The Chicago Bulls beat the Washington Wizards 127-108 on Nov. 26. It marked just the second time the Bulls held a team under 110 points this season and moved Chicago to 8-11 while dropping the Wizards to a league-worst 2-14.
Despite having no chance of competing for anything worthwhile, Chicago's front office pairing of Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas and General Manager Marc Eversley is still hoarding veterans like Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic.
That duo makes the Bulls just competitive enough to win games and avoid a top draft pick but not competitive enough to make any kind of postseason push.
The franchise is stuck in the worst kind of NBA limbo and needs a complete overhaul if it hopes to legitimately aim for championships again.
The Bulls just got an up close and personal look at the ideal blueprint to follow when (unfortunately, maybe if) they finally pull the trigger on a much-needed and long-awaited rebuild.
Bulls can steal the perfect overhaul strategy from an unlikely source
As of Nov. 29, the Wizards have won two of their 17 games in 2024-25. They're the worst team in the NBA in multiple categories, and there's no immediate path to being anything other than terrible.
That's exactly where Chicago needs to be.
Washington was in the same situation the Bulls are in right now: Good enough to hang around a playoff spot, not bad enough to rebuild around top draft picks.
Then they finally changed course, traded away their best players, fired their coach, began to rebuild their draft asset cupboard, morphed into an awful basketball team and birthed hope for the future.
Chicago can follow a similar path to terribleness in a few steps.
1. Rebuild the front office
This is the simplest and most important step to complete.
Washington fired Tommy Sheppard and brought in new leadership in president Michael Winger and GM Will Dawkins.
Both experienced working in the Oklahoma City Thunder organization - the shining example of how to rebuild a franchise. Grabbing a few people from that front office wouldn't be a bad idea.
2. Trade your star player
The Wizards finally found a trade partner and pulled the trigger on a Bradley Beal deal, sending their franchise player to the Phoenix Suns.
In return, Washington received Chris Paul and Landry Shamet to match salaries, along with four first-round pick swaps and six second-round picks.
If that seems like a lot for Beal, that's because it is. The Wizards lucked out and found a desperate new owner in Mat Ishbia, who was willing to overpay for Beal.
Chicago likely won't have that advantage, but there are reasons to believe the franchise could find at least a somewhat similar return package if they finally trade LaVine.
When Washington traded Beal, he was entering his age 30 season with four years and $208 million left on a five-year extension he signed with the Wizards. He was coming off a season in which he played 50 games and averaged 23.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists with shooting splits of 51/37/84.
Any team acquiring LaVine this offseason would be on the hook for two years and $95 million, and the 29-year-old is averaging 21.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists on 51/43/81 shooting splits.
LaVine has a more attractive contract and similar, if not better, production than Beal when the Wizards traded him to Phoenix.
A package including four first-round swaps and six second-round picks is probably out of the question, but if LaVine stays mostly healthy and keeps producing like this, he should be worth something valuable on the trade market.
3. Trade your second-best player and unnecessary veterans
The Wizards forwarded Paul to Golden State in exchange for a distressed asset in Jordan Poole, along with a few low-level prospects, a heavily protected first-round pick and a second-round selection.
Chicago will be forced to take back unwanted salary in any LaVine trade. Sending that player(s) to another organization for any return possible would make the most sense.
Then Washington dealt center Kristaps Porzingis, a somewhat distressed asset himself with a long injury history, and received a backup point guard in Tyus Jones, two more unneeded veterans in Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala and a second-round pick.
The Bulls could follow the same path with Vucevic. Like any LaVine deal, a Vucevic trade would net Chicago less than what the Wizards got for Porzingis, but something like Gallinari and Muscala to match salaries and a second-rounder isn't out of the realm of possibility.
4. Take swings in the draft
In his two drafts as GM in Washington, Dawkins has taken whatever picks he had and moved up and down the board while ignoring any prospect who could contribute to winning immediately, instead opting for younger, rawer, boom-or-bust players.
And to grab more selections, he dealt away perhaps his best young player in Deni Avdija in a draft-day trade, acquiring the 14th overall pick in 2024, a 2029 first and second rounders in 2028 and 2029.
That gave the Wizards another lottery selection and more draft capital to play with, even if it's far down the line.
The Bulls could do the same with Coby White, perhaps landing an even bigger return than what Washington got for Avdija.
Then, Dawkins used his draft picks to snag high-upside prospects like Bilal Coulibaly, Kyshawn George, Bub Carrington and Alex Sarr.
All four are playing more than 26 minutes per game for the Wizards this season, which accomplishes two more elements crucial to a rebuild: Let your young players develop and lose tons of games to land even more critically important draft picks.
The Bulls have LaVine and Vucevic like Washington had Beal and Porzingis. LaVine and Vooch are both having bounce-back, if not career, seasons. If they continue to play that way, there should be real value for both on the trade market this summer.
The Wizards restructured their front office and changed head coaches. Chicago could stand to do the same.
Washington was opportunistic in trades and only took high-upside swings with its draft picks. Maybe a new GM could do the same for the Bulls.
There are several similarities between where the Wizards were in the 2023 offseason when Dawkins took over and where the Bulls may be in the 2025 offseason. The blueprint for Chicago's franchise overhaul is hiding in plain sight; all the Bulls have to do now is copy it.