7-14, 40-42, 46-36, 31-41, 22-43, 22-60, 27-55, 41-41, 42-40, 50-32, 48-34, 45-37, 50-16, and 62-20. These are the records of the Chicago Bulls since the 2010-11 season. At first glance, an NBA team with a 533-511 record over 14 seasons doesn’t seem awful, but regular season results don’t do a good enough job of showcasing the Bulls’ poor performances. What has been the cause of the 6-time champs’ recent struggles?
The last time the Bulls were in serious contention for championship success was during the Derrick Rose era. Before Rose was injured, the Bulls were one of, if not the best teams in the NBA. But things fell apart after he tore his ACL in the first round of the 2012 NBA playoffs. Even when Rose was able to return, the team was never the same.
Since then, the Bulls have struggled. There was a short stint with Jimmy Butler, but he was only a principal player for a few years before being shipped away to Minnesota for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, and the 7th pick in the draft. Zach LaVine has since been the figurehead of the team, leading in scoring until DeMar DeRozan joined the team in 2021. The LaVine lead Bulls have never lived up to expectations, no matter how low.
The best the team has done in the playoffs the past 8 years has been two first-round appearances, winning a combined 3 games over the two series. Even when the team was first in the Eastern Conference for the first 40 games or so of the 2021-2022 season, they sputtered out and finished 6th. “They’re not great right now. They need to start rebuilding”, commented 12th grader Adrian Pitzele. “They’ve gotten booed at home. That really shows something’s wrong.”
Injuries have played a big role in the downfall of the Bulls, as there have been, and always are, serious injuries plaguing the team. The most important player to go down in recent years was point guard Lonzo Ball, the facilitator of the team’s offense and defense. He injured his knee in early 2022, and is yet to play since. Zach LaVine has also struggled with his health, fighting knee problems and other ailments seemingly every season. It’s hard to name a Bulls player that hasn’t dealt with injuries in the last few years.
The front office and coaching haven’t done the team any favors recently either, making bad moves and decisions. The organization can never seem to make the right move, bringing in players like Nikola Vučević who seem promising at first only for the team to realize that they don’t fit the system. The ever-changing coaching staff has also contributed to turning Chicago into an undesirable location for any free agents, greatly limiting the caliber of players that the team can try and bring in. Unless the front office and coaches can figure things out, it doesn’t matter who’s playing.
What the Bulls truly need now is to blow things up and rebuild. Fast. The current big three of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vučević just hasn’t worked. Chicagoans aren’t the only ones who are aware of the Bulls’ failings, as NBA analyst Anday Bailey wrote in an article for Bleacher Report, “This experiment is unraveling in spectacular(ly bad) fashion. The three stars can’t (or won’t) defend anyone. And their “your turn to jack up a contested mid-range jumper, my turn to jack up a contested mid-range jumper” offense has been dreadful”. It’s become a very obvious fact that things are bad in Chicago.
The team needs to restart. Ship off LaVine, DeRozan, and Vučević for whatever you can get. The organization needs to build a strong foundation around Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, the two most promising players on the squad. If the front office can make smart draft choices and good moves for the next few years, the team can hopefully get back on track and return to winning ways.
