Getty The Chicago Bulls wear shirts honoring Black History Month before a game
The Chicago Bulls have preached a consistent message of continuity, almost to a man. But one Hall of Famer thinks that running it back status quo is not enough and took to social media to urge the team into making moves this summer.
Chicago is coming off of their first playoff appearance in five seasons, a 4-1 losing affair with the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks.
Their exit interviews were surprisingly optimistic that continuity could be achieved and would lead to greater success next season if they added on the margins. The only caveat is Zach LaVine’s free agency in which the eighth-year guard said he will be “open-eyed”.
Hall of Famer Magic Johnson expressed his beliefs on what the Bulls’ next steps should be.
The Playoff teams that need to make trades and moves this summer are the Brooklyn Nets, Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, and the Chicago Bulls.
Simply Accurate Analysis
Many took the opportunity to rib the Los Angeles Lakers legend. It wasn’t exactly an in-depth breakdown of what ultimately doomed those teams. As one user pointed out, this could easily be interpreted as a list of teams that got bounced from the playoffs.
But, as another user was quick to point out in response, Johnson did not mention all of the playoff teams, omitting the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans, or Toronto Raptors.
It cannot be said for sure why he left those teams off of his list. But the ones he did mention all enter their offseasons with serious personnel questions.
Atlanta needs to find a second star to pair with Trae Young. Brooklyn got absolutely nothing out of Ben Simmons and has to ask itself if the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving pairing is worth sharing management duties. And Utah seems destined for a shakeup after taking a step back this postseason.
Of course, the Bulls are still unsure of what the outcome will be with LaVine after the guard made sure to keep his options open in his exit interview. They also have to deal with a roster that has a ceiling and has some thinking a pivot could be possible.
This brings us back to Johnson’s tweet.
Johnson is Lakers’ Free Agent
Perhaps there was more to the simple statement than initially meets the eye. Johnson will forever be linked with the Lakers despite officially stepping down as president on April 9 2019 before the final game of the 2018-19 season.
“I had more fun when I was able to be the big brother and the ambassador to everybody,” said a reflective Johnson who was upset that he couldn’t congratulate Russell Westbrook for his 20-point, 20-assist, 20-rebound game while the guard was still with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
That summer, L.A. swung the blockbuster trade for Anthony Davis trading a haul of picks and players, including the Bulls’ own Lonzo Ball, to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Johnson later accused current Lakers general manager, Rob Pelinka, of “betraying” him to ESPN’s First Take crew.
Still, it should not be overlooked that all four of the teams he did mention have players that have been linked to the Lakers – Utah’s Donovan Mitchell, Atlanta’s John Collins, and Brooklyn’s Ben Simmons.
LaVine has not been left out of those kinds of hypothetical scenarios, though one Lakers faithful did call that one possible but not practical.
Johnson could very well be planting the seeds for a future deal with either players’ agents or team executives. As was pointed out in one wild proposal for LaVine, you cannot just write off teams that do not have cap space for the Bulls guard’s services.
Prepare For a Long Summer
This offseason has seen its fair share of off-the-wall suggestions. One thing that has become clear is that most believe the Bulls news some level of work, including vice president of basketball operations, Arturas Karnosivas.
The question is how much work do they need?
That is something they and LaVine have to answer. But at least one living legend of the game says they need to be an active participant this offseason.