The Chicago Bulls‘ season is over. Billy Donovan’s team was eliminated from the NBA play-in tournament at the hands of the Miami Heat on Wednesday, April 16. This is the third consecutive season Miami has eliminated Chicago from the play-in tournament.
The Bulls have some work to do. This season was always going to be about getting younger and developing talent. Moving on from Zach LaVine certainly helped the Bulls pivot toward their new goals. Now, the front office must use a calculated approach as it continues retooling the roster.
If Chicago plans on dipping its toes into the trade market this season, finding some reliable floor spacers must be high on the agenda. Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report believes that Isaiah Joe of the Oklahoma City Thunder should be among the Bulls’ top trade targets.
“Isaiah Joe ranks favorably among the best spacers in basketball,” Buckley reasoned. “Since becoming a rotation regular in 2022-23, he has averaged 2.2 triples with a 41.2 percent splash rate. And he provides all that net-shredding while also being a competent and pesky player at the defensive end. If he sounds like someone the Thunder should keep, that’s because he probably is….There’s a scenario in which Oklahoma City convinces itself it can find an even cheaper version of Joe, a cost-cutting measure to prepare for the upcoming paydays to Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren.”
Joe already knows how to operate in a rotation led by Josh Giddey. The pair played together during Giddey’s tenure with the Thunder. As such, Joe would likely form a fearsome partnership with the Bulls’ star guard, assuming he re-signs in the summer.
Bulls Are Embracing a Sustainable Rebuild
Joe isn’t the most glamorous addition, but he would be a genuine floor-raiser for Donovan’s roster. Acquiring the sharpshooter is the type of move teams make when they’re serious about building a sustainable contender that can develop over time.
In a recent mailbag article from Sam Smith of NBA.com, the Bulls insider noted how the front office is approaching this rebuild with the future at the forefront of their decision-making.
“The Bulls seem pretty done with the big-time-free-agent Alpha route and Big Three makeup,” Sam Smith wrote in a recent mailbag for NBA.com. “…But since the Vučević trade it seems like the Bulls have decided, especially with the urgency in the LaVine trade to get their own daft pick back, that the future will be more about using their own picks in an organic improvement.”
Smith continued.
“…I doubt the Bulls endanger that by trying to make a move to win once—or get to sixth—than gradually building upon what they have. It’s difficult, but it seems like they are going to pursue sustainability over the spectacular. A lot of teams like Philadelphia recently won the offseason; it’s not as valid a route anymore.”
While a rebuild of this nature will take longer to come to fruition, it does provide the fanbase with trust in the knowledge that the current leadership team has learned from its previous mistakes.
Nikola Vucevic Could Stay With Bulls
Every rebuilding team needs one or two veterans, either on the court or in the locker room. It would appear that Nikola Vucevic wants to be one of those veterans for the Bulls. The floor-spacing big man will be in the final year of his contract once the 2025-26 season begins.
According to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, Vucevic would like to see out that final year in Chicago.
“One player who’s suddenly buying in — and would like to stay another season and finish out his contract — is Vucevic,” Cowley wrote. “That’s a bit surprising, especially after good friend DeMar DeRozan was traded to the Kings and Alex Caruso to the Thunder last summer, followed by the LaVine trade. All signs had pointed to Vucevic being traded by the Feb. 6 deadline, and when he wasn’t, there were concerns he’d check out.”
Vucevic has been one of the Bulls’ most reliable players this season. Keeping him around for one more season wouldn’t be the worst idea. However, the front office may look to cash in on the veteran rather than losing him for nothing in 2026.
Either way, the Bulls are making smart choices, and in terms of Vucevic, there isn’t a bad way to approach things. But if moving Vucevic could help land a shooter like Joe, then that’s something they should consider.
