Things finally seem to be trending in the right direction for a Chicago Bulls franchise that wants to rebuild.
There's reported interest in Nikola Vucevic, even if the veteran wouldn't fetch the return the organization hopes for. Torrey Craig and, to a lesser extent, Jevon Carter are wasting away on the Bulls' bench and could be worth something to contending teams.
As good as Lonzo Ball has been since his return, he'll never be the same player he was pre-surgeries. He's not shooting as efficiently and isn't scoring the way he did when he first got to Chicago. Those factors, combined with his $21.4 million expiring salary, make him expendable to the Bulls as well.
Even Zach LaVine has finally found himself in trade rumors and there seems to be a legitimate chance Chicago could deal him.
Things are finally breaking right for the Bulls. Or are they?
There's an alternate path Chicago could take that makes some sense as the organization moves forward.
Bulls could be buyers at the trade deadline and make a postseason push
Head coach Billy Donovan's team adopted a new up-tempo, 3-point-heavy playing style this season, and while the results haven't been flawless, they haven't been awful, either.
The Bulls rank second in the NBA in 3-point attempts at 44.0 per game behind only the defending champion Boston Celtics. And despite launching all those shots from deep, they're ninth in 3-point percentage (37.8).
The Celtics are 15th at 36.7 percent.
Chicago is second in the league in pace and third in total possessions. They're sixth in assist percentage—more than two-thirds of their made baskets come off an assist.
They're admittedly awful on defense, but this system fits their roster. With Josh Giddey now running point, Coby White and LaVine bombing away from deep on the wings and bigs like Patrick Williams and Jalen Smith shooting better than 36 percent from deep, everything makes sense.
That's not even including Vucevic, who's hitting a career-high 48.0 percent from three on 4.6 attempts per night.
The Bulls want to run and gun and they have the personnel to do it.
On some nights, Chicago is good enough to upset the Celtics on the road, as they did on Dec. 19.
One win won't make or break a season, but taking down the defending champs brought the Bulls within two games of .500 (13-15) and only two games back of sixth place in the Eastern Conference, a spot that would mean Chicago avoids the Play-In Tournament entirely.
The East isn't by any means a gauntlet this year, either. Joel Embiid, Paul George and the Philadelphia 76ers—presumed to be a contender—are 8-16. The third-place Knicks, fourth-place Magic, fifth-place Bucks and sixth-place Heat are all within 2.5 games of each other in the standings.
Chicago could push its rebuild off one more year
The most difficult thing to imagine in this scenario is that, without landing a top-10 pick, the Bulls would lose their first-round selection in the 2025 NBA Draft. That would be a tough pill to swallow, rebuild or not.
On the bright side, that pick, which is owed to the San Antonio Spurs, is protected 1-10 this year and 1-8 in 2026 and 2027. If it conveys this summer, Chicago would be in control of its own firsts moving forward without these protections hanging over its head.
The Bulls want a first-round pick for Vucevic. The rest of the league seems prepared to hand over a few seconds at most.
Next year, the 34-year-old big man will be on a $21.5 million expiring contract. That may make him more attractive to teams in need of a stretch five, an archetype that's always in demand across the league.
LaVine would only have two years left on his deal—one of which is a player option—which would make his contract less overwhelming.
Ball's $21.4 million would go off the books.
Add it up and that's more than $60 million in cap space the Bulls could still open in the offseason or during the 2025-26 campaign.
Is this a risky path to take? Definitely. But given how surprisingly competitive Chicago has been this season, how averse the organization is to tanking and the other possibilities it creates (controlling their draft picks, having a chance to carry a young team to the playoffs, roster flexibility), it's a path the Bulls have to begin considering.