At least one Hall of Fame legend believes the Chicago Bulls need to address some issues this offseason.
Despite a very promising outlook for the first half of the regular season, injuries revealed some deficiencies within the roster, such as a lack of depth that ended up being costly in the first round of the playoffs.
On Monday afternoon, Lakers legend and five-time NBA champion Magic Johnson included Chicago on his list of teams that need to be proactive this summer.
The Playoff teams that need to make trades and moves this summer are the Brooklyn Nets, Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, and the Chicago Bulls.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) May 2, 2022
Unsurprisingly, all of the teams Magic mentioned, the Nets, Jazz, Hawks, and Bulls, all lost in the first round. Johnson has become well-known for stating the obvious in his tweets — so much so that he’s been labeled “Twitter’s Captain Obvious” in the past for gems like these:
When Steph & Klay are playing great together the Warriors are a hard team to beat.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) June 11, 2016
Mark my words: Kawhi Leonard will one day be a star in the NBA!
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) June 11, 2014
In this case, however, I’m not sure it’s entirely fair to lump the Bulls in with teams like Utah and Brooklyn that obviously need an overhaul. While they can certainly stand to improve in some areas like rebounding and bench quality, the team really felt the absence of important guys like Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso over the course of the season.
Fortunately, the Bulls will have the 18th pick in a promising draft class to help them address some roster holes. Last year, they found a gem in Ayo Dosunmu despite having to wait for 37 picks before they finally made their selection.
Besides the draft, Chicago will likely be open to any and all ways to improve over the next few months, whether it be through free agency, trades, or roster shuffles.
This isn’t the first time in recent weeks Magic has had an opinion about the Bulls and their roster. A few weeks ago, he blamed the Knicks’ failures this season on not signing Lonzo Ball, who was playing great basketball in Chicago until his knee injury sidelined him after 35 games. Of course, Johnson’s beloved Lakers originally drafted Ball with the second overall pick in 2017.
While Magic might be right that the Bulls need to make some changes, they don’t need to be as drastic as many believe.