Bulls 27-point loss to Celtics seals their fate moving forward

Entering last night's contest against the NBA-leading 13-4 Boston Celtics, I can't say I suspected the Chicago Bulls to emerge victorious. I did expect, however, that the Bulls would come out and at the very least pretend they were interested in trying to bring home a win. That didn't seem to be the case, as Boston would trample Chicago 124-97, effortlessly cruising to a win that reaffirmed their position at the top of the Eastern Conference while the Bulls once again found a way to embarrass themselves.

The Bulls, on the other hand, keep sinking lower and lower down the standings. Chicago now sits in the 13th-seeded position in the East and holds the 5th-worst record in the NBA as a whole. When you look at the teams near them in the standings — namely the Trail Blazers, Spurs, Hornets, and injured Grizzlies — the talent disparity between them and the Bulls is so large that I have a difficult time rationalizing the Bulls' poor play.

For those like me, who unfortunately spent their evening watching the Bulls, that truth was on full display last night. No player on the Bulls managed to score 20 points, with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic each playing particularly horribly, scoring just 10 points on a combined 5-for-20 shooting from the field. As a result, the Celtics comfortably built a 29-point lead entering the fourth quarter that allowed them to coast to the finish.

The Bulls' latest loss to the Celtics proves how badly this team is in need of a rebuild.

The Bulls were never going to be favorites to win last night. That doesn't mean they should be counted out entirely, as we saw this team split the season series 2-2 with Boston just last year. They managed the same feat against some of the East's other top teams like Milwaukee and Philadelphia and even swept the eventual Eastern Conference champion Heat squad 3-0 in the regular season.

Last year's version of the roster had heart and truly seemed intent on overcoming the lack of talent on the roster to become a competitive squad. They'd miss out on the postseason in the end, but it certainly wasn't for a lack of trying, The same could not be said for this year's team, as they have limped their way to a 5-14 record despite playing a relatively weaker schedule thus far with much more difficult opponents awaiting in the near future.

Chicago now slides into a position with strong lottery odds, currently possessing a 10.5% chance at the top selection in next year's draft and a 42.1% chance to land a top-four pick. The Pistons, Spurs, Wizards, and Grizzlies are the only teams to start the year off on a worse note, but the Bulls are still only two games back from being the worst team in the NBA. With Bojan Bogdanovic returning from injury and Ja Morant's 25-game suspension set to end soon, the Pistons and Grizzlies are also likely to see a boost to their records when they return to full strength,

Nobody wants to be discussing lottery odds this early into the season. Truthfully, rooting for your favorite team is a very unpleasant experience. But this roster as currently constructed is not winning, and fighting the tide is only going to do even more long-term damage to this franchise. The day the Bulls finally accept their fate, sell off their assets for whatever value they still have, and commit to developing young talent and rebuilding through the draft, is the day this team becomes worth watching again.