The Chicago Bulls have only themselves to blame for picking at No. 12, a mediocre pick in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft. The Bulls lost out on a coin flip to the Dallas Mavericks in the draft lottery, which meant Chicago was stuck with the pick they earned from a losing season that ended with an embarrassing loss to the Miami Heat in the Play-In Tournament.
The Mavs won the rights to pick Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick this summer.
Ouch.
Chicago could have earned a top-four pick and a chance to win Flagg’s rights if they lost another game, but the front office’s pride got in the way, as they finished with the same record as the Mavs.
Chicago Bulls front office called out for a dumb decision
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times called out Arturas Karnisovas for the Bulls’ ridiculous decision to go full-steam ahead into the Play-In Tournament instead of tanking for a top pick.
“Arturas Karnisovas got exactly what he deserved on Monday,” Cowley wrote. “Not what the Bulls’ executive vice president of basketball operations hoped for when the balls finished bouncing around in the hopper for the NBA’s annual draft lottery and definitely not what Karnisovas wanted to see happen, but this is what he earned.
“He made that very clear throughout the 2024-25 season, and even before that. The idea of tanking to increase draft lottery odds is just not in Karnisovas’ DNA, even when there is a can’t-miss prospect like Duke’s Cooper Flagg waving in the wind as the unanimous No. 1 overall pick.”
Billy Donovan wanted to play the young guys in meaningful minutes
Bulls head coach Billy Donovan defended the decision to make the Play-In Tournament during the regular season despite Chicago’s chances being less than slim to win a playoff series.
“There’s something really, really powerful in players that are younger, at some point in their career, they’ve got to impact winning. Even though where we’re at right now as a team, we’re in the play-in, but we’re still kind of at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. But the reality is we have a chance to play meaningful games, and that’s going to help (rookie) Matas (Buzelis)…
“Those things are meaningful. That really, really plays a major factor in player development, and it also puts these guys in situations that they haven’t been in before. And I think when you take the focus off of winning, you miss a big point of what’s going to happen in the future. At some point, these guys are going to be put in a situation of where now winning becomes important. You want to make a run. And if they don’t play in these meaningful games, I think it hurts their development.”
Losing out on Flagg really hurt the Bulls’ chances at developing a winner, and whoever they get at No. 12 isn’t likely to make an impact for years to come.
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