I’d say step one is “fire AKME” and hire someone who actually has capability to develop, articulate, and execute a plan

but to be fair you are not writing this from the perspective that AKME should/would do this

your plan also stinks (take a top-5 market/franchise to the very bottom, cool do we get to sim the seasons?) but it’s at least a plan.

Similar thinking I have in that you have an incorrect assumption that the Bulls are in “the middle”. They are at the bottom. They are not bottom-3, but they are not mediocre. LaVine and Vuc are not raising this floor all season even if they have for a few lucky wins this year. To say they’re mediocre and “soft tanking” is also crediting AKME for executing their plan, albeit a bad plan. They are too incompetent for that. They stupidly planned on being mediocre and aren’t even doing that.

Is there a good recent example of a team pulling off this path? Especially step #4 – it seems so rare these days that a team signs a big free agent to put them into contention alongside some homegrown(ish) talent. I guess kind of the Rockets with FVV, but I’d say they are still short a legit star? And I suppose the Spurs are already on this path and will be looking for a 2nd star to pair with Wemby.