Bulls' belated teardown isn't moving the needle on tanking

After three straight seasons of play-in tournament losses, the Chicago Bulls finally traded their veterans and embraced their rebuild. They waited so long that even their nine-game losing streak isn't changing their lottery odds.

Chicago sent Nikola Vucevic to the Boston Celtics, Coby White to the Charlotte Hornets, Kevin Huerter to the Detroit Pistons and Ayo Dosunmu to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a flurry of deals at the trade deadline. But by waiting until February, they may remain stuck in late-lottery purgatory.

Bulls held onto veterans long past their competitive window

The Bulls made a series of aggressive moves in 2021, trading for Vucevic, Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan and locking up Zach LaVine to a large long-term deal. That team led the Eastern Conference for stretches of the 2021-22 season before Ball's knee injury derailed its playoff push, which ended in a first-round loss.

The team committed to contending for the play-in the next three seasons while it won 40, 39 and 39 games. It was a tough position to be in. The team was full of veterans in or past their prime, but not good enough to actually make the playoffs. Nor was it bad enough to get a high pick, landing at No. 11 and No. 12 in the last two drafts.

At the trade deadline, Chicago was 24-28, tied with the Charlotte Hornets for the league's 11th-worst record and a 2 percent chance at the first overall pick. Despite losing every game they've played since, the Bulls are still only the ninth-worst team, and their odds of the top pick only improved to 4.5 percent.

Bulls are building around Josh Giddey and question marks

There are only two Bulls players who are signed to long-term deals. Josh Giddey (18.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 8.5 assists) makes $25M per year through 2028-29. Forward Patrick Williams is making $18M per season over that span, while averaging 6.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists and playing the fewest minutes of his career.

Second-year forward Matas Buzelis is averaging 15 points, but aside from him, there's precious little to build around. Rookie Noa Essengue played only three minutes before shoulder surgery ended his season. The Bulls do have a great deal of salary-cap space this summer, but they don't seem to have a clear plan of how to use it, beyond the option to re-sign deadline acquisitions Anfernee Simons and Jaden Ivey.

In addition, the Bulls still don't seem to recognize the value of first-round picks. In the last two years, they traded this year's passel of veterans, plus Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso. The only first-rounder they got back was their own 2025 pick, which they had initially traded to get DeRozan in the first place.

First-rounders should have been their top priority, but the Bulls seem disinterested in obtaining them. That very much limits their ability to get top talent, as does their record, which is bad but not quite bad enough for a high lottery pick.

The Bulls are seemingly gambling on lottery luck and finding free agents more focused on money than winning to rebuild their team. Their years of indecisiveness have left them without options or enough time to truly tank.