It's time for the Chicago Bulls to step off the treadmill of mediocrity

Arturas Karnisovas came to the Chicago Bulls with lofty goals.

“Our ultimate goal is to bring an NBA championship to the city of Chicago,” he said at his introductory press conference in 2020.

“We will not settle for mediocrity here,” he said a year later following the 2020-21 season.

In the three seasons since, the Bulls have defined mediocrity. They topped out as an uncompetitive first round Playoff exit in 2021-22, losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in five games. They finished with a sub-.500 record in the next two seasons. With Friday’s 112-91 loss to the Miami Heat in the second Play-In Game, they have now failed to make the Playoffs in back-to-back seasons.

Quite obviously, things have been trending in the wrong direction. But rather than acknowledge the situation let alone take action towards building a team that can eventually win at a high level, Karnisovas has made injury excuses and lowered the bar.

“This team is very competitive, in every game,” Karnisovas said at the his post-deadline media availability. “And we have aspirations to compete for the playoffs.”

They did not make it to the Playoffs. And their final loss of the season was not competitive.

There were some positives with this season to be sure. Growth from young players like Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu. Star caliber production from DeMar DeRozan. Resolve from a group of players and coaching staff after a miserable 5-14 start. Their win in the first Play-In game was the peak of their potential. 

But getting beaten by a Miami Heat team without Jimmy Butler was the other end of that spectrum, reinforcing the Bulls status as stuck squarely in the middle.

Every team must eventually step off the treadmill of mediocrity, it’s just a matter of how long they wait. When teams repeatedly reach their ceiling, it’s time to sell off and rebuild. The longer the team waits to sell, the less they get back for their assets and the harder it becomes to rebuild.

The Bulls are no exception. That’s why they moved on from Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah after seasons of waiting for them to regain their peak form. They once again recognized their reality when they dealt Butler on draft night in 2017 to get out of the middle and rebuild for the future.

When Karnisovas took over that rebuild project, he made some bold, aggressive moves to kickstart success. Among them were some objectively good deals that led to a brief period of team success.

But that was three seasons ago.

In the three seasons of inactivity since, Karnisovas has proven he does not have a plan to get out of the jam of his own creation, nor is he willing to take the outs he has available to him. He admitted he had the green light from ownership to take on a rebuild, but he refused to be a seller despite that being the best path forward for the health of the organization.

His errors go beyond the missed opportunities to sell high on Alex Caruso and Andre Drummond at the trade deadline. Karnisovas has misjudged the value of his own players at every turn and continues to limit his own flexibility to make changes.

The upcoming offseason will be telling. Will Karnisovas finally acknowledge his reality and move forward? Or will he keep the pieces together a third straight season hoping the result will change?

Whether it’s a full-scale teardown or a re-tool around the younger players, major change is required. DeRozan, whose free agency looms large, is the first domino to address. He can be extended until June 29. The Bulls should explore sign-and-trade options or be open to letting him walk for nothing as a free agent.

They’ll need to decide how to manage Caruso in the final season of his contract. He could net them massive return in a trade. He is also eligible to sign a four-year, $78.8 million extension starting on July 6.

Surely, Karnisovas will look to move Zach LaVine to open the team’s flexibility. It might make more sense to weather his (and Nikola Vucevic’s) contract until it becomes tradable for positive value rather than attach assets to move it.

The Bulls should also gauge the market on Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu’s bargain contracts. Establishing a new direction and navigating towards retaining the top-10 protected pick in 2025 is far more valuable than a few more seasons playing for eighth before getting on with the rebuild that they should have already started. 

Karnisovas’ vision to build a team that succeeds at a high level has failed. The Bulls are back on the treadmill of mediocrity.

Maybe they never left.

After successive seasons as the 20th best team in basketball, it’s time to step off the treadmill and start moving forward the right way.

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