The bulls must conceive after the lottery fails appeared in the original NBC Sports Chicago
The NBA lottery on Tuesday did not bring luck to The Chicago Bulls, who stayed at No. 11 and relinquished their first-round pick to the Orlando Magic as the final installment in the Nikola Vucevic deal.
Executive Vice President Arturas Karnishovas consistently cites the three ways to improve a team – draft, free agency and trade. Also currently without a second-round pick, the Bulls will so far sit out the June 22nd NBA draft.
So, what now? How will the bulls improve?
There is a chance that they can still participate in the June draft. The Portland Trail Blazers still owe the Bulls a lottery-protected first-round pick as part of a three-team deal that centered on Lauri Markkanen moving to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Derrick Jones Jr. coming to the Bulls.
The Trail Blazers jumped from fifth to third in the draft lottery on Tuesday. Does that make them more willing to give the Bulls the first-round pick they got from the New York Knicks in a Josh Hart trade? This is the 23rd pick, which is likely about what the franchise had in mind that it would give up when it made the original deal.
On the flip side, the Trail Blazers might be aggressively shopping for the third pick, along with a player, for a bigger push in a deal to please Damian Lillard. So they may want to hold on to this #23 pick, although, at some point, they will likely negotiate with the bulls over the current protection.
Outside of the draft, the Bulls will canvass and monitor the commercial market during what is expected to be a volatility off-season in terms of big-name player movement.
Karnishovas framed the bulls as buyers at the February trade deadline. League sources indicated at the time that Karnicovas had given signals to teams that he planned to keep his core together. In fact, the Golden State Warriors’ Alex Caruso-centric overtures were denied.
Considering that Caruso just earned his first first-team All-Defense honor and is still on a team friendly contract, it’s a safe bet for survival.
Nikola Vucevic’s future is where things get interesting. He will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 unless an extension is reached before then during the bulls exclusive negotiation period. Brief talks did not progress during the season about the terms of Vucevic’s next contract.
Teams with salary cap space — the Rockets, Pacers, Spurs, Magic, Pistons — don’t immediately expect them to be a good fit for Vucevic, who’s coming off a solid season in which he played all 82 games and finished third. In the NBA in double doubles.
Thus, the bulls may feel like they are in the driver’s seat in the negotiations, with a tick and trade emerging as an outside possibility.
Trading Zach LaVine after the first of his five-year-max contract would be a surprise. While LaVine’s decision-making causes internal organizational unease at times, he remains an immensely talented scorer and a modern NBA player in the era of offensive firepower. He’s also the best three-point threat on a team that lacks it.
DeRozan is eligible for an extension. Considering he’s racked up two consecutive All-Star seasons since arriving in Chicago, asking for a maximum deal of four years and $179 million wouldn’t surprise anyone.
Of course, the bulls wouldn’t have to sign him to one and could go into the new fiscal year starting July 1 thinking his expiring deal is a trading asset. It’s also possible that DeRozan, who has long talked about playing in his hometown of Los Angeles, wants to become an unrestricted free agent after next season.
So the Bulls will likely make their biggest changes via free agency. They’ll have all salary cap exceptions available to them — the mid-level, semi-annual, and veteran minimums.
This is where they will have to deal aggressively with their publicly stated needs to add shooting and also address the point guard situation. Karnishovas said the team wants to re-sign restricted free agents Kobe White and Ayo Dosunmu. The first, although more expensive, should be a priority.
If White is not considered a shortstop, the Bulls will have to add one since Lonzo Ball cannot be expected to return. Even if he plays ball sometime next season, he can’t be counted on to be the same player after losing so much time and undergoing a cartilage transplant, which is rare for a top-level athlete to return effectively.
For open-market shooters, Seth Curry, Max Strus, Yuta Watanabe, and Torrey Craig are potential options, though Miami has insisted it wants to re-sign Strus. The Pistons have a team option in Alec Burks. Donte DiVincenzo has a player option with the Warriors.
The Bulls, who have historically avoided the luxury tax, have a strong needle to cheat this out of season. They have to improve the team, and so far, they’re not adding cost-controlled entry-level contracts.
It’s time for Karneshovas and his comrades to get creative. The CEO seemed to admit as much on the night of the Feb. 9 trade deadline.
“We made deals in the summer that a lot of people said we couldn’t do. I think there are ways to improve,” Karnicovas said that night from New York before a game against the Brooklyn Nets.