End of Season Press Conference

[WesPeace]

Can someone tell me wth is Marc Eversley job, what is he doing?? His official "title" is general manager.. but when was the last time we saw him and he made any comment about team? This is just mind boggling.. cant remember any GM being such a invisible man!

[WindyCityBorn]

He gave the same generic answers he always gives and said nothing whatsoever of substance and tried to take another victory lap for another 39 win season and play-in loss. There's nothing else that I'd prefer he'd say based on his direction, because his direction and strategy still sucks IMO, but I don't expect him to come out and say, looking back at the last four years, I really screwed this up and am still on a path to mediocrity because I think it's the best way to save my job.

Nothing about what he's doing gives me even the remotest confidence that he will ever build a good team, but he backed himself into such a lousy corner that the alternative to what he did was to enter a 4+ year long rebuild, and after living through the last three years of absolute garbage without getting any assets to jump start anything doesn't excite me to live through another 4+ long years of garbage.

He's just driven this team into straight apathy where I can't really be happy or sad about almost anything because he's put us in such a lousy spot that mediocrity with no upside might actually be preferable to trying to rebuild via the draft with no assets.

Agree with every bit of this..and yet AK's runway seems interminable. They seem content with a 37 to 44 win team that maybe gets an 8th seed or a play in game. The organization is content with mediocrity- and I'm content to stop caring until that changes.

If we won 44 games next season that would be a major improvement. We have been a below average team .500 team since the Ball injury.

[Truebiscuit]

I almost feel bad for AK.

What can you do with a piece of **** owner like Jerry Reinsdorf?

[dougthonus]

If we won 44 games next season that would be a major improvement. We have been a below average team .500 team since the Ball injury.

Yeah, depends why we win the games too.

Best case scenario is that Giddey, Matas, and Pat are awesome as those would be the guys whom are locked in for awhile.

If we win behind Coby White being awesome, we might get locked into paying him insane money or watching him walk depending on the market. You've got a ton of old FAs, guys that likely get locked into extensions prior to hitting FA, and RFAs that teams won't pursue. Coby is intriguing in that he will absolutely make it to FA is still very young and is unrestricted.

It will depend how things shake out, but it isn't a crazy thought that Coby could be the best unrestricted FA under 35 to hit the market.

[WindyCityBorn]

If we won 44 games next season that would be a major improvement. We have been a below average team .500 team since the Ball injury.

Yeah, depends why we win the games too.

Best case scenario is that Giddey, Matas, and Pat are awesome as those would be the guys whom are locked in for awhile.

If we win behind Coby White being awesome, we might get locked into paying him insane money or watching him walk depending on the market. You've got a ton of old FAs, guys that likely get locked into extensions prior to hitting FA, and RFAs that teams won't pursue. Coby is intriguing in that he will absolutely make it to FA is still very young and is unrestricted.

It will depend how things shake out, but it isn't a crazy thought that Coby could be the best unrestricted FA under 35 to hit the market.

I’m prepared to let him walk. We don’t need to make same mistake we made with Zach. Don’t pay a #3 max-ish money when you don’t have a #1.

[Red8911]

They asked for patience after 6 years as GM's, 3 years in row of fake play-ins. And some users here are clowning "tank guys" because we just want good for franchise. If they started tank literally 3 years ago, now rebuild would be over.

It's being over 10 years since Bulls won playoff series.

It's being 27 years since last ring. So patience is something I dont have. I know some of Bulls fans are vampires and 6-10 years of bad GMing is like 5 days in your lifespan. But dont put rest of us in basket (literally) with you.

This is my press conference to all of you.

Play ins are play ins, what’s fake about it ? The system you knew before 1-8 without play ins are a thing of the past. Play ins are now a reality.

[eierluke]

To me it sounds as if AK really values the upcoming cap space in 2026.

In the recent past not many big time Free agent moved directly, but if a team
1) has cap space
2) has a few guys on reasonable contracts
2) hasn't finished with a losing record
3) owns its draft picks
the team has the perfect leverage to work out a sign and trade/or even a trade
I hope AK does not destroy impatiently these summer 2026 preconditions.

