The Chicago Bulls are slowly chipping away at their rebuild. DeMar DeRozan was traded in July. The Bulls sent Zach LaVine to reunite with DeRozan in Sacramento on Sunday night.
Chicago attempted to swap other pieces before Thursday’s trade deadline, including Nikola Vucevic. Instead, the Bulls failed to make a deal, and the front office will be content to trade the aging center in the offseason for a lower price.
On Thursday, Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said, after failing to fully dismantle the roster, that he hoped to see the current roster compete for a Play-In spot after the regular season.
The plan appeared crazy, as Chicago would give up a valuable draft position in exchange for mediocrity.
The Chicago Bulls have a reckless plan
During an appearance on 670 The Score‘s “Mully & Haugh Show” Friday morning, Bulls insider K.C. Johnson said Karnisovas clarified his remarks to the CHSN reporter. Karnisovas understands how important the draft pick is but won’t force head coach Billy Donovan to tank the team if young talent on the Bulls starts getting hot.
“But when he went back and clarified it, he said something then that he said to us that day in LA,” Johnson said. “Basically, what he means is like, if they start playing Matas Buzelis 30 minutes a night, if they start playing Patrick Williams 30 minutes a night, they start playing Tre Jones 15 minutes a night, they start Ayo (Dosunmu) 30 minutes a night and that team gets on a roll and just starts winning games like wildfire and they make the plan.
“They’re not going to stop that. They’re not going to jump in front of that train and let that stop. So because, as he said, learning how to win games as a young player is development. It is growth. He understands how important this draft pick is.”
The Bulls need more talent
Johnson argued the Bulls should focus on putting themselves in a position to land a top-four pick in the lottery, as most NBA scouts feel there’s a large separation between the top-four picks and the rest of the 2025 draft.
Karnisovas doesn’t feel that way. Or at least he’s not saying that publicly so he can’t be accused of tanking. AK should absolutely be jumping in front of the train to attempt to secure a high draft pick for Chicago.
It doesn’t matter if this young squad can make a play-in tournament. Without elite talent, they’ll never go deep in the playoffs.
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