CHICAGO — After another sloppy loss that marked the halfway point of another aimless season, the Chicago Bulls held another team meeting.
Starting center Nikola Vučević commanded his teammates’ attention inside the locker room this time. The injury-ravaged Atlanta Hawks had strolled into the United Center and bullied Chicago with a 110-94 win Wednesday.
Everything about the game encapsulated the Bulls’ disjointed first half of the season. We saw careless turnovers — 20 that led to 22 Hawks points — as well as errant shooting (Chicago missed 21 of 27 3-point tries) and shoddy defensive rebounding that gave Atlanta 27 second-chance points.
“We focus on the wrong things,” Vučević said. “We have to understand that it’s the details that make the difference at this level.”
Vučević was referring to the team’s lack of attention to detail on the court, but he could have easily been describing any number of departments throughout the organization. Given this franchise’s extensive recent struggles, it’s impossible to see Chicago’s solutions being solely performance-based.
Nothing that Vučević said following Wednesday’s defeat sounded different from previous postgame tongue-lashings. In past seasons, the Bulls’ stars, such as DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, led the way. At times, role players like Goran Dragić and Patrick Beverley delivered the same impassioned pleas during their short stints on the roster.
The Bulls (18-23) just missed having the same record after 41 games for the fourth time in five seasons. They were 19-22 at this juncture in three of the previous four seasons.
It doesn’t matter who’s on the roster, what style the Bulls play, how many players speak out or how many have checked out: The Bulls can’t escape mediocrity.
“I don’t view it that way when you’re in the moment,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said of being stuck in the middle. “You’re just talking about competing and just coaching and these guys playing.”
And so it goes for the Bulls, who are on a collision course for the Play-In Tournament for the third-straight season. They’re in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings, four games behind the Indiana Pacers for sixth. The Bulls made the Play-In as the ninth seed in each of the previous two seasons.
“The goal is to win,” Donovan said Wednesday.
Basketball purists will appreciate the organization’s principles. There’s another segment of forward-thinking fans who are tired of watching a once-proud franchise serve as a perennial punching bag — and they’re not wrong for seeing little value in another trip to the Play-in Tournament.
Those fans don’t crave trivial wins but want someone in Chicago to step up and demonstrate a long-term vision. They want someone, be it from the sidelines or the executive suite, who isn’t afraid to boldly guide this franchise in a clear direction. Player meetings and rah-rah speeches are temporary fixes, not permanent solutions.
The Bulls are 18-23 in the first half of this season under Billy Donovan. They were 19-22 at this time in three of the previous four seasons. (Kamil Krzaczynski / Imagn Images)
For the Bulls, this second half is about more than whether they’ll be mediocre and miss the playoffs again. The significance of the final 41 games stretches into the long-term health and stability of the franchise.
In the backdrop of this stretch run — or at least what should be — is the big picture: The Bulls owe their first-round pick this year to the San Antonio Spurs if the selection falls out of the top 10.
Chicago currently owns the league’s ninth-worst record, yet has shown no urgency to part with its most talented players via the trade market. With three weeks remaining until the trading deadline, questions are beginning to swirl around the Bulls of whether the franchise will be active at all. Chicago hasn’t made a deadline deal in the past three seasons, opting instead for a stale status quo.
This year feels different because of its significance. Everyone can see Chicago has a low ceiling that is well below championship contention. Without a collection of stars, or the means to attract them, the Bulls will continue riding the hamster wheel. Feel-good wins may provide entertainment and might placate the purists, but they’ll also keep the Bulls stuck in this endless pattern of frustration.
If ever there was a time for the front office to demonstrate a one-step-backward, two-steps-forward approach, this is that time. They turned down previous opportunities to sell high on desirable players like DeRozan and Alex Caruso, only to receive less compensation than they could have had they traded them earlier. The reward for their commitment to continuity was one playoff win — a game, not a series — in 2022.
Now comes the biggest test for the Bulls, one that, again, has nothing to do with what happens on the court. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas promised at the start of the season that the Bulls weren’t done rebuilding. With only 11 games remaining before the deadline, the Bulls don’t have much time left to deliberate.
LaVine, Vučević and Coby White are Chicago’s most attractive assets. There are no untouchable players on the roster, but the Bulls have been reluctant to move their best players. They’ve flat-out rejected the notion of attaching additional assets to move on from players. It’s a stance that has made the Bulls impossible trade partners.
But now they must get off the fence. The next five years of Chicago Bulls basketball are hanging in the balance.
We know what the future looks like if they do nothing.
(Top photo of Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