If the team stays together more or less - THT, + 1st rd pick (and hopefully with resigned Giddey and less important Jones) and just improves team defense slightly they should finish above .50 and might reach the playoffs (6th in the east) directly without big changes necessary.
In case we can't "catch the big fish" next summer we at least do have one more year to find the right price tag for our upcoming 2026 free agents: White, Huerter, Collins.
I'd even consider Vucevic for 15 min/game (though we may have to rescue Donovon from himself in this case)
Ball it is just a matter of health, Carter is gone 2026 and Terry and Phillips are min/or slightly above players anyway

[coldfish]

If we won 44 games next season that would be a major improvement. We have been a below average team .500 team since the Ball injury.

Yeah, depends why we win the games too.

Best case scenario is that Giddey, Matas, and Pat are awesome as those would be the guys whom are locked in for awhile.

If we win behind Coby White being awesome, we might get locked into paying him insane money or watching him walk depending on the market. You've got a ton of old FAs, guys that likely get locked into extensions prior to hitting FA, and RFAs that teams won't pursue. Coby is intriguing in that he will absolutely make it to FA is still very young and is unrestricted.

It will depend how things shake out, but it isn't a crazy thought that Coby could be the best unrestricted FA under 35 to hit the market.

Good post. A forward thinking front office would either extend him now or trade him. Just letting him go to free agency is begging for a bad decision in either overpaying or letting him walk. If you truly think he is a core component and will continue to improve, give him the cash now. If he is adamant about not taking it, trade him.

At the end of the day, he is a high volume 15 PER type player. Those aren't core pieces but if the FO disagrees, they should lock him in. You don't need to see any more of him.

[dougthonus]

If we won 44 games next season that would be a major improvement. We have been a below average team .500 team since the Ball injury.

Yeah, depends why we win the games too.

Best case scenario is that Giddey, Matas, and Pat are awesome as those would be the guys whom are locked in for awhile.

If we win behind Coby White being awesome, we might get locked into paying him insane money or watching him walk depending on the market. You've got a ton of old FAs, guys that likely get locked into extensions prior to hitting FA, and RFAs that teams won't pursue. Coby is intriguing in that he will absolutely make it to FA is still very young and is unrestricted.

It will depend how things shake out, but it isn't a crazy thought that Coby could be the best unrestricted FA under 35 to hit the market.

Good post. A forward thinking front office would either extend him now or trade him. Just letting him go to free agency is begging for a bad decision in either overpaying or letting him walk. If you truly think he is a core component and will continue to improve, give him the cash now. If he is adamant about not taking it, trade him.

At the end of the day, he is a high volume 15 PER type player. Those aren't core pieces but if the FO disagrees, they should lock him in. You don't need to see any more of him.

They can't lock him in because the max they can offer him in an extension is 140% of current salary. Coby will almost certainly get more than that next off season. That is why the situation is unique. Guys like Zack or VanVleet can sign extensions even if it is at lesser amounts. Coby really can't which is why he might be the best available youngish UFA.

Which means the real choices are trade him or live with the uncertainty of him walking vs potentially paying him whatever the max of the market it is inside a market that is likely highly inflated due to cap spikes and his own individual situation that makes him perhaps more likely to be inflated individually.

[CROBulls]

They asked for patience after 6 years as GM's, 3 years in row of fake play-ins. And some users here are clowning "tank guys" because we just want good for franchise. If they started tank literally 3 years ago, now rebuild would be over.

It's being over 10 years since Bulls won playoff series.

It's being 27 years since last ring. So patience is something I dont have. I know some of Bulls fans are vampires and 6-10 years of bad GMing is like 5 days in your lifespan. But dont put rest of us in basket (literally) with you.

This is my press conference to all of you.

Play ins are play ins, what’s fake about it ? The system you knew before 1-8 without play ins are a thing of the past. Play ins are now a reality.

NBA media literally crap on Bulls that you dont want make playins 3 years in row. They understand that this is not spot you want to be. It's basically reward for owners for one more game at the end of season for being midiest of mid of mid of mid NBA team. It's fake. It's made up spot. It didnt exist over 50+ years in NBA history. It's fake.

