Offseason moves the Chicago Bulls should make but won’t make

What moves should the Chicago Bulls make this offseason?

The past few seasons have been rough for the Chicago Bulls. The team has consistently hung around the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, failing to make the playoffs in each of the past two years. And the year prior, they made the postseason but lost in five games against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Heading into this summer, they have some big-time decisions to make. From DeMar DeRozan’s free agency to a potential Zach LaVine trade, the Bulls have a ton of room to reshape the course of the organization. The question is, will they make the moves the fanbase wants them to make?

The Locked On Bulls podcast recently took a look at some moves the Bulls probably should make this summer but definitely won’t.

Based on everything the Bulls have done over the past few seasons, Chicagoans should expect to get more of the same this summer.

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Bulls need to create a clear focus for the franchise this offseason

The Chicago Bulls need to figure out the direction of their franchise this summer.

The Chicago Bulls have a lot of things they need to do this summer as they attempt to push forward. However, they also have a lot of different directions they could go in. Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report listed one of their “top needs” as finding a clear direction for the organization.

“You could argue Chicago’s direction is already established,” Buckley wrote. “You could also look at its recent results and hope like heck that isn’t the case. The Bulls have said mediocrity won’t be tolerated. And they’ve largely played mediocre basketball ever since. They had some early juice with this group before Lonzo Ball hurt his knee, but that injury was basically two-and-a-half years ago. That can’t be the main motivation to believe things will turn around.

“But this team hasn’t had a winning record or a playoff spot in either of the past two seasons, so what exactly is the plan here? That simply cannot be a question people are still pondering coming out of this offseason. The free-agency adventures of DeMar DeRozan and Patrick Williams could be hugely revealing on that front.”

Before the Bulls commit to anything, they need to figure out where they want to go.

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Chicago Bulls shouldn’t deal with a ton of drama this offseason

Will the Chicago Bulls have to deal with drama this summer?

The Chicago Bulls have some big-time decisions to make about their future, but none are particularly dramatic. The Bleacher Report staff recently ranked all 30 teams by how drama-filled their offseason is shaping up to be, and they placed the Bulls in 20th place (the fourth tier among all squads).

“Normal teams in the Chicago Bulls’ situation would be a notch or 12 higher up these chaos rankings,” wrote Dan Favale. “These Bulls, as we know, are not a normal team. DeMar DeRozan, their best player, turns 35 in August and is scheduled to hit free agency. Patrick Williams is headed for restricted free agency on the heels of left foot surgery. Andre Drummond, an Early Bird free agent, is due for a raise. While possible, re-signing everyone would probably vault Chicago into the luxury tax. That’s not an acceptable outcome for a 39-win core. And that should drum up the pandemonium potential one way or another.

“Do the Bulls burn it down? Let DeRozan walk or move him in a sign-and-trade? Deal Zach LaVine, even though he’s at the nadir of his market value coming off right foot surgery that ended his season? Will they look to capitalize on Alex Caruso’s remaining trade mystique as he heads into the final year of his contract? Or could the Bulls go the other way completely and attempt to quadruple down on what’s already in place with a blockbuster swing? They owe a top-10-protected pick to San Antonio in 2025, but they have the contracts, future firsts and unimpressive vibes that inflate the value of those firsts to do something substantial (reckless?). Once more, though, these are the Bulls. So we already know how this ends: with their embracing action somewhere between nuclear and nothing, preserving their place inside the Eastern Conference pecking order above the Charlottes and the Washingtons but below the line of mediocrity.

“Am I taking such a hardline stance in hopes it acts as a reverse jinx and Chicago, at long last, injects a little lot of much-needed chaos into its banal existence? Who’s to say, really?

The Bulls should get busy, but will they?

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Rebuilding the Chicago Bulls as a dynasty in NBA 2K24

What would a Chicago Bulls dynasty look like if they started their rebuild now?

When the Chicago Bulls went all-in in 2021, they clearly had big things in mind. They created a core of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic, with a group of solid role players around them. Unfortunately, that group hasn’t panned out, having won just a single playoff game in three years and enduring two sub-.500 seasons in each of the last two years.

Needless to say, changes are needed, and Arturas Karnisovas even admitted that this group isn’t working at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season. Now, Chicago faces a crucial offseason that could help determine what the future of their organization looks like.

YouTuber Clique Productions recently made a video in which he rebuilt the Bulls and made them into a dynasty in NBA 2K24.

Obviously, it’s going to be a lot harder to turn things around in Chicago than Clique made it look in this video. That said, everything starts with a successful 2024 offseason, so it’s on the front office to get things right this summer.

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A 2024 offseason guide for the Chicago Bulls from Bobby Marks

ESPN’s Bobby Marks recently put out his 2024 offseason guide for the Chicago Bulls.

For the past three years, the Chicago Bulls have accepted mediocrity. After a solid start to their first season with their current core, they simply were okay with being a middle-of-the-pack team in the Eastern Conference. But after a second-straight losing season that culminated in a Play-In defeat to the Miami Heat, Arturas Karnisovas finally admitted that this team isn’t working.

Now, heading into the offseason, the Bulls will have some big decisions to make. Should they re-sign DeMar DeRozan? What types of players should they target in free agency? What could a potential Zach LaVine trade look like this summer?

ESPN’s Bobby Marks, a former NBA GM, recently put out his full offseason guide for the Bulls this summer.

There have already been rumors that the Bulls plan to trade LaVine, so that’s a good place to start, but after that is said and done, there is still a lot for Chicago to do.

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