Progress and "generational incompetence" for the Chicago Bulls

You have to take the good with the bad when it comes to this offseason for the Chicago Bulls. 

They’ve made a few moves that have been applauded, but have also botched others in ways that a 13-year-old playing NBA2K would have avoided. 

In a recent article breaking down the Bulls’ offseason, Bleacher Report said the team has made “progress” but also showed “generational incompetence.” 

I’m not sure about the first one, but the second is definitely true. 

Have the Chicago Bulls made progress? 

I’m not so sure. 

Yes, they did a halfway nod to a rebuild by trading Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan, but they are still stuck between that rebuild and a team that could actually compete for something meaningful other than the 10th seed. 

They got worse, but not so much that they are tanking and if they aren’t able to jettison Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, the Bulls are at risk of losing their top-10 protected pick. 

They are going to have to give those two away for nothing barring a miracle, so what does that leave the Bulls? 

They have a 21-year-old Josh Giddey whose game has major red flags (getting benched in the playoffs after starting all season is not a good sign) and is about to get a huge raise. Looking at some of the contracts the Bulls have given out recently, is there any doubt Giddey will get overpaid and somehow have a player option at the end of his max deal? 

Speaking of horrible deals, the Bulls now have Patrick Williams locked up at a price no other team was going to pay, insanely giving him a player option for the 5th year, which is usually a carrot reserved for a player who signs a team-friendly deal and wants to bet on himself, not for a guy who got paid far more than market value. Why didn't the Bulls play hardball here?

The Bulls have Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, talented players who are great values, but whose contracts only run two more seasons before they become unrestricted free agents. Are they part of the long-term plans? Good luck re-signing them.

Chicago has promising rookie Matas Buzelis, who along with Giddey and Williams form the young “core” of this team. I like Buzelis, but is this trio even in the top-10 of young threesomes in the NBA? No way.

So, the “progress” is a bad team that might be just good enough to lose its draft pick, Josh Giddey’s (a guy whose team couldn’t wait to get rid of) future bloated contract, Patrick Williams’ terrible deal and a rookie who has never played. 

The Bulls still have LaVine and Vucevic and now have two new trade assets to mismanage in Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu. 

This is all to go along with an owner and front office that has made it clear they think the team can be “competitive” in 2024-25. Does this sound like progress or more of the same? 

The Bulls have committed “generational incompetence” 

The front office was also accused of “generational incompetence” (great term) for their handling of pretty much everything this offseason. 

I can’t argue with that, as just about every move the Bulls have made the last year has been inexplicable, from their refusal to cash in on Caruso and DeRozan at the right time, to their overzealous signing of Patrick Williams, to the entire Zach LaVine situation from soup to nuts, including trashing him in the press for some reason at the exact time they are trying to trade him. 

Aside from the fact that notorious pinchpenny Jerry Reinsdorf would never pay someone to not work, it’s hard to see how anyone in the Bulls front office still has a job. 

The Bulls may have nudged towards progress, but not enough for it to really matter, at least until they blow up the rest of the roster and start this rebuild for real.