The Chicago Bulls lost DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso this summer, with many fans hoping the team starts to rebuild by maximizing a top pick from the 2025 NBA Draft. Instead, team GM Arturas Karnisovas has made it clear that the team is looking to win games next season while appearing on the 'Mully and Haugh Show.'
“We’re going to try to win every game because going back to development – what goes into winning? And that’s the only way you can teach those guys how to win games, is going through that. With a lot of things to be determined, I think training camp will show a lot of things.”
The Bulls have been a mediocre team for years now but haven't had a top-five Draft pick since 2020. They've only made the Playoffs once in this span, with integral pieces of that Playoff run DeRozan and Caruso both leaving the franchise this summer.
There's an opportunity to rebuild with young players like Giddey, Coby White, Patrick Williams, and rookie Matas Buzelis along with whoever they can add from the 2025 NBA Draft, but the team isn't keen on doing that.
Bulls fans have to strap in for another season where they might be good enough to be in the Play-In Tournament but not good enough to be a competitive Playoff threat.
The Bulls Playing For Diminishing Returns
What's the point, Chicago? Why are they trying to make this core competitive when they've failed at doing so in past seasons? There has to be a point where they just restart this process, with this season looking like the perfect time to do it. This allows them to have use for players like Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine, who are reportedly generating no interest in the trade market.
There is a theory that Karnisovas made these claims publicly to present the Bulls as a competitive team while they plan to internally tank. They likely will start the season playing to win and restore trade value for LaVine and Vucevic, but I don't see how they can sustain that till the end of the year unless one of their young stars takes a leap.
Tanking is technically not allowed, with teams like the Dallas Mavericks getting fined for tanking as recently as 2023. Everyone knows that tanking is allowed as long as it isn't blatant, so Karnisovas likely wouldn't want to make these plans as public as many others assume it to be for other teams.
The Brooklyn Nets haven't come out and said they're tanking or that they don't plan to be competitive next season, but fans and media know that they reacquired their 2025 pick in a trade where they gave up more value so that they could tank for a pick. It appears subtle when it really isn't, so the Bulls are at least trying to make their efforts subtle.
If Karnisovas is being genuine about their winning hopes, it explains why the team has been stuck in a mid-table rut for the last many years, not picking a direction to protect the team's assets.
