NBA insider describes Chicago Bulls offseason in one bleak word

The one word that Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes chose to describe the Chicago Bulls’ offseason so far is “stuck.” The Bulls are stuck, and they honestly might have been stuck for a long time. They just don’t resemble a team moving in the right direction.

“Unless you’re convinced incoming trade acquisition Isaac Okoro is a huge upgrade over the outgoing Lonzo Ball, it’s hard to see how the Chicago Bulls will improve on last year’s 39 wins,” Hughes said of the only major move the Bulls have made.

“Organic growth from Matas Buzelis might make a moderate difference, but expected decline from vets like Nikola Vucević ought to balance things out on the bottom line,” he added, and that’s assuming that Vucević remains on the roster for the entire season, which is highly unlikely.

“Tre Jones is back, Josh Giddey almost certainly will be, too—only with a giant raise in restricted free agency,” the insider added. “And that’s pretty much it for Chicago, a team seemingly so satisfied with its middling position that it handed extensions to GM Arturas Karnisovas and head coach Billy Donovan.”

And then in a biting, sarcastic conclusion, Hughes said, “When you can lock in a core that sometimes wins almost as many games as it loses, you’ve got to do it.” That appears to be what the Bulls are aiming for right now, with moves to remain largely the same team with one role player swapped out and seemingly a second version of Buzelis in the 2025 selection, Noa Essengue.