Best move/worst move: Chicago Bulls

[loserX]

While others more insightful and thorough than I are already doing more comprehensive offseason reviews, I thought I'd do a quick-hitter series giving posters a chance to discuss for each team:

- what's the best move they made this offseason?
- what's the worst move they made this offseason?

All opinions welcome! And yes, "worst move" is inherently going to be critical in nature...but as Chuck says, don't make it personal, don't take it personal. If you disagree with someone else's post about your team, what do *you* think was the worst move they made?

(And yes, I know the offseason isn't over yet We can update these if any team does something particularly good or bad!)

For the time being I will be posting two of these per day. Proceeding alphabetically, next up are the Chicago Bulls (and yes I am skipping Boston AND Charlotte until the Hayward situation is resolved one way or the other).

[loserX]

Best move: It started early but continued until more recently: cleaning house. The previous regime in the front office and on the bench simply wasn't getting it done; the most recent plan seemed to be having a team of half vets, half kids, and none of it worked. GarPax is replaced by a guy who's just built a contender in Denver, and Boeheim (a coach it seemed nobody wanted) is out in favour of a guy with a track record of winning games in the NBA. Is it going to work? Time will tell. But the old way clearly wasn't, so it was time.

Worst move: I honestly didn't know what direction Chicago was going to take (win-now or sell vets), and I still don't. All they've done is draft kids, then sign Garrett Temple and Noah Vonleh, which really clears up nothing.

Maybe the new regime wants more time to assess what they have, so I'm not sure whether to count treading water as a bad move or not. So I will put it to the side and go with a small reach on Patrick Williams. He was a hot riser pre-draft but I don't think anyone had him at #4 (except some of our more cynical Bulls fans who were proven correct). This was the first stamp on the franchise of new management, and it was a questionable one. Let's see if they were right.

[E S V L]

I see nothing done by FO that might be seen as “good”. The “worst” part is, therefore, large: Lavine hasn’t been traded, Williams is drafted, Markkanen hasn't traded, Coby White hasn’t been traded. Nothing has changed for Chicago then - which is a FO failure.

They should have brought Horford and Richardson, gotten 3 more top-12 picks on the draft, and picked Kira Lewis Jr., Vassel, and Okongwu.

[ChettheJet]

After bringing hew management and an experienced head coach for the first time in 20 years they didn't have to do much to have this off season be called a success. It's hard to rate best and worst because they didn't make many moves.

The best move they made was NOT giving up assets to move up 2 or 3 spots. No rookie 2 spots higher is going to join this team and make any substantial difference right away and in 2 years Williams could be head and shoulders above whoever people were gushing over 3 spots higher. With the roster as it was they didn't have room for 2 rookies so the other good move was just signing a veteran like Temple and bringing back Valentine for a year while they evaluate who they have when healthy, see how the young core of Carter, Gafford, White and now Williams improves, wait for all the expiring contracts to run out and see what they can get in free agency or if that doesn't work who they can use it to take back in trades and get more assets. So drafting a player from overseas that couldn't come for a year or two made a lot of sense.

The worst move they made, to me, is not getting in on the trades going on. After hearing that Thad Young was unhappy in his role you would think there would have been some opportunity to move him but it didn't happen. News doesn't come out of the organization so it could be that things were smoothed over with Young and now he isn't looking to move on, or they see a trade coming up soon ( which would fit with the Vonleh signing) or maybe at the deadline (which depends a lot on other teams). You just don't know.

[Tony Snell]

Best move: the bulls major free agent acquisition is Garrett Temple. I will not be selecting that as their best move. I guess starting over with the front office/coaching staff was the best move. I think hiring an established coach like Donovan will be beneficial for our young guys and GarPax had not been cutting it for a while now, so I like the changes.

Worst move: Inactivity. I suppose the goal of the new management is to see what their guys can do with a solid head coach and a potentially healthy roster because they have been so hurt the last couple of years. I guess the Bulls could potentially sneak into the playoffs if they get a healthy season out of Otto, Lauri, WCJ, the huge improvement in coaching, and the continued development of the young core. Even if this happens, I still find it doubtful that free agents will have the desire to come to Chicago in 2021. I would have liked to see the Bulls try to move any of Otto, Sato, Thad, Felicio expiring for bad contracts/future assets. I don't buy the full burn it down and trade Zach/Lauri/WCJ suggested narrative, but trading their expirings/vets for assets is something I would have liked to see.

A week ago I would have said drafting Williams was the worst move because at the time it felt like a total reach, but the more I read about him and the more tape I watch, I am starting to buy in that he was the right pick. Perhaps this is just the usual dilusion that comes with your team selecting a high draft pick. Who knows at this point. I won't go so far as to say it was their best move because he still does have a ton of question marks with his offensive skill set and which position he should play, but at this point I like him.

[Buzzard]

Grade B-
- what's the best move they made this offseason? Hiring Donovan and keeping the young talent.
- what's the worst move they made this offseason? Drafting Williams. This reminds me so much of when the Hawks drafted Marvin Williams its scary. Both were highly recruited freshmen that could not break into their college teams starting unit. Both were taken over players who were believed by many to be better players.

I think the Bulls with Donovan at the helm can push for a 8th seed. It will depend on a couple of things.
#1 - He has to get that back court to mesh.
#2 - Porter and WCJ's health.

I think LaVine and Markkanen will be fine. Which, along with coach Donovan makes them a threat for a 8th seed.

[HartfordWhalers]

- what's the worst move they made this offseason? Drafting Williams. This reminds me so much of when the Hawks drafted Marvin Williams its scary. Both were highly recruited freshmen that could not break into their college teams starting unit. Both were taken over players who were believed by many to be better players.

It keeps reminding me of Derrick Williams to the Twolves.