The Chicago Bulls have a timeline problem.
After finishing the 2023-24 season with a 39-43 record and the Eastern Conference’s No. 9 seed, the team found itself effectively in no man’s land for the second straight season. Chicago wasn’t good enough to actually make the playoffs proper (the team was eliminated in its second play-in game by the Miami Heat), but it also didn’t finish with a bad enough record to earn a top-five 2024 NBA Draft pick.
The Bulls drafted 6-foot-10 power forward Matas Buzelis with the No. 11 selection out of the now-shuttered G League Ignite.
But that wasn’t enough. The team finally appreciated that, after two straight seasons of missing the playoffs without long-injured 3-and-D point guard Lonzo Ball, its ambition to be at least a competitive postseason out for opposing Eastern Conference squads had no chance of manifesting with its current roster.
So the Bulls pivoted, albeit a bit later than many pundits had wanted them to.
First, Chicago traded two-time All-Defensive Second Team guard Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder for playmaking guard Josh Giddey but did not manage to acquire any future draft equity easily its best two-way player.
Read More: Bulls, Thunder Agree to Huge Trade to Send Two-Way Star to Oklahoma City
Then, the Bulls agreed to a three-team sign-and-trade deal to ship out six-time All-Star swingman DeMar DeRozan to the Sacramento Kings. Chicago acquired shooting guard Chris Duarte and a pair of future second-round draft picks.
Read More: Can DeMar DeRozan Finally Win a Championship After Signing with Kings?
By ditching their two best players and receiving little back in the way of win-now assets, the Bulls are clearly looking to regress this season.
It makes sense, then, that team president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is still actively looking to trade its next two most decorated players, two-time All-Stars Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic. According to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, Karnisovas evidently has yet to find a trade he likes.
Read More: Bulls News: Chicago Looking to Trade 2 Pricey Stars This Offseason
Karnisovas’ front office lieutenant, general manager Marc Eversley, did not mince words when talking about his team’s plans for the duo in the future, even if they were to stay with the team.
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“The difference is we’re much younger,” Eversley told Jamal Collier of ESPN. “Not that it’s not about Zach or [Vucevic] anymore, but we’re giving these young guys an opportunity to see how much they can grow.”
By “these young guys,” Eversley is no doubt alluding to Buzelis, rising point guard Coby White, shooting guard Ayo Dosunmu, combo forward Patrick Williams, and Giddey, a former lottery pick.
“We’re not so focused on being a top-six seed or being in the play-in,” Eversley admitted. “We’re focusing on developing this group every single day and see how much better they can get over the next year.”
Even at the peak of the DeRozan/Caruso/LaVine/Ball/Vucevic era, Chicago only finished as high as the East’s No. 6 seed and took just won the game off the Milwaukee Bucks in their ill-fated first-round playoff matchup. The team was never functionally a threat in its conference.
Now, at least, it can truly move forward — whether or not LaVine or Vucevic stick around.
Read More: Bulls News: All-Star Being Consummate Pro While Chicago Struggles to Find Trade
