The Chicago Bulls are proving to not be gaining much marketability around the NBA, even after their recent front office changes.
There are some members of the NBA media that are always spot on about the current standing of the Chicago Bulls. And there’s usually no members of the media that are going to be more spot on about the image of the Bulls around the rest of the NBA than a former player from this team. One media member that got the situation the Bulls find themselves in now spot on was Hall-of-Fame forward Scottie Pippen.
In a recent interview with Tiki and Tierney, Pippen opened up on his thoughts about the Bulls and their image around the NBA and how that will impact them as a free agency, or trade destination. He was quoted saying that “it doesn’t look like Chicago is a destination for free agents”, among other things in this Q&A with Tiki and Tierney.
Pippen is pretty spot on with this thought on the Bulls, and this was a problem for as long as the Reinsdorfs were the majority owners of the franchise. Some things never change within this organization, and the culture fit is not setup for most superstars that are hitting free agency.
“It doesn’t look like Chicago is a destination for free agents...."@ScottiePippen says the Bulls need to build through the draft because top Free Agents aren't going to Chicago!
— The Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata Show (@BTandSal) July 28, 2020
Full interview: https://t.co/vvtcG4GtGB pic.twitter.com/CFHSGX6AxT
The Bulls have not landed a big name off of the free agent market in a long time. Last offseason, the biggest names they brought into the Windy City were former Washington Wizards combo guard Tomas Satoransky and ex-Indiana Pacers forward Thaddeus Young. They also signed former New York Knicks center Luke Kornet.
Even though last offseason brought about a very lucractive free agent class, the Bulls couldn’t do anything about it. No one wanted to play with the Bulls anymore. And that’s mostly been true since all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan and Pippen were done with the Bulls following the 1998 NBA Championship.
At one point, it looked like the problem was former vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and general manager Gar Forman. But the writing is on the wall to show that the Bulls might not do much better in free agency in the near future with former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas replacing Paxson and ex-Philadelphia 76ers executive Marc Eversley replacing Forman.
The Bulls appear to be standing pat with current head coach Jim Boylen heading into the 2020-21 season, which will not help their image to prospective free agents and future trade targets. Boylen already isn’t too popular amongst his players, so adding fuel to the flame will make the future prospects in free agency much worse for the Bulls.
The point here is that the Bulls need to completely change to also shift their image in a positive sense around the NBA. But that is something that is unlikely to change anytime soon, as long as Jerry Reinsdorf is running the show and still looking to prioritize profit margin above all else.
Finishing up the 2019-20 season with a record of 22-43 prior to the novel coronavirus-induced hiatus back in mid-March also won’t help the Bulls standing in this round of free agency. The good part to that is that the 2021 free agent class is where most of the star power will be.