Chicago bulls : What is the plan?

[sco]

Demar was definitely an F. The guy's value was an unprotected 1st round pick swap from Sacramento in the post-Sabonis era, and we just gave it to San Antonio to save some salary for an inexpensive $18M Harrison Barnes for 2 measly years. Who has been a more than solid vet player shooting 43% from 3.

The very, very faint silver lining was that Chicago at least got a couple of 2nd rounders...but then they just sold one of those picks to LA for cash and I assume we'll do the same with the 2028 pick. So we literally got nothing. I didn't think it was possible to literally get nothing in a sign & trade, but never doubt Chicago's ability to make nothing out of something.

IDK about the Demar deal being bad. Dude was elite for much of his time here and he signed a cheap deal vs. his production. IMO, he was the ultimate role model of professionalism and offseason work for our young guys.

[jnrjr79]

Demar was definitely an F. The guy's value was an unprotected 1st round pick swap from Sacramento in the post-Sabonis era, and we just gave it to San Antonio to save some salary for an inexpensive $18M Harrison Barnes for 2 measly years. Who has been a more than solid vet player shooting 43% from 3.

The very, very faint silver lining was that Chicago at least got a couple of 2nd rounders...but then they just sold one of those picks to LA for cash and I assume we'll do the same with the 2028 pick. So we literally got nothing. I didn't think it was possible to literally get nothing in a sign & trade, but never doubt Chicago's ability to make nothing out of something.

IDK about the Demar deal being bad. Dude was elite for much of his time here and he signed a cheap deal vs. his production. IMO, he was the ultimate role model of professionalism and offseason work for our young guys.

I think kodo is suggesting the DeMar S&T when he left Chicago was bad rather than when Chicago acquired him from San Antonio.

[Evil_Headband]

For what it's worth, The Athletic is doing a slow release of ranking teams' offseasons considering the question, "Is the team better now than at the end of last season?" That doesn't necessarily mean wins. It could become better cap-wise too. Bulls so far have stayed out of the bottom 10!

My guess is they might end up around the middle because they really aren't much better or worse. I think they will assume Giddey comes back. Anyway, better than an F+ or whatever.

[drosestruts]

Again, I'll never understand why you guys care about the national guys. They don't know your team, they don't care to know your team, that is not why they are talking. You know more than they do.

P.S. This also applies when they are superficially praising your team.

A reason I like this message board is seeing/reading other peoples opinions on the Bulls

That interest does extend to some national media guys as well

It's not like Bulls focused podcasts are much better - the cash considerations guys are basically just doing their best Nick Friedell impersonation these days

[GusFring]

Man listening to the Dunc'd on Basketball NBA podcast of the 2024 offseason re-grades.

Danny dropped it from an F+ to an F

Nate kept it as a F (considered doing an F-)


Year later still label both the DeRozan and Caruso trades as awful. And the Williams and Smith signing as terrible.

Also slightly touched on the LaVine trade summrizing it as "got their own pick back but took on a bunch of **** contracts to do so"

I know I'm a Bulls fan and I guess a bit of a homer but the F grades just seem too low.


DeRozan trade
There criticisms here I do think are fair. Bulls sent out the best player in the deal, Spurs received the best asset in the trade. That's a bad trade, and we only didn't recive the pick swap because we didn't want to take on Barnes contract to preserve space to re-sign Williams. Which is brutal in hindsight.


Caruso trade
I think they're way too negative here. Josh Giddey is good. This was a good trade for Chicago.


Williams signing
On it's own has been bad. When combined with its impact on the Demar trade it looks even worse.


Smith signing
Just not sure what there is to hate on here.

Buzelis draft
They also sounded prettty low on Matas, both initially last year, and even still now. As someone who started low on Matas, I think he's been a decent surprise and showed enough promise to be excited about him. They mention the Bulls should have drafted Topic and I'm not sure what that could be based on.


DeRozan trade - F

Caruso trade - B

Williams signing - F

Smith signing - C

Buzelis draft - B+

Which I guess is a D+, if you weigh each move equally.

I was recently thinking about how DeRozan has to be the best Bulls player that no one will ever miss. Nothing against the guy, he just means being mediocre forever.

