Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
The Bulls already hate each, and their coach is trying to spin it like a good thing
The Chicago Bulls were striving for mediocrity as they entered the 2023-2024 season. Chicago’s front office was encouraged enough by last season’s 40-42 campaign and close loss to the Miami Heat in the play-in tournament that it decided to double-down on its core once again. The Bulls signed two role players in free agency (Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig) to modest contracts, but the majority of the team stayed the same.
The Bulls were never trying to build a championship team in the first place — not this year and not anytime to soon. To Chicago’s ownership and front office, success was grabbing a low-end playoff seed, collecting the gate revenue from hosting a couple postseason games, and avoiding paying the luxury tax. While being a good-not-great team can produce some reasonably fun basketball for fans, the Bulls also knew they had a thin margin for error to even reach their lowly ceiling.
Through one game, it’s already all falling apart.
The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Bulls, 124-104, at home to open the 2023-2024 season. Chicago broke in the second half, with the offense failing to generate any semblance of a good luck, the defense getting torched by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31 points in the win), and starting center Nikola Vucevic getting heated with head coach Billy Donovan on the sidelines.
After the game, Donovan entered the locker room to a group of players “hashing out their issues.” They asked him to leave, and he did. Yes, that qualifies as a players-only meeting after the very first game of the season.
Billy Donovan says when he walked into the Bulls locker room tonight, players were already in heated conversations.
He asked if they wanted him to leave to handle conflict. Players said yes, so he did.
Donovan emphasized that embracing conflict is key for this year’s roster.
— Julia Poe (@byjuliapoe) October 26, 2023
“Embracing conflict” is a fine idea for a team as they navigate the slog of an 82-game regular season, but it certainly shouldn’t be something to encounter in the first game of the year. Donovan immediately tried to spin what happened in the locker room as a positive after the game.
“That would’ve never happened last year. It would’ve been a quiet group,” Donovan said. “So the confrontation piece is a sign that it’s important to them. And they know we’ve got to be better.”
The quotes from the players are less encouraging. Zach LaVine — who shot 4-of-16 from the field on the night — said the Bulls didn’t play with enough heart. Seems like a bad sign for the season opener!
Zach LaVine: “I don’t feel like we played with enough heart. And that’s on us. It’s unacceptable. I don’t think it’s a thing people do on purpose either. But we gotta come together during those (opponent) runs.”
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) October 26, 2023
Deep down, the Bulls had to know this season could go off the rails. The trio of LaVine, Vucevic, and DeMar DeRozan has been consistently outscored when on the floor together over the last two seasons. Chicago thought it could add a couple shooters for cheap to clean up the low hanging fruit for their mediocre play, but it simply wasn’t enough. The reality is this team just isn’t good enough without Lonzo Ball, and he’s out for the year once again.
The Bulls’ real issue, it seems, is that the players don’t necessarily like playing with each other. Vucevic spent the offseason saying he only re-signed because the team promised him a bigger role. In game one, he was already upset about his lack of touches, and lost his cool over it at one point in the second half to draw a technical foul. The Bulls put LaVine on the trade market this summer, too, according to reports, but no one offered them a good enough package for a player of his talents.
This quote from the end of the offseason by assistant GM Marc Eversley is just damning. He said the Bulls didn’t feel like a team last year … yet the front office still chose to bring the entire roster back.
Bulls GM Marc Eversley:
“What we learned from our team was – when we had exit interviews – they were a team, but they really didn’t feel like a team…It’s almost like you just show up, you go to work, you go home. You show up the next day, you come to work.”
-via @670TheScore
— CHGO Bulls (@CHGO_Bulls) September 27, 2023
Things could get bad very quickly for the Bulls. The young players aren’t developing the way the team hopes. The veteran stars don’t work well together. The team also still owes a first round draft pick to the Spurs in 2025 (protected 1-8) for the DeRozan trade.
DeRozan is on an expiring contract this season, and he’s reportedly unsold on the long-term direction of the team:
The Bulls’ only goal was to not be embarrassing this year. It’s not off to a good start.
There are 81 more Bulls games this season. Jerry Reinsdorf’s basketball team is already looking as embarrassing as his baseball team, the White Sox. At least Chicago has the Bears … oh wait. Somehow, things keep getting worse for Chicago sports.
