Bulls basketball returns on October 25th, when the Oklahoma City Thunder will visit the United Center to tip-off the 2023-24 campaign. The Eastern Conference became a two-man race in the past week when Damian Lillard joined Giannis Antetokounmpo on the Milwaukee Bucks and Jrue Holiday combined forces with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on the Boston Celtics. Reigning MVP Joel Embiid will lead the Philadelphia 76ers, who are currently at the mercy of James Harden, who's threatening to remain on the sidelines until he is shipped elsewhere. The Miami Heat are the current Eastern Conference champions. Still, after missing out on Lillard and Holiday, they've fallen behind Boston and Milwaukee in the ranks headed into next year. What's to expect from a Chicago team that missed the postseason entirely, without a first-round draft pick this offseason and their most significant addition, Jalen Carter, having only started 48 career games across five seasons? Let's dive in.
1. Zach LaVine Will Be Traded
LaVine's name has swirled trade mills for the better part of two seasons, and after an atrociously lucrative contract extension last offseason, the Bulls would be best to trade their aging star. His six years in Chicago have featured two All-Star appearances, zero All-NBA nods, and one lone playoff victory in his only playoff appearance throughout that time. Those numbers don't align with a player who will be tied for the 12th highest-paid player during the 2023-24 season and will make north of $40 million each of the following four seasons.
This isn't to say LaVine won't have a good season, in fact the opposite might be true. To end last season, he had one of the best months of March in the entire league and of his career. He boasted 28.4 points and 4.7 assists per game, while shooting a blistering 43.6% from three-point territory and 53% from the field overall. Once the calendar turned to 2023, LaVine averaged 26.4 points per game across the latter 45 games of the season which would have stood top-ten in the entire NBA. If he can carry over his impressive finish to last year, it would actually help the Bulls gain leverage in trades around the deadline. Underperforming teams who missed out on the biggest names this summer would certainly give a hefty haul for an All-Star caliber guard with speed and three-point capabilities among the best leaguewide.
2. The Chicago Bulls Miss The Playoffs, Again
This should be no surprise to the dedicated fan. This team is returning a largely similar roster this season, and last year barely squeaked in to the Play-In Tournament despite sweating out the last few weeks of the regular season. After defeating Toronto in the first game, they fell short to the eventual Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat thanks to Jimmy Butler's final four minutes sending them home for good. Looking down the Eastern Conference, there's little evidence that the Bulls will improve thier standing and even more support that teams below them may surpass Chicago this year.
Indiana, Washington, and Orlando were the three teams below Chicago who missed the postseason a year ago, but each of the three have significantly younger developing talent, brought in veteran leadership and experience, and are poised to have more potent rosters this season. The continuity of the Bulls will be thier friend, but without dramatic changes it's best to assume a similar result to the 40-42 record they held last season, and the safer bet to assume they'll miss out on postseason basketball for the third time in Billy Donovan's four years coaching the team.
3. Arturas Karnisovas Will Be Fired
Again, not a major shock here to the Chicago faithful. Karnisovas had a lot of hype coming to the Bulls from Denver, where he had a major hand in drafting several NBA Champions including two-time MVP Nikola Jokic and former Kentucky Wildcat Jamal Murray. A refreshing site to Chicago sports fans, Karnisovas was aggresive right out of the gate, trading for Nikola Vucevic in his first year in hopes of making a playoff push. While the Bulls would fall short that year, it was the pairing of LaVine and Vucevic that Bulls fans would hitch thier wagon to for the last three seasons. That duo has only appeared in the postseason once, only won one playoff game, and has one All-Star selection between the both of them while together. The next area of concern for thier vice president of basketball operations is the draft history.
Seeing names like Tyrese Haliburton and Tyrese Maxey fall in the draft after Williams is a painful sight for Bulls fans. Under ten points per game for his career, coupled with inconsistent shooting and rebounding, this was a bad pick at fourth overall. While he may not be a full-on bust yet, he certainly was not worth a top-five selection. Two other first-round picks were shipped to Orlando in exchange for Vucevic, who has yet to earn an All-Star or All-NBA nod in his Bulls tenure.
This could be a franchise-altering year for the Chicago Bulls in more ways than one. Zach LaVine will not end the season in a Bulls jersey, Chicago will miss the playoffs yet again, and their vice president of basketball operations, who has controlled roster and coaching staff changes since 2020, will be fired before next summer. Buckling in for a full-on firesale and rebuild with a new front office, new roster, plenty of draft capital, and possibly a new coaching staff is the most likely scenario for the Bulls in 2023-24.
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