The Chicago Bulls failed to improve this past season. After making the playoffs for the first time in four years in 2021-22, they were bounced in the Play-In Tournament just one year later. Now, they face the harsh reality that their current core may not be a championship-caliber group.
Arturas Karnisovas seems intent on keeping the team together and running it back, but that could end up being a huge mistake. Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic are a solid group, but it won’t win Chicago a title. And according to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, they should blow things up.
Pincus recently wrote a complete guide to the NBA offseason, giving his thoughts on every team in the league. For the Bulls, he noted that they “headline” the group of teams who should hit the reset button.
“The Chicago Bulls headline the list of teams that should blow up their core, at least in the eyes of several competing executives,” Pincus said.
That being said, he also noted the Bulls’ intention to attempt to put a competitive team together but mentioned that guys like DeRozan and Alex Caruso would have value if they went in a different direction.
“The prevailing wisdom is that Chicago tries to cobble together a team good enough to make the playoffs (or at least the play-in tournament), though the possibility of an about-face remains,” Pincus wrote. “Alex Caruso, DeRozan and others would have a market in trade if the Bulls were willing.”
While the Bulls will probably bring their core guys back and push for the playoffs, a rebuild would be the smarter move.
