The Chicago Bulls now officially hold the No. 12 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, meaning there's still no light at the end of the tunnel of mediocrity the franchise has built for itself.
No way is that complete level of averageness explained better than this: Had the Bulls lost one more game during the regular season, they would have finished one spot ahead of the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Draft Lottery and would be celebrating a future with Cooper Flagg.
Instead, the Bulls felt the need to make a third straight run at the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament. Well, they did it. And then lost by 19 to the Miami Heat.
And now own another late-lottery selection rather than the franchise-altering player they've desperately needed for more than a decade.
Bulls' 2025 NBA Draft Lottery luck is a perfect metaphor for the franchise
It won't shock fans that the most Bulls-thing possible happened during May 12's lottery. Chicago was 12th in the standings at the end of the regular season and didn't move up. It didn't even move down. It did nothing but stay the same.
The outcome was so boring that ESPN's Kevin Negandhi, who kept a running informative commentary for fans between every pick reveal, was silent when the Bulls came up at No. 12. Complete crickets.
Chicago has finished above .500 once since 2015-16. The team went 42-40 that year when Doug McDermott played a team-high 81 games and Taj Gibson and Nikola Mirotic were among head coach Fred Hoiberg's regular starters.
That team didn't make the playoffs.
In fact, the Bulls have only made the playoffs twice since the 2016-17 season. They haven't actually won a series since 2015.
Instead, the franchise has been a part of the Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament three of the four years the event has existed. The Bulls have played in five Play-In games, the second-most among all NBA franchises behind the Heat and Atlanta Hawks, which have each played in six.
Chicago hasn't had a top-10 pick since 2020 when it selected Patrick Williams fourth overall. Oops.
Despite all the ordinariness, the Bulls have had a total of four lottery picks (now five) in the last seven seasons. They took Wendell Carter Jr. at No. 7 in 2018. He became part of the trade that brought Nikola Vucevic, perhaps the player embodiment of mediocrity, to Chicago.
The front office has to make a decision on point guard Josh Giddey's future. If the Bulls bring Giddey back, they'll likely be locked into a core of him, Coby White and Buzelis. Unless White takes yet another leap and Buzelis becomes a perennial All-Star, that trio isn't lifting the franchise toward title contention.
Now, instead of embracing even the slightest of tanks—which would have meant landing Flagg and changing the next decade-plus of basketball in Chicago—the Bulls have the chance to add the No. 12 pick to their roster.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Chicago Bulls: The NBA's Embodiment of Mediocrity.