Chicago Bulls front office lands in terrible spot in analyst rankings

The Chicago Bulls have made some truly head-scratching moves over the last few years. The only team that now, according to CBS Sports insider Sam Quinn, has a worse front office is the New Orleans Pelicans after they hired Joe Dumars.

Quinn said that it’s good that Chicago is finally negotiating with their own free agents rather than “against themselves” like they did with Nikola Vucevic and Patrick Williams. The line seems to be drawn with Josh Giddey, who seems like he will not get a huge, unwieldy contract like the latter two did.

“That’s… progress? Sadly, little of it has been made in the many other areas in which the Bulls have always been deficient,” Quinn added. He criticized the team for sending Alex Caruso, a role player any team would’ve liked, for Giddey alone instead of getting picks, calling Giddey a “recent lottery pick whose original team no longer wanted him.”

Chicago being hesitant to pay Giddey suggests they might’ve seen the error of their ways, but then they pulled the same move with Lonzo Ball. It got them Isaac Okoro, who doesn’t mesh with Patrick Williams and can’t shoot, either, but they could’ve gotten more or at least some picks for another key role player.

“In the entire five-year reign of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley, the Bulls have acquired just one future first-round pick through a trade. It was a pick from Portland that would be lottery-protected for seven years. Getting that pick cost the Bulls Lauri Markkanen,” Quinn said.

The analyst said that may be why they passed on trading pick 12 for the haul, including a 2026 unprotected first-round pick, that the Atlanta Hawks received from the Pelicans. That still doesn’t mean it was smart, as it could’ve transformed their future outlook.

“It’s the same old story in Chicago. The Bulls’ ambition doesn’t seem to extend beyond filling the arena and ducking the luxury tax. The Bulls have failed on just about every roster-building front: drafting, trading, contracts, any sort of coherent vision, all of it,” he said. That’s brutal criticism for a front office that just extended its GM.