Through 44 games this season, the Chicago Bulls sit with an unimpressive 19-25 record with no hope of the playoffs or the number one overall pick. With a couple of moves being made in the offseason by the front office, the team wasn’t set up for success this year, yet they were not necessarily set up for failure either.
The Bulls remain directionless and the frustration from fans is completely understandable because of that. There is no place for mediocrity in today’s era of professional sports, especially in the NBA.
Organizations are either going all in with the assets they have by pushing their chips to the middle of the table, or they are ripping their roster down for the long haul. Chicago refusing to do this over the past few seasons has left them in no man’s land, and a fitting midseason grade from ESPN.
The Chicago Bulls got a “C” from ESPN as their midseason grade
For a team that is six games under .500 with an extremely average roster, a “C” is extremely fitting for the Bulls. Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic are having fantastic seasons, but the team doesn’t have nearly enough star power to climb up the Eastern Conference standings. The ESPN article written by Kevin Pelton grading all 30 NBA squads at the midseason point gave a pretty logical explanation for why Chicago received the mark that they did.
“The Bulls seem headed to the East play-in tournament by default, having opened up a three-game lead over Philadelphia for 10th,” Pelton writes. Unfortunately, Chicago looks no closer to actually competing in the postseason. The Bulls’ minus-2.9 point differential ranks 22nd in the league.”
A common rule of thumb in the NBA is that if your team is not a top three of four seed in their conference, they most likely don’t have a legit shot at the title. The Bulls could be clinging on for dear life just to make the play-in tournament once again, so their odds of competing for a championship are relatively slim. Pelton did offer a way that the squad can improve down the stretch.
“Given the top-10 protected pick Chicago owes San Antonio from the 2021 trade to acquire DeMar Derozan, staying behind the Spurs in the standings is the Bulls’ most important task. That would allow them to slide down a spot in the lottery while keeping the pick.”
This is the first piece of advice Bulls fans have heard for how the team can get better besides selling off any valuable piece on the roster. Having as many first-round picks as possible in the chamber is super important to the development of this franchise’s future, so making sure they can draft in the first this summer should be a top priority.
The rebuilding plan for the Chicago Bulls is as clear as can be
The only way for any team to get out of mediocrity is by picking a direction. For the Bulls, choosing to ship off key pieces at the deadline should be the route they go. With names like LaVine, Vucevic, Lonzo Ball, and even Coby White on the table, they could start a rebuild nicely with the returns they would net.
LaVine and Vucevic have been gaining interest from competitive teams in the league, but a guard of Ball’s caliber for depth purposes should interest organizations as well. White is the least likely to be dealt of the four, but he could garner a larger return due to his production and his contract being much cheaper than the other veterans.
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