Chicago Bulls get painfully chastised by NBA insider

The Chicago Bulls landed in the “all-in on nothing” tier by ESPN insiders Tim Bontemps and Kevin Pelton. They were there, fittingly, alongside the Sacramento Kings, Toronto Raptors, and New Orleans Pelicans, all teams without much direction.

“It’s difficult to see which way these four franchises are headed,” they argued. “In Chicago, the offseason saw the Bulls extend lead front office executives Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley as well as coach Billy Donovan.”

However, they’ve made the playoffs just once and have won only one playoff game over the past eight years. “[They] have repeatedly failed to extract draft pick value out of trades for veterans (Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine) in the past year,” the ESPN insiders added. “One light at the end of the tunnel in Chicago: plenty of cap space next summer.”

That’s more than the other three teams can say. The Bulls are still aimless, though. Out of all the tiers Pelton and Bontemps came up with, this one is the worst. The other teams can at least say they’re building something with high draft picks or can expect to make the playoffs routinely. The Bulls haven’t done either in a long time.

After this offseason, it’s unclear when the Bulls are going to move out of this tier. They went 39-43 last season and flamed out of the NBA Play-In Tournament in one game. Then, they re-signed one player, are about to re-sign another (Josh Giddey), and traded Lonzo Ball for Isaac Okoro. It’s the same team that failed last year, although the East is much more open in 2025-26 than it was last season, so maybe the Bulls will be better by default.