Was it a step forward or a spectacular failure?
Maybe the 2020-21 season will prove to be both for the Bulls, another disappointing non-playoff finish that stings in the short term but one that might have set up the franchise for greater success in the long term.
“We didn’t achieve our goal, so we have to be realistic and say we failed at that,” Bulls center Nikola Vučević said. “The only thing we can do is move forward and hopefully use that as motivation going into next year.”
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Chicago finished 31-41, a nine-win improvement over last season when the Bulls’ season was scrapped after 65 games. In September, Bulls general manager Marc Eversley deemed the team’s talent to be better than 22 wins, and the Bulls proved as much. But crumbling down the stretch and tumbling out of the Play-In Tournament wasn’t a conclusion the Bulls saw coming.
They went 12-17 following two trade-deadline deals that brought Vučević and four others. The Bulls thought they would rise in the standings. A loaded schedule, a positive COVID-19 test on leading scorer Zach LaVine, a few injuries and one too many bad losses sent the Bulls in the opposite direction. Missing the expanded opportunity to make the playoffs — the league allowing this year’s ninth and 10th place teams a shot at the eighth seeds via two victories in the Play-In round — might have been met with a yawn before. After getting eliminated on the third-to-last night of the regular season, misfortune or not, the Bulls appear to have made a miscalculation.
“The disappointment is short term, which is we assume that if you add another All-Star to your roster, usually you get better and improve your record,” Bulls executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnišovas said. “It’s a result-driven business. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. But we are happy to add Vooch into this equation. … It’s very seldom you get an opportunity to add an All-Star, and we went after it.”
Now what?
The truncated and chaotic 72-game season answered some long-standing questions for the Bulls but created others about the franchise’s future. As the Bulls gear up for a crucial offseason, here’s a look at some of what we know and will soon learn.
What’s the plan?
All eyes now shift to Karnišovas. It’s his job to reload the roster, and the team’s chief basketball executive, on the first day of his first true offseason, acknowledged there will be ample turnover.
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“We’ll have a ton of roster spots,” he said Monday.
How the Bulls fill them will be nearly as interesting as the players they select. As many as nine players, including both two-way contract players, could become free agents. After swapping five players at the deadline, the Bulls will need to sign five players this offseason just to reach the 13-man roster minimum. Their trade-deadline activity, though, left them without much flexibility or very many mechanisms to significantly improve this summer. They traded this year’s draft pick, with top-four protection, to Orlando for Vučević. They increased their payroll for next season, reducing potential salary cap space this summer, by taking on the contracts of Vučević, Al-Farouq Aminu and Troy Brown Jr. They shrunk their asset base by sacrificing young centers Wendell Carter Jr. and Daniel Gafford and another top-four protected pick in 2023.
“Once we take some time off, Marc, (Bulls coach) Billy (Donovan) and I will get together and evaluate and try to analyze the season and formulate a plan,” Karnišovas said. “At this point in time, I cannot tell you what the plan is going to look like. But I can tell you that we’ll look at every possible way to improve the team.”
The Bulls go into the offseason with the same conviction they carried at the deadline. The battle cry: “We’re better.”
“When you have a foundation of, let’s say, two All-Stars in one place, I think it’s easier to add additional things that we need,” Karnišovas said.
We’ve seen Karnišovas be bold. We’re about to learn whether he’s creative. We’ll also begin to gain clarity on what Karnišovas truly values. When he arrived last spring, Karnišovas played nice. He was measured. He moved slowly, preached patience, demanded development. His in-season evaluation then spanned three months. Winning now became the priority.
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“We’re serious here about winning,” Karnišovas said at the deadline in March. “We’re serious about the culture of being very competitive, and any opportunity we get to make this team better we will.”
Karnišovas could have chosen any number of paths. There is the slow-play approach to team building, turning lousy seasons into high draft picks as the primary means to amass assets. Think Philadelphia’s “process.” It’s a strategy that requires rampant losing, supreme scouting and a lot of luck. There is the free-agent market, the place both stars and vital supporting players can be found. But there’s an annual risk associated with overpaying on the open market and walking away with the winner’s curse as the highest bidder. And there are trades, blockbusters and stabilizing deals. Both can rapidly transform a roster, ushering in building blocks, complementary pieces and X-factors. Determining fair market value there, however, can be tricky.
For a time, it was unclear how the Bulls planned to proceed. The team returned 14 of 17 players from last season’s roster, including two-way contract players. Young players like Coby White, Patrick Williams, Lauri Markkanen, LaVine, Carter and Gafford comprised the cupboard. Future salary cap space would have soon been in abundance. Their draft picks belonged to them.
The Vučević trade seemed like a sudden departure, the Bulls poo-pooing restraint and discipline for a quick fix. It again called into question the method in which the franchise’s new front office will work. But the Vučević acquisition represented the Bulls’ newfound opportunism, jumping at a rare chance to add an All-Star and build up the talent base. And now more than ever, it’s clear the Bulls will explore all three team-building avenues while seeking to win now. In that regard, the Bulls have chosen organized chaos. A flurry of activity is coming. A roster must be revamped. And each subsequent transaction must now be in lockstep with the deadline day deals that kickstarted all this.
