Bulls are a big-market disgrace at the bottom of a dubious list

The Chicago Bulls have not had a good offseason. 

The front office has been slammed for just about every move they’ve made outside of the choice of Matas Buzelis in the draft.  

They somehow got the worst of a 3-team sign-and-trade for DeMar DeRozan even though they had the best player, after waiting too long to move him. Same with Caruso. Even if you like Josh Giddey, the Bulls should have gotten more. 

They overpaid for Patrick Williams given the market and watched free-agent Andre Drummond leave when they could have had some picks for him at the deadline. 

The Bulls are also still embroiled in the NBA’s longest running soap opera with Zach LaVine, which has gotten progressively more heated in the press.  

On top of all that, the Bulls were recently ranked as one of the cheapest teams in the NBA by Bleacher Report, ahead of only the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons, teams that haven’t won or even been in the playoffs in nearly a decade. 

There is a strong argument that the Bulls should be known as the cheapest team in the NBA, because they are. 

The Chicago Bulls are the only big market team that doesn’t spend 

The Bulls are the 3rd largest market in the NBA and led the league in attendance again last season, but you wouldn’t know it by the way Jerry Reinsdorf spends money. 

You can forgive the small-market Hornets and perpetually rebuilding Pistons for not going into the tax, but Chicago has been trying to win in a massive market while raking in money and hasn’t paid a cent in luxury tax since 2017. 

For reference, the Golden State Warriors paid over $663 million in luxury tax in that time. The mid-market Bucks, in a city 1/5th the size of Chicago, spent over $189 million in tax. Oklahoma City, the smallest market in the NBA, paid over $89 million. 

Spending money isn’t everything and doesn’t guarantee success, but all of these teams have had it and the Bulls haven’t, partially because of bad moves, and partially because Jerry Reinsdorf won’t open his wallet. 

Last season was a perfect example. 

Playoff delusions, wasted assets and avoiding the tax 

We’ve been told that the reason the Bulls held onto DeRozan, Caruso and Drummond was that they were trying to make the playoffs, though no one in the right mind thought that was going to happen after a string of injuries. 

If we are to accept that, then why didn’t the Bulls do something at the trade deadline to make the team better? If you are going to waste your best trade assets, shouldn’t there be some kind of payoff? 

If you really “owed it to the team” to keep it together (as they claimed), then why not get them some help and make a real run at the playoffs instead of paying lip service to it? 

We know the answer. 

It would have required going into the luxury tax, which the Bulls never do. 

Fans can accept not throwing good money after bad, but this is an ownership group with a long history of not spending a dime more than it takes to put out a mediocre roster and keep selling tickets. 

This is one of the marquee teams in the NBA with one of the most recognizable brands in the world but you’d think they were the Amarillo Sod Poodles by the way they spend money.