Three seasons into a complete rebuild, the Chicago Bulls find themselves no better than they were after a draft night trade in 2017.
It is very clear that the Chicago Bulls have a lot of talent on their roster, with names such as Zach LaVine, Coby White, Wendell Carter, and Lauri Markkanen coming to mind. However, this has simply not been enough to make them a competitive team in the far weaker Eastern Conference. Development can take time, and the Bulls have had some serious injury and coaching problems, but there are only so many excuses to be made for the lackluster performance of this roster.
Even a healthy Bulls roster with a new head coach and front office, this roster appears to be extremely limited. I do believe that this group, when healthy and under the right leadership, could be a playoff team in the East.
However, there is simply not enough on this roster to get past teams like Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. Much less, a Zach LaVine-lead unit would get steamrolled by Western teams like the Clippers, Lakers, and Nuggets.
The writing is on the wall for the Bulls, and it would be shocking if new President of Basketball Operations Arturas Karnisovas would be willing to keep a mere potentially mediocre group together long-term. Recently, Karnisovas was quoted as saying that he was not very fond of the term “rebuild”, and would rather like to see this team win basketball games sooner than later.
This leads us to believe that this bulk of this unit will remain in Chicago for the 2020-2021 season, which is absolutely the right call.
Throwing in the towel on this roster is without a doubt a wise and inevitable move, but doing so this summer is not the way to go about it. For starters, we have still not seen this roster play together while healthy, nor have they had a competent head coach. It is nearly impossible to evaluate a team without seeing them all on the floor together for a somewhat extended period of time, and it would be irresponsible to make any rash decisions without doing this diligence. Although unlikely, the Bulls could have a few surprises next season that make the front office and fans alike feel differently about this group.
Additionally, there are multiple Chicago Bulls who would need to re-coop their trade value in order to maximize the return in a potential deal. A prime example of this is Lauri Markkanen. Although a very disappointing 2019-2020 caused many to call for the Bulls to move on from the 22-year-old power forward, moving him this summer would be foolish.
His trade value is at an all-time low, so why move on from him now? It would be much wiser to give him the chance to revive his market value or to re-establish himself as a franchise cornerstone. Although his contract is expiring after next season, his status as a restricted free agent would allow the Bulls to move him at next year’s deadline without losing any of his value, if they choose to go that route.
Outside of Lauri Markkanen, the only players on expiring contracts next season would be Otto Porter (assuming that he opts into the final year of his contract), Cristiano Felicio, and Luke Kornet. Kornet and Felicio have little to no trade value, whereas Otto Porter’s absurd contract renders him virtually unmovable.
Keeping this in mind, it seems pointless to initiate a rebuild this Summer, as the Bulls do not have any valuable unrestricted free agents that they would need to maximize their return on in a trade.
Furthermore, a rebuild this summer would likely yield an influx of picks in the 2020 NBA Draft. For those who do not follow the draft closely, this 2020 group is one of the weaker draft classes that we have seen in some time. However, the class is very strong in one aspect: the point guard position. However, in the event of a rebuild, the only name that I would imagine being completely untouchable would be rookie Coby White, who plays the point guard position. With drafting a point guard seemingly off of the table for Chicago, it would make little sense to place a large stake in the future of this rebuild on a class that isn’t particularly strong.
Building off of this, the 2021 draft group is expected to be one of the strongest in the past few years. With names such as Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Greg Brown, Zaire Williams, and more, garnering picks in the 2021 NBA Draft would be a far-wiser move than investing in 2020. Granted, the Bulls could initiate a rebuild this summer while still acquiring picks for 2021. However, it would be far wiser to wait until the trade deadline to make a decision on Lauri Markkanen and the summer for the rest of the Bulls’ core, so that the team could have a better idea of what the draft order may be in 2021.
Yet another reason not to act hastily this summer is that there is no rush to make space for big-time free agents. This year’s free agent class is incredibly weak, with the top names on the open market limited to Anthony Davis (who will more than likely re-sign in Los Angeles), Brandon Ingram (restricted free agent), and Danilo Gallinari. The Bulls will probably not make any sort of splash in free agency this Summer, nor should they.
On the contrary, the 2021 free agent group could be one of the most loaded ever. This conglomeration of available players will be headlined by Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan, Victor Oladipo, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Blake Griffin, Rudy Gobert, LaMarcus Aldridge, and more. As of now, Chicago has a little more than $30 million in guaranteed contracts for the 2021-2022 campaign. This large amount of potential cap space, the large market that Chicago offers, and a capable front office and coaching staff could make the Bulls a premier free agent destination next summer.
Don’t get me wrong: this roster will eventually need to be scrapped in order to initiate a new rebuild, barring some sort of crazy breakout 2020-2021 season. However, now is not the time to do this for a plethora of reasons. It will be painful to watch another season of at best mediocre basketball, but being patient and waiting until the right time to initiate a rebuild could save the city of Chicago the pain and suffering that it has endured over the past three seasons of this rebuild.