Or else what was the point?
‘We just need Pat to take his game to the next level’
Much of Monday’s exit interviews centered on the potential of Williams, last year’s promising fourth overall pick.
Take, for example, Thaddeus Young’s comments. For a possible upcoming article, I asked several members of the Bulls core what they thought the team needs to take another step next season.
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“We need Pat,” Young told me. “Pat to continue to be aggressive. I think we have the pieces. I think we just need Pat to take his game to the next level.”
There is a belief throughout the Bulls’ organization that Williams will be a star, the much-needed third banana alongside LaVine and Vučević. Williams has flashed glimpses of potential greatness: scoring from all three levels, serving as a lead ballhandler and playmaker and, at 19, stepping in as the team’s go-to defender.
“Pat is a phenomenal player already at the age of 19,” Young said. “He has a lot of physical attributes that most 19-year-olds don’t have. He has the ability to put the ball on the floor, he has the ability to shoot the 3, he has the ability to hover over people and get floaters off. And he’s a phenomenal defender as well. With time and more understanding of the game, he’s going to continue to be good.”
Late on Sunday night, long after the Bulls beat Milwaukee in the regular-season finale, Young pulled Williams aside and lobbed a question.
“Do you want to be great?” Young asked.
Williams responded in the affirmative and asked his 14-year veteran what it would take. Young essentially told Williams a new mindset. He pointed to the finale when the Bulls were without LaVine and Vučević among others. The Bucks, with nothing left to play for having already locked up the No. 3 seed, rested their regulars. In Young’s mind, the contest should have become the Patrick Williams show. Instead, in 30 minutes he scored 11 points on eight shots — two fewer attempts than two-way contract player Devon Dotson, a rookie appearing in his 11th NBA game. Young also noticed Williams hesitating to take advantage of mismatches, something he says can’t happen moving forward.
“If you want to be great, that’s what the great players do,” Young said. “They impose their will on the game at all points in the game, and he has to do that a little bit more than he’s done this season. I understand it’s his first year. But he’s shown us and the Bulls fans so much in this first year of what he can be to the point where his standards should be set even higher next year. He should want to be a top two or three guy on this team next year and understand he can be a top two or three guy on this team.”
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Williams said this offseason will be critical now that he knows what to expect in the NBA. He intends to play in the summer league, which would be his debut after the league scrapped the event last summer.
“Things to work on, for sure, is getting the ball in the areas that I did this year, coming off handoffs and ball screens and making sure I’m comfortable making those reads,” Williams said.
Don’t forget his mentality.
“When he gets that killer mindset in him,” Young said. “it’s gonna be trouble for a lot of people.”
‘He’s a true leader’
The season ended the same way it began — with Bulls players raving about Donovan.
Twelfth-year pro and 11-year-veteran Garrett Temple labeled Donovan’s pregame and postgame speeches the best he’s heard. LaVine echoed those sentiments and took them a step further.
“Great guy,” LaVine said. “We’ve built a really good relationship, and I’m actually really excited to work with him again next year and many years to come hopefully.
“It was my first time meeting him, so I didn’t know a lot about him. I just knew how much he affected winning. He’s a true leader. He really is. He can really speak to the team and bring everybody together. I think that’s something we all can learn from.”
Temple cited specifics.
“After a game where we win but should have won by more than we did, being able to impart on guys how important it is to set the tone and win games the way you should win,” he said. “Or understanding that a win is a win, but, you know, taking advantage of opportunities. And his ability to hold guys accountable. I think that’s something that’s a lost art in this league by coaches because players, honestly, make so much more than coaches do.
“And I think Arturas and Marc deserve a lot of credit in giving him the autonomy to be able to coach and him using that autonomy in a way that he coaches the right way in my opinion. Holds guys accountable. Lets them know that this is their role and this is what he expects, this is what the team needs from him, and then holding people to that standard. He did a really good job of that.”
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The blemishes on Donovan’s first year in Chicago: numerous blown leads and bad losses that contributed to this limp to the finish line.
“That’s the disappointing part,” Donovan said. “I think about so many games that, in my opinion, were really won that we found a way to give other teams opportunities to win those games. Inevitably, those number of games come back and really kind of bite you.
“You are going to have games where (you say), ‘Gosh, I wish we could have had that one back. That was one we let slip away, or we just didn’t play to the level we needed to.’ That happens, but not the number of games we had. Trying to figure that piece out and trying to evaluate that will be something I will internally look at a great deal.”
Will Markkanen stay or go?
Listen to the way Donovan and Karnišovas speak about Markkanen and you’d think the fourth-year Finnish forward is still a foundational piece, the same blank canvas who became the centerpiece acquisition in the Jimmy Butler trade.
Four days after Donovan soundly defended Markkanen, Karnišovas took the baton and ran.
“I thought Lauri had a good year,” Karnišovas said. “I thought he was more efficient. He’s a 40 percent 3-point shooter. Shooting comes at a premium in our league. And I think Lauri is an essential part of our team and we hope he is a part of what we’re building here, so I’m looking forward to free agency and talking to his representation.”
