With a 17-10 record after the All-Star break and a 15-5 finish to the regular season, the Bulls earned themselves a spot in the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament for the third consecutive campaign. And for the third consecutive campaign, Chicago's season ended with a loss to the Miami Heat.
Josh Giddey and Coby White both showed dramatic improvements over the year's final months. Matas Buzelis got 31 starts under his belt.
And all three got valuable experience in a win-or-go-home situation ... by going (or staying) straight home after losing by 19 points.
That final stretch of the season was not nothing, but it came at the expense of a potential top-10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The Bulls have just a 1.7 chance of landing the No. 1 pick this summer and only a 2.4 percent shot at getting in the top four. Compare that to earlier in the year, when Chicago was eighth in the draft lottery standings, with a 6.0 percent chance of vaulting to No. 1 and a 7.2 percent chance of selecting within the top four.
But what's done is done, and the Bulls will enter the pre-draft process sitting 12th in the lottery standings. Buzelis slid to No. 11 last year, so all hope is not lost, but it will take solid scouting and a little luck for Chicago to land the type of game-changing player Buzelis appears to be.
More than a handful of experts over the past month or so have been linking the Bulls to the same prospect in their respective mock drafts. At first glance, that prospect seems like an odd fit at best, a potential bust at worst. But maybe that's not the case.
2025 NBA Mock Drafts continue to link Bulls with guard Jase Richardson
As mentioned above, Giddey and White took giant steps toward becoming the franchise's backcourt of the future. But the 22-year-old Giddey will command a hefty salary this summer as a restricted free agent, and White's team-friendly deal expires after next season. Ayo Dosunmu, who filled Chicago's sixth man and third guard roles before his season ended due to a shoulder injury, will also see his contract end after next year.
The Bulls need to make some decisions with that trio that will, without exaggeration, decide the future of the franchise. Giddey better be the long-term answer at point guard if he's going to make upwards of $30 million per season. White must make good on his potential to be the team's top scorer if he's going to earn his own large salary. Then what to do with Dosunmu?
Doling out a long-term deal to a third guard would be a massive team-building mistake. Or perhaps another massive team-building mistake, given that we're talking about the Bulls (see: Williams, Patrick). That's where Jase Richardson could enter the picture.
The general scouting report on Richardson is that he's a calm and steady high-IQ combo guard with a developing outside shot, which makes him a versatile option as a pick-and-roll ballhandler, spot-up shooter or secondary offensive creator.
Unfortunately, he's generously listed at 6-foot-3, isn't a high-level athlete and won't contribute a ton defensively. That wouldn't be the ideal fit for a team with a defensively deficient backcourt in White and Giddey, and lacks any source of rim protection. Using a lottery pick on a somewhat redundant, undersized guard, rather than addressing a massive need in the frontcourt, could certainly be viewed as a mistake for Chicago.
But considering his age (19), adaptability, basketball intelligence and the likelihood that there's more to his game than he was allowed to show under coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State, perhaps Richardson isn't as odd of a fit as he is upon first glance.
Add in the fact that at least one of the Bulls' top three guards should be on his way out of Chicago by the end of next season, if not sooner, and selecting Richardson with a late-lottery pick makes even more sense.
Would he address the team's most significant need? No. Almost exactly the opposite, actually. But could he develop into a valuable player on the next Bulls team that's ready to make a legitimate playoff push? His skill set and ability to fill multiple roles as a low-usage guard would say yes.