In 2021, the Chicago Bulls completely changed course. They swiftly exited their rebuild, trading for Nikola Vucevic at the deadline and signing DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, and Alex Caruso the following offseason. Since then, however, the Bulls have won just a single playoff game, and Ball hasn’t played since his opening 35 games with the team.
This year, things haven’t gone much better. The Bulls are 5-13 at the time of writing this, ready to take on the Boston Celtics – the owners of the NBA’s best record. Ahead of the In-Season Tournament affair against Boston, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan spoke at length about Chicago’s struggles.
He stressed that there should be no excuses made for how poorly they’ve performed this season.
“I’m a big believer that you are what your record says you are,” Donovan said. “I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘Well, we had a couple of tough losses. We could be .500.’ No. This is what we are, and how do we get better?”
If the Bulls don’t drastically improve by the trade deadline, which seems rather unlikely, trading assets and resetting the roster could be their best option.
