Bulls have 'fascinating' decisions to make this season, according to NBA insider

As signaled by the trade of Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City and DeMar DeRozan's new home in Sacramento, the Chicago Bulls have finally decided to lean into a rebuild.

Unfortunately, the front office has made some poor choices the last few seasons, which makes actually completing said rebuild a problematic proposition.

The Bulls have several intriguing young players to retool around, namely Coby White and Matas Buzelis.

But Chicago - which owes its top-10 protected 2025 first-round draft pick to the San Antonio Spurs - needs to do more to get worse.

The Bulls need to find a way to jettison two more veterans in order to lose more games and secure that top-10 pick, which is only guaranteed if they finish with one of the six worst records in the league.

That makes what Chicago's front office does, perhaps more importantly when it does it, one of the more intriguing storylines to watch this year, according to one prominent NBA insider.

Bulls roster decisions deemed one of 'NBA's more fascinating' storylines

In his latest issue of The Stein Line, Marc Stein led a section centered around Chicago's season with, "The Bulls are absolutely fascinating."

That's not a statement commonly echoed around the league or NBA fandom, but Stein makes a valid point when he juxtaposes the franchise's need to lose as many games as possible while still carrying productive veterans on the roster.

He mentions Lonzo Ball's return and positive preseason showings, along with Zach LaVine's return from injury, as obstacles to what should be the Bulls' goal this season - locking up one of the sixth-worst records in the league and securing that top-10 pick in a seemingly loaded 2025 NBA Draft class.

"How can the Bulls, with all the vets they still have and with more than six teams out there fielding rosters that are way worse than Chicago's, lose enough to make sure they keep a pick that would be disastrous to surrender? Squandering a lottery pick would be legitimately devastating given the players beyond Cooper Flagg expected to be available in June like the Rutgers duo of Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper."

- Marc Stein

If or when the Bulls trade LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, along with possibly Ball and fellow point guard Jevon Carter, may make a massive difference in how many games Chicago loses.

As Stein notes, losing a valuable pick would be "devastating" in both the immediate and long-term futures at this stage of the team's rebuild.

The Bulls must find a way to move on from those veterans who could ruin the franchise's plans by leading Chicago to too many wins.