[_txchilibowl_]

They asked for patience after 6 years as GM's, 3 years in row of fake play-ins. And some users here are clowning "tank guys" because we just want good for franchise. If they started tank literally 3 years ago, now rebuild would be over.

It's being over 10 years since Bulls won playoff series.

It's being 27 years since last ring. So patience is something I dont have. I know some of Bulls fans are vampires and 6-10 years of bad GMing is like 5 days in your lifespan. But dont put rest of us in basket (literally) with you.

This is my press conference to all of you.

Play ins are play ins, what’s fake about it ? The system you knew before 1-8 without play ins are a thing of the past. Play ins are now a reality.

NBA media literally crap on Bulls that you dont want make playins 3 years in row. They understand that this is not spot you want to be. It's basically reward for owners for one more game at the end of season for being midiest of mid of mid of mid NBA team. It's fake. It's made up spot. It didnt exist over 50+ years in NBA history. It's fake.

It's literally real whether you value it's merits or not.

[SalmonsSuperfan]

"Patience" = run it back.

I'm more or less okay with that. I'd in fact be pleasantly surprised if he does that and only that. Because despite our finish to the season I believe a team that purely runs this back plus a rookie is a bottom 10 team and we could use another year in the lottery at least.

"running it back" means re-signing Giddey to a giant contract that he won't earn and further hamstringing the team for an extra 5 years. I imagine it's a larger contract than what Pat got for a marginally better player. It'll be a Zach-esque contract and he's even less impactful than Zach is.

We've said this every year for the past...I don't know how many years...but BLOW IT UP! Coby is awesome, but he's at his maximum value and is due for a new contract. Trade him. Trade him for nothing if you can somehow attach Pat's albatross. Trade him so that maybe he can win somewhere, he deserves it.

Frankly, the only person who should be on this team next year is Matas. The only person who should be in the front office next year is...Benny the Bull I guess. The 'promo' people seem good at their jobs, keep them. Deepsix everyone else who has anything to do with basketball. Deepsix Michael somehow, lord forgive me for thinking Jerry was better at the helm.

Fire them and then let the new GM trade everyone on the team who wasn't born in Chicago. Ayo can stick around I guess, he had a nice cameo in that hbo show 'south side' and I can't imagine anyone trading for him. I don't think he's the 'missing piece' anywhere. Coby might be though. Even Vuc. Trade those guys.

[Bulldog23]

I just hope AK doesn't see 10 years with the Bulls.

[Jcool0]

Play ins are play ins, what’s fake about it ? The system you knew before 1-8 without play ins are a thing of the past. Play ins are now a reality.

NBA media literally crap on Bulls that you dont want make playins 3 years in row. They understand that this is not spot you want to be. It's basically reward for owners for one more game at the end of season for being midiest of mid of mid of mid NBA team. It's fake. It's made up spot. It didnt exist over 50+ years in NBA history. It's fake.

It's literally real whether you value it's merits or not.

It's nothing.

[Dan Z]

Not all lottery picks are equal. A team of top 10 picks sounds great, when 5 are 6th or later sounds less great. The highest pick in Ball is never going to play more then 60 games a season. Williams at #4 currently isn't an NBA level player.

So you like picks up until they become actual players?

I actually think the picking up devalued former high pick players is an underrated strategy. I was thrilled with both the Lonzo and Giddey acquisitions. And TBH, they've been probably the two most impactful players we've gotten vs our own draft picks like PWill & Terry. We'll see about Matas...although he really should have been #5.

At the Giddey trade I said it's like we traded an expiring Caruso for a #6 pick, you could normally get nothing close to that. The best offer for a pick we know 100% was offered was 24, that's nowhere close to Giddey. The downside is you have to pay that #6 pick sooner, but it's still a huge win overall.

While Giddey isn't on this level, trading for top picks still in their rookie contracts like SGA, Haliburton has been as good as lucking into the top 5. It's just really rare for teams to be that dumb.

If AK asked for OKCs 2024 pick for Caruso do you think he says no?

I think trading for devalued high picks can be good, but it depends on who it is. How excited would you be for the Bulls to trade for Kuminga?

The other thing is if the Bulls traded for a pick (instead of Giddey) then how high would their 2025 pick be?

