Exit Survey: 3 offseason goals for the reeling Chicago Bulls
By Luke Duffy
3 offseason goals for the reeling Chicago Bulls: 2. Don’t get trapped on the treadmill
There comes a day of reckoning for all good NBA teams. A day when they have to make the decision to keep on chasing a championship or blow it up and start again. The Bulls are not there yet, but one look at their roster and it is worrying to think that they might reach that moment sooner than they think.
The majority of their best players are veterans, and if you had to answer now if you think this group could ever win a championship together, what would you say? The simple fact is that the Bucks, Boston Celtics, and Miami Heat are better than them. What is even scarier for the Bulls is how some of their best players have become poster boys for hitting that invisible ceiling on prior teams.
DeRozan was a part of a Toronto Raptors team that was even better than this Bulls group. Year after year, they came up against LeBron James in the postseason and were sent home. It was only when DeRozan was moved for Kawhi Leonard that they got over the hump, making DeRozan look like the reason they couldn’t win it all before.
That wasn’t strictly true, but what was true was that Leonard was just a better superstar than DeRozan. A level above. Vucevic was the best player on the Magic, but after two years of making the playoffs, it was clear that all they would ever be was a team that made the first round and then got sent home. So, they traded Vucevic to the Bulls and blew it up.
Right now we’re seeing this very thing happen to the Utah Jazz. Both Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell individually may be better than any player the Bulls have. Yet, after years of coming up short, it has become apparent that the Jazz (as they are currently constructed) will not be winning a championship.
It is a tough choice to make, but they will be involved in some big trades this summer. They might just start again and hit reset. This sounds very negative, especially with the Bulls only in their first year with this group, but life comes at you fast, and it already feels like the ceiling here is conference semi-finals at best. Let’s see how long it takes the front office to react to that fact.