Being a fan of the 2024-25 Chicago Bulls has been a ride full of highs and lows: pride and polarization, a painful goodbye coupled with surprising hellos.
The de facto slogan of the Bulls' 2024-25 NBA season fluidly revolves around "integrity. " The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of integrity provides a great contextual frame for the Bulls' 2024-25 NBA campaign:
- firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: incorruptibility
- an unimpaired condition: soundness
- The quality or state of being complete or undivided: completeness
The Bulls' front office narrative at the dawn of the 2024-25 NBA season certainly set an intention of projecting a sound, complete, incorruptible vision for basketball competition to the world.
However, once Arturas Karnisovas' roster transitioned from philosophical intent to real basketball battles, the optics of integrity quickly became a shameless retreat to mediocrity.
Bulls On Tap previewed the 2024-25 season along five storylines: a lingering veteran core, Patrick Williams' opportunity for improvement, Coby White responding to a new situation (again), and figuring out what the Bulls have in Matas Buzelis.
In the twilight of the Bulls' 2024-25 NBA season, the retrospective stories that are most effective at bringing closure to the season are the inner workings of Arturas Karnisovas, the arrival of the Josh Giddey/Coby White backcourt, Matas Buzelis, and the spare parts that are littered on the Bulls salary cap sheet.
The Motives and Strategy of Arturas Karnisovas
At the conclusion of the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, Bulls On Tap posited the motivations of Arturas Karnisovas' Bulls front office after the Bulls executed no trades for the third consecutive NBA trade deadline. Sentimental feelings towards Bulls players emerged as a plausible hypothesis as the primary motive behind Karnisovas' executive decision-making on Bulls basketball operations matters.
Sentimental feelings gradually calcified into bold expressions of autocratic supervision.
First, with a 2024 offseason report from ESPN's Jamal Collier that included now-infamous jabs at former Bulls guard Zach LaVine, in addition to a report of Karnisovas' feeling slighted by LaVine's willingness to be traded, while also providing illuminating profiles of the inner workings of the Bulls' "AKME" front office helmed by Karnisovas and Marc Eversley.
The recent firing of Dir of Player Development/shooting guru Peter Patton angered the core group of Bulls players that worked with him. It also pushed back the curtain on a bigger problem with AK's leadership style that one source alleged.
Read it:https://t.co/rmRfxe5KAt— Joe Cowley (@JCowleyHoops) April 18, 2025
More light was shed on Karnisovas' leadership behavior when it was reported on Friday that the Bulls fired popular player development and shooting coach Peter Patton. According to the Chicago Sun-Times columnist Joe Cowley, "If someone’s ideas conflict with his [Karnisovas] on roster-building or player development, there’s a warning to mute it or there could be consequences."
.@JCowleyHoops on the Arturas Karnisovas-led Bulls: "This is a one-man show. If this thing works, Arturas Karnisovas deserves all the credit. If this thing fails, it's pretty easy to figure out where all the blame goes."
Listen to Cowley's full interview: https://t.co/917wjn0z9d pic.twitter.com/lUxqBHoQJF— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) April 21, 2025
The firing of Patton may very well be the emergence of power and loyalty as the key motivators of the Karnisovas-led Chicago Bulls front office.
While Karnisovas is free to hire and fire as he sees fit, there can be no denying the unintended consequences of unilateral decision-making across the entire Bulls basketball operations department, as there were reports of a core contingent of Bulls players being unhappy with Patton's firing.
The Emergence of the Coby White and Josh Giddey Backcourt
The post-all-star break heroics of both Josh Giddey and Coby White understandably instilled a sense of pride and hope for the Chicago Bulls' future. However, it is worth noting that the two-man combination of Josh Giddey and Coby White tallied a -1.5 differential in points per 100 possession during the 2024-25 NBA season, per Basketball Reference.
McDaniels drives on Giddey
CHI at MIN (‘24-‘25)
source: https://t.co/n8LtpCUCHp pic.twitter.com/Y6rowfPEjs— NBA Clips by Mo (@MoBballFilm) March 1, 2025
For whatever offensive firepower Giddey and White generate for the Bulls in the right matchups, there will almost certainly be offsetting defensive lapses that likely put a low ceiling on pairing the guards as a long-term roster solution in the Bulls' backcourt.
Davion Mitchell with the ELITE defense on Coby White 🔒pic.twitter.com/h3lvnu1gyP
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 17, 2025
Matas Buzelis’ Maturation
Matas Buzelis was once an underutilized asset on Arturas Karnisovas' roster before the 2025 NBA All-Star Game.
Matas’ 3-ball finding the net is promising!
pic.twitter.com/rVSHw9SGas— Bulls On Tap (@BullsOnTap) April 2, 2025
Thankfully, once Buzelis' game minutes increased after the 2025 NBA All-Star Game, his on-court production also delivered a reciprocal increase.
Matas Buzelis 2024-25 NBA Season Splits - Pre and Post All-Star Game
Pre-All-Star Game:
- 14.8 minutes per game
- 6.4 points per game
- 2.8 rebounds per game
- 55.7% true shooting percentage
- 0.85 blocks per game
- 0.26 steals per game
Post-All-Star Game:
- 26.8 minutes per game
- 13.0 points per game
- 4.8 rebounds per game
- 58.5% true shooting percentage
- 1.1 blocks per game
- 0.56 steals per game
Data Source: Basketball Reference
Matas Buzelis is LOCKED IN on the defensive end of the court.
Already up to 2 blocks at the 3:45 mins mark of the 1Q
pic.twitter.com/vodiYKKPXC— Bulls On Tap (@BullsOnTap) April 1, 2025
Matas Buzelis is a key source of hope for the Chicago Bulls franchise going into the 2025 offseason because of his development progress that happened in real-time, on the court in Bulls games.
It is of critical importance that the Chicago Bulls organization give Matas full support in coaching staff and development planning to ensure Matas' progress continues without headwinds.
Summer 2025 Project: Cleaning Out the Junk Drawer
The Chicago Bulls likely are targeting Josh Giddey, Coby White, and Matas Buzelis as their next roster core, but there is also a cadre of spare parts on this roster that may or may not have a long-term home on the Bulls roster.
Nikola Vucevic, perhaps as much or more than Zach LaVine, lived in NBA trade rumors. Yet he is still on the Bulls roster going into the 2025 NBA offseason. In his 2024-25 NBA season exit interview, Vucevic was as candid as ever about his desire to play in a "win-now" situation.
Nikola Vucevic says he's at the stage of his career where he wants to "win now" and make deep playoff runs. pic.twitter.com/TEXc8P7Q9O
— Bulls on CHSN (@CHSN_Bulls) April 17, 2025
Reasonably, one should conclude that Vucevic wants a new franchise on the winning side of the NBA. However, can the Bulls' front office successfully land a trade to ship Vucevic after striking out on a deal during the 2025 NBA trade deadline?
Then there's Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter, Dalen Terry, Ayo Dosunmu, and Patrick Williams. With the exception of Williams, all players will enter the 2025-26 NBA season in expiring contract seasons with the Bulls per Spotrac.
Williams, despite injuries, was an unremarkable player in his fifth NBA season and would be better served by a change of scenery, even if it means the Bulls receive minimal return.
Overall, the Bulls' 2024-25 showed positive development, but there are equal if not greater negatives overshadowing the franchise that may obscure the Bulls from NBA relevancy for years to come.