[dougthonus]

Again, I'll never understand why you guys care about the national guys. They don't know your team, they don't care to know your team, that is not why they are talking. You know more than they do.

P.S. This also applies when they are superficially praising your team.

The good national guys don't know your team as well as you, but they know your team well, and they know the league and everyone else's teams about 100x as well as you, and thus their overall perception of how you rate relative to other teams is probably better than yours.

Granted, "good" national guys can be a small number, because very few of these guys make their living by trying to provide truly balanced interesting topics instead of just catering to LA or LeBron or whatever else is in the talking-head-o-sphere of the week.

[rocbullsfan]

For the owner to take all your money and laugh on the way to the bank

[sco]

So back to the topic, do people here think that AK will make a big deal at the deadline?

We have a bunch of expirings, picks and young guys who could be put into a deal. It will be harder to make the same type of deals next offseason.

[dougthonus]

IDK about the Demar deal being bad. Dude was elite for much of his time here and he signed a cheap deal vs. his production. IMO, he was the ultimate role model of professionalism and offseason work for our young guys.

The F was for the S&T of DeMar away where we got 2nd rounders, but could have had something much better earlier except due to going into the tax we wouldn't take on the salary, not DeMar on the whole coming here.

[dougthonus]

So back to the topic, do people here think that AK will make a big deal at the deadline?

We have a bunch of expirings, picks and young guys who could be put into a deal. It will be harder to make the same type of deals next offseason.

No. They don't talk a whole lot, but when they do lay out a plan, they have generally been pretty transparent about what it is, and their plan as laid out at the end of the season was "long rebuild, be patient".

[Dan Z]

Demar was definitely an F. The guy's value was an unprotected 1st round pick swap from Sacramento in the post-Sabonis era, and we just gave it to San Antonio to save some salary for an inexpensive $18M Harrison Barnes for 2 measly years. Who has been a more than solid vet player shooting 43% from 3.

The very, very faint silver lining was that Chicago at least got a couple of 2nd rounders...but then they just sold one of those picks to LA for cash and I assume we'll do the same with the 2028 pick. So we literally got nothing. I didn't think it was possible to literally get nothing in a sign & trade, but never doubt Chicago's ability to make nothing out of something.

IDK about the Demar deal being bad. Dude was elite for much of his time here and he signed a cheap deal vs. his production. IMO, he was the ultimate role model of professionalism and offseason work for our young guys.

I think kodo is suggesting the DeMar S&T when he left Chicago was bad rather than when Chicago acquired him from San Antonio.

My issue with it is that they gave up a first round pick to get Demar in a S&T with San Antonio. Why do that? Yes, he played well during his time here, and is a good player, but not worth giving that up. I get it...SA had to take on Aminu's contract, but what other deals did they (and Demar) have to choose from?

[coldfish]

Getting to the general question: What is the plan?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/CHI.html
The Bulls will have about $78m in salary for next year with Giddey's deal and with Coby White gone. Its pretty clear the plan is a capspace plan. Not sure what they intend to do with it. Should be $80m or so of capspace.

[kulaz3000]

Getting to the general question: What is the plan?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/CHI.html
The Bulls will have about $78m in salary for next year with Giddey's deal and with Coby White gone. Its pretty clear the plan is a capspace plan. Not sure what they intend to do with it. Should be $80m or so of capspace.

The free agency pool isn't that strong, because I'm assuming the top tier players are going to extend eventually.

Hartenstein
Dort
Reaves (maybe, if Coby opts to go elsewhere).
Thybulle

I fully expect the Bulls to resign Coby to around the 30 million range, which means that neither Dort, Reaves or Thybulle makes sense. Hartenstein may luck out on another massive deal, just because he is one of the only big men available in his free agency class next season, and he isn't exactly a top tier center, but I wouldn't be upset if we locked him up on a similar contract that the Thunder got him with, short and bloated.

[TyrusRose2425]

Getting to the general question: What is the plan?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/CHI.html
The Bulls will have about $78m in salary for next year with Giddey's deal and with Coby White gone. Its pretty clear the plan is a capspace plan. Not sure what they intend to do with it. Should be $80m or so of capspace.

The free agency pool isn't that strong, because I'm assuming the top tier players are going to extend eventually.