[Dan Z]

"Patience" = run it back.

I'm more or less okay with that. I'd in fact be pleasantly surprised if he does that and only that. Because despite our finish to the season I believe a team that purely runs this back plus a rookie is a bottom 10 team and we could use another year in the lottery at least.

"running it back" means re-signing Giddey to a giant contract that he won't earn and further hamstringing the team for an extra 5 years. I imagine it's a larger contract than what Pat got for a marginally better player. It'll be a Zach-esque contract and he's even less impactful than Zach is.

We've said this every year for the past...I don't know how many years...but BLOW IT UP! Coby is awesome, but he's at his maximum value and is due for a new contract. Trade him. Trade him for nothing if you can somehow attach Pat's albatross. Trade him so that maybe he can win somewhere, he deserves it.

Frankly, the only person who should be on this team next year is Matas. The only person who should be in the front office next year is...Benny the Bull I guess. The 'promo' people seem good at their jobs, keep them. Deepsix everyone else who has anything to do with basketball. Deepsix Michael somehow, lord forgive me for thinking Jerry was better at the helm.

Fire them and then let the new GM trade everyone on the team who wasn't born in Chicago. Ayo can stick around I guess, he had a nice cameo in that hbo show 'south side' and I can't imagine anyone trading for him. I don't think he's the 'missing piece' anywhere. Coby might be though. Even Vuc. Trade those guys.

Its depends on the number, but Giddeys contract could be ok. The problem is that the Bulls never tank or build through the draft.

Had they tanked this year then how high would their pick be? Top 5? I bet they could be close to where Philly ended up.

Top 5 pick added to this team and it's something to work with. Maybe you draft Tre Johnson and trade Coby for future assets? Or maybe a PF (which AK seems allergic to acquiring).

[bullskokie]

Any chance we get Lavine back and Sabonis from SAC?

[bullskokie]

Zach Lavine + Keegan Murray for Coby White, Pat Williams, Jevon Carter, Zach Collins trade machine works.

[SalmonsSuperfan]

Its depends on the number, but Giddeys contract could be ok. The problem is that the Bulls never tank or build through the draft.

Had they tanked this year then how high would their pick be? Top 5? I bet they could be close to where Philly ended up.

Top 5 pick added to this team and it's something to work with. Maybe you draft Tre Johnson and trade Coby for future assets? Or maybe a PF (which AK seems allergic to acquiring).

It's hilarious to me that the Pistons of all teams are way better than the Bulls now. That was the worst basketball team I've ever seen, like, two years ago. Our Bulls are a worse version of that Joe Johnson Hawks team. At least they were a regular 8th seed, we're a regular 10th seed. I'm pretty sure we've been in the play-in and lost every year the play-in has existed. The NBA did a stupid thing and the Bulls decided the stupid thing is their ceiling until the end of time. clearly the fans don't care, we were top in attendance again. How does that work? No one will show up to see the Sox when they suck, the Bulls are evidently the best and only show in town.

[CROBulls]

Its depends on the number, but Giddeys contract could be ok. The problem is that the Bulls never tank or build through the draft.

Had they tanked this year then how high would their pick be? Top 5? I bet they could be close to where Philly ended up.

Top 5 pick added to this team and it's something to work with. Maybe you draft Tre Johnson and trade Coby for future assets? Or maybe a PF (which AK seems allergic to acquiring).

It's hilarious to me that the Pistons of all teams are way better than the Bulls now. That was the worst basketball team I've ever seen, like, two years ago. Our Bulls are a worse version of that Joe Johnson Hawks team. At least they were a regular 8th seed, we're a regular 10th seed. I'm pretty sure we've been in the play-in and lost every year the play-in has existed. The NBA did a stupid thing and the Bulls decided the stupid thing is their ceiling until the end of time. clearly the fans don't care, we were top in attendance again. How does that work? No one will show up to see the Sox when they suck, the Bulls are evidently the best and only show in town.

Bulls live on Michael Jordan aura and 90's greatness. They have cool logo. It f * sucks that 27 years later this franchise still profiting out that. But Bulls fans are something else. Never met more delusional hopium franchise fans except maybe Bears fans. And this f in front office are milking every penny out of them.