple of injuries occurred. And we’re gonna have to find these answers in this offseason. Obviously, the results are not where we want it. I totally get it. And it’s on me to figure it out.”
Where the Chicago Bulls Can Go From Here
Karnisovas has to figure out what to do with the core of this underperforming team. He’s not as against considering changes to this team as he’s been in years past.
“I’m going to look at the totality in this group. This group hasn’t worked. There are a lot of great things in certain individual players and a lot of young guys who took a step forward, and it’s positive. But in totality, as a group, it didn’t work, so I’m gonna have to find these answers in the offseason.”
Karnisovas has already made it clear that HC Billy Donovan is set to return for his fourth season at the helm of the Chicago Bulls. Negotiations with DeMar DeRozan have started but feel problematic for both sides. Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic are set to return as the team’s bedrock, with the supplemental players from 2022-23 filling out the rest of the roster. The perpetually injured Lonzo Ball will opt into his player option worth over $20M.
The Chicago Bulls will be hard-pressed to avoid the luxury tax if they plan on improving the team. With the results of the last couple of seasons as reference points, it’s difficult to imagine Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf signing off on opening up the coffers for a middling team. The immediate future will likely see an emphasis on youth and development, namely Coby White, Patrick Williams, and Ayo Dosunmu. The hope is that these reinforcements can bridge the gap between the aging veterans and future members of the Bulls while keeping the team cap-friendly.
Windy City Woes
Emerging out of the Gar/Pax era in the Windy City was a great idea and needed to happen after a prolonged tenure of mediocrity. Early moves from the new leader of the Chicago Bulls, Karnisovas, indicated that the franchise was moving in the right direction. But four years and back-to-back play-in losses to the Miami Heat later, the direction of the franchise is up in the air again.
With their best player a free agent, their would-be starting point guard hopelessly hurt, public support fading, and recent seasons ending in April, there are no easy answers for the Chicago Bulls. The most obvious action to take is to trade Alex Caruso. His final season of control gives the team the opportunity to fetch something in return for the sought-after guard.
Beyond that, there is a bevy of directions the team can take. The bad news for Bulls fans is that the likely direction is going to take the team south in the standings, not north. Karnasovas’s decision to try to make the team a contender in 2021 was good, but things didn’t work out. Now, it’s time to take the next five months and determine what the Bulls have to do to position themselves for years to come.
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