The Chicago Bulls‘ season is over. The front office will already be making preparations for the upcoming draft and will likely have an idea of some potential free agency targets.
Billy Donovan’s team is in flux. The front office is walking a fine line between rebuilding and retooling. As such, it’s fair to expect the Bulls’ rotation to look different by the time the 2025-26 season gets underway later this year.
With so much change happening in Chicago, it’s hard to get a pulse on where the team is at in terms of its current development. According to Kenny Beecham, who was speaking on an April 18 episode of Fan Duel TV’s “Run It Back,” the Bulls are two or three years away from being back on track.
“I don’t think there’s saving this team,” Beechman said. “A lot of us wanted this team to take a step back, which they did. They traded Zach LaVine. Traded DeMar DeRozan before the season started. And, even then, we still look at the roster squinting our eyes, like ‘there’s not a lot going on here.’ I think we’ve still got two to three more years before we can be excited about Bulls’ basketball again.”
Chicago did show some signs of growth after the Feb. 6 trade deadline. However, the Miami Heat ended the team’s dreams of making the playoffs, eliminating them from the play-in tournament for the third consecutive season.
Nikola Vucevic Could Leave the Bulls
With the Bulls working through a roster reset, Nikola Vucevic‘s future has become a hot topic of conversation. The veteran big man was one of the Bulls’ best players this season. However, he is entering the final year of this contract and will become an unrestricted free agent in 2026.
Furthermore, during a recent media availability, Vucevic hinted that he would prefer to be playing for a contending roster at this stage of his career.
“There are some good, young pieces that can be built around,” Vucevic said. “There are a lot of questions when you’re a team not fighting for the top. I have trust in them and believe they want to do what’s best and build a good team that wants to win. So we’ll see. Obviously, I’m at the stage in my career where I’m trying to win now, play in the playoffs and hopefully have deep playoff runs. It’s a young team and it does take time. It all depends on what their timeline is and how they see this team.”
Chicago will likely explore Vucevic’s trade value around the NBA. After all, it would make little sense to keep him for another year and then lose him for nothing in free agency.
Bulls’ Arturas Karnisovas Calls for Patience
When speaking to the media on April 17, Vice President of Basketball Operations Artura Karnisovas asked for the Bulls fan base to show patience as the team rebuilds.
“I’m asking for the fans to have patience,” Karnisovas said. “We’re in the first year of that transition. I thought that the way we finished the year shows some promise. It’s hard to win games in this league. But to finish 15-5, it’s not a victory lap, but I think there are some positives. I think we gotta keep on building this group by adding another player in the lottery. Going into free agency and adding another piece. And, obviously, going into the summer, that’s when the players get better.”
Currently, there are some positive signs for the future. If the front office can sign Josh Giddey to a new contract and extend Coby White, there’s a lot to be excited about. However, Karnisovas is right in understanding that the project will take time.
For Bulls fans, if there’s proof of concept and the team is clearly moving in the right direction, the city will likely get behind the team.