What else can the Bulls really say? Yes, Markkanen shot a career-best 40.1 percent on nearly six 3s per game. But he also got moved to the second string and pulled from his natural power forward position in favor of the more effective Daniel Theis, a more natural center. Markkanen was forced to play small forward. On paper, Markkanen’s 40 percent 3-point shooting masks important context like how the majority of his success continues to stem from spot-up, catch-and-shoot opportunities. Rarely does Markkanen supply shooting off movement, and he rarely is a threat to knock down shots off the dribble.
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So how much do the Bulls value their improving but still limited shooter? Curiously, the discourse coming from the Bulls far exceeds the praise showered upon any other player with the possible exception being the rookie Williams. Publicly, even Williams was critiqued more harshly and challenged more frequently. Markkanen, it seemed, got a pass.
But why? Could the Bulls be playing a game within the game? This is the same franchise that had the chance to ink Markkanen to a contract extension before the regular season and passed. The same franchise that moved Markkanen to the bench, cut his minutes and, reportedly, dangled him in talks at the trade deadline. If Markkanen is as essential as Karnišovas says he is, the Bulls have a funny way of showing it.
Unless hyping him up is all part of the plan.
‘It’s all about family with me’
Following the best season of his career, Young spoke as if he was contemplating retirement. But he insists that’s not yet the case and plans to return. His priorities, however, have changed.
“My focus now honestly is really spending a lot of time with my wife and my two boys,” Young said. “They’re at ages now where they can start playing AAU basketball. I want to start getting them started. They came to me the other day and asked me when they are going to start training. Now it’s time for me to get them started up and put a lot of time and focus into them because it’s all about family with me.
“I love playing the game of basketball, but I love my two sons and I just want to start giving them more time because everything this year took a lot away from them.”
Only $6 million of Young’s $14 million expiring contract is guaranteed. The Bulls benefited immensely from Young’s leadership and savvy on and off the court and could again next season. But his salary could be useful in trades and to help the Bulls build out the team. Young has been around long enough to know anything can happen. But he’s proceeding with the philosophy that a deal’s a deal.
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“I’ve always been a guy if I sign somewhere and if I start a job somewhere I am going to be there for that job,” Young said. “I’m going to try to execute that job to its entirety. It’s the same thing with signing a contract. I have a fully signed, executed contract that says I have to play three years for the Chicago Bulls.
“So I plan on fulfilling that and doing what I need to do as far as going out there and fulfilling what I signed up for.”
‘He was a much better player this year’
No player helped himself in Chicago more than LaVine this season. He started as a fringe franchise player, one nobody could be sure the Bulls were truly invested in. Not anymore. LaVine established himself as one of the league’s most proficient scorers, developing into a first-time All-Star. In a season in which he committed to doing more with less, LaVine averaged career-highs in points, rebounds, assists and shooting percentages from the field, 3-point line and foul line.
“He was a much better player this year,” Karnišovas said.
LaVine is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. Similarly to Markkanen, we’ll soon learn how committed the Bulls are to LaVine — and LaVine to the Bulls — based on the size of his next contract. But if the Bulls were anticipating a hometown discount, LaVine might have planted a seed for management to think again.
“I try to let my performance on the court dictate what I get paid,” LaVine said. “I think that’s what everybody wants to get paid, what they’re worth. When my time comes, I definitely will get that. I think with different situations, different people taking less money or taking the max, it’s a business at the end of the day.
“I definitely want what I deserve and whatever that is I’ll have it coming to me.”
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What’s the verdict on White?
How did the Bulls assess White in his first season as the starting point guard?
“It was up-and-down for him this year,” Donovan said. “But I’ve always said this about him, he’s got great resolve. He’s got resiliency, and he’s got great bounce-back ability. After the trade was over with, I think he kind of found his footing and played really good basketball for us.”
But can he be the point guard the Bulls need? The answer might surprise you.
“I think it depends,” Karnišovas said. ”We have a big now in Vooch who can be a playmaker. You’ve got Zach. What is (a) point guard these days in the league? All point guards have to score, right? We’ll see. He’s going to keep on adding things to his game. I hope to see him grow this summer, come back.
“Again, nothing is given in this league. He fought for this. He fought for the starting job. He showed some improvement. So I’m expecting him for next year to show up and be better than he was this year.”
What about Theis?
Theis quickly established himself as a key contributor after coming over from Boston in a three-team trade. In 23 games and 14 starts with the Bulls, he averaged 10 points and nearly six rebounds and two assists in 25 minutes per night.
But he’ll become an unrestricted free agent, and the 29-year-old could be looking to cash in. Are the Bulls interested in bringing him back?
“We liked his addition at the trade deadline,” Karnišovas said. “He’s bringing that toughness and defensive presence as a big. He’s a good diver. He can shoot from three. But again, we liked him in the second half of the season. Looking forward to addressing that in free agency.”
(Top photo of Nikola Vucevic and LaVine: David Banks / USA Today)
