The Chicago Bulls were in need of drastic changes coming into the offseason. Over the past five years, we have seen the Bulls go from one of the top teams in the NBA to one of the worst teams. The Bulls could have been a good, competitive team right now, but the team’s front office has made multiple questionable decisions for this team.
It started with bringing an aging Dwayne Wade and an aging Rajon Rondo to the team to try to stay competitive after almost all of the previous key players aged out of their primes. After one year, Wade and Rondo had already decided to leave the team. Then, they traded all-star forward Jimmy Butler who was just scratching the surface of his prime to Minnesota for Zach Lavine, Kris Dunn, and the 7th pick in the 2017 NBA draft that ended up becoming Lauri Markkanen.
Although Lavine is on his way to becoming one of the top scorers in the league, Dunn had left the Bulls this offseason and Markkanen had a big slump last year after an impressive rookie season. Since then, the Bulls have not made the playoffs and have been at the bottom of the Eastern conference for the past 3 years.
Finally realizing the issue, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf decided to get rid of the entire front office and start fresh. Reinsdorf hired Arturas Karnisovas as the executive vice president of basketball operations. Since the Karnisovas hiring, Marc Eversley has been hired as the new general manager of the team and Billy Donovan has been hired as the head coach.
Eversley has shown some promise in his new position so far with the way he was able to handle their pick in the 2020 NBA draft. There were rumors swirling around about the Bulls trading their fourth overall pick and 21-year old center Wendell Carter Jr. to the Golden State Warriors for their second overall pick. This would have been a huge move for the Bulls as they would’ve been able to draft center James Wiseman, who has been projected to be the NBA’s next big thing at the center position. In the end, Golden State decided to keep their second overall pick to draft Wiseman considering they were in desperate need of a good big man. Being smart, the Bulls kept their number four pick and drafted Patrick Williams out of Florida State University. On draft night, many Chicago natives had no clue who Williams was and were quick to call him a bust or a mess-up in the draft because he was drafted over guys like Naismith Player of the Year Obi Toppin and Tyrese Hailburton. Watching his season highlights, it is clear to see that Williams has tremendous potential. He is a great defensive player that has a solid offensive game that can always be worked on and developed.
As for free agency, the Bulls did not pick up any major players which is a smart choice because they are not a competitive team at the moment. There is no need for the team to try to get a great player that could contribute better on a winning team.
Newly hired head coach Billy Donovan is known to be one of the best coaches around the league. With the Oklahoma City Thunder officially starting their rebuild, they let Donovan go which was great for the Bulls. Donovan has a history of making players better than they are projected and knows how to use his players correctly. Looking at his time with the Thunder when he had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka, he was able to take that team to the NBA finals when their core four were all 23-years old and younger. He will have a good impact on this young Bulls team who is looking for some spark to get themselves in the right direction. It will certainly be exciting to see this young Bulls team develop together and hopefully see a lot of success in the near future.