Hartenstein
Dort
Reaves (maybe, if Coby opts to go elsewhere).
Thybulle

I fully expect the Bulls to resign Coby to around the 30 million range, which means that neither Dort, Reaves or Thybulle makes sense. Hartenstein may luck out on another massive deal, just because he is one of the only big men available in his free agency class next season, and he isn't exactly a top tier center, but I wouldn't be upset if we locked him up on a similar contract that the Thunder got him with, short and bloated.

I don't really watch the NBA much anymore (I think 1 1/4 of Bulls games last season... watched playoffs though). Is Thybulle nice like that now? I remember he was a great defender but severely limited on offense.

[kodo]

Getting to the general question: What is the plan?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/CHI.html
The Bulls will have about $78m in salary for next year with Giddey's deal and with Coby White gone. Its pretty clear the plan is a capspace plan. Not sure what they intend to do with it. Should be $80m or so of capspace.

The free agency pool isn't that strong, because I'm assuming the top tier players are going to extend eventually.

Hartenstein
Dort
Reaves (maybe, if Coby opts to go elsewhere).
Thybulle

I fully expect the Bulls to resign Coby to around the 30 million range, which means that neither Dort, Reaves or Thybulle makes sense. Hartenstein may luck out on another massive deal, just because he is one of the only big men available in his free agency class next season, and he isn't exactly a top tier center, but I wouldn't be upset if we locked him up on a similar contract that the Thunder got him with, short and bloated.

Dort is a team option and I don't see OKC blowing up his starting lineup, so I assume Presti activates the option. Hartenstein is the same, team option.

Any player that's any good won't just walk for nothing, if the player is worth at least a 2nd round pick, they'll get traded for at least a 2nd round pick. Even Brandon Ingram proving he's about as reliable as Lonzo still got a good package for his S&T. Heck, Lonzo got a trade before he expired.

Assuming all player options are picked up (Lavine, Harden), players who can actually be obtained in free agency without any trade required IMO is limited to:
- Coby White
- Norm Powell
- Collins
- Vucevic
- McCollum
- Mike Conley
- Rui
- Anfernee Simons
- Tobias
- Nurkic
- Sexton

Our best FA outcome in 2026 might just be running back with Coby White and paying him top dollar.
I guess we could just swap Coby for CJ, but that puts our window a lot shorter since CJ will be 34.

AK has done a lot of moves and in the end still hasn't come up with a scorer better than Lavine, 24/5/5 @ 64% TS and isn't likely to next season either.

[Chi town]

Hart will be the target IMO.

OKC won’t be able to keep everyone when JDub’s max and SGA’s super max hits.

2nd apron projected at 225M 26/27 season.
OKC currently sits at 277M projected when JDub, SGA and Chet all make over 40M per.

Hart at 28M won’t be doable for them with Caruso and Dort at 18 and 20.

I like Hart’s fit for us but I don’t think he puts us over the top as a top 4 playoff team.

[nomorezorro]

Read on Twitter

interesting video from lowe kind of crapping on the number of prospective cap teams next offseason and mentioning us as maybe the most intriguing team who can do something

i agree that hartenstein is by some distance the best/most realistic target. he fits the mold of what AK/donovan seemingly want from a center in terms of being an offensive hub, except he's actually good at defense too

[nomorezorro]

other name that caught my eye is porzingis but who knows if he's even alive in a year

[League Circles]

Bulls have a few irons in the fire right now. They could make a big move via cap space, via an increasing trade asset warchest, or via the draft where they still project to have another pick or two in the top 20 before they potentially ascend into a better playoff team where they could still nap a great talent. I like the way they're positioning. And with enough depth and positional flexibility to make almost anyone on the team tradable in the right deal, even Giddey or Coby.

[MGB8]

I think there is very little chance that the Bulls make a serious splash in FA next year. Maybe Jaden Ivey, if not extended, is paired with a resign Coby and Giddey, and others are let walk. Maybe they look at Hartenstein or Porzingis. But I don’t see any move from FA that would change the team trajectory, and largely expect some resigning (maybe Collins, maybe Huerter, along with Coby and maybe Ayo).

I expect that they will basically tread water and look for modest upgrades here and there, while hoping a draft pick or two pan out. And, in fairness, they might. You really never know.