Clock Is Already Ticking Away on Bulls’ Title Pursuit

What the Chicago Bulls were able to accomplish over the first three-quarters of the 2021-22 NBA campaign was nothing short of a revelation. On Thursday, February 24 — despite having dealt with bumps, bruises and a teamwide COVID-19 outbreak — the team was somehow 39-21 and still holding down the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

And even when the losses started to pile up and it became clear that starting point-man Lonzo Ball wouldn’t be coming back for the stretch run, Chicago still managed to break a multiyear playoff drought and leave fans feeling good about the future.

Unfortunately, the Bulls’ may just find themselves regressing to a blow-it-up-and-reboot situation sooner than the Windy City faithful had hoped if they don’t start making waves this season.

In the Association, life moves at a breakneck pace, and the Bulls are quickly becoming a textbook example of that truism.

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The Bulls Have Precious Few Long-Term Deals in Place

For NBA general managers, flexibility is the name of the game. And for a team that just locked down Zach LaVine on a deal paying him more than $43 million per annum on average over the next several years, the Bulls’ books look surprisingly clean in the years following 2022-23.

The reason for this, though, is that LaVine and Ball are the only members of the team’s veteran core on lengthy deals.

Nikola Vucevic, who was only acquired 18 months ago, is already on an expiring deal. DeMar DeRozan — arguably the team’s MVP last season — has just one year left on his contract beyond this season. Meanwhile, youngsters Ayo Dosunmu and Coby White will be restricted free agents next summer.

There’s also head coach Billy Donovan to consider — his current contract is set to expire after the 2023-24 season as well.

So, if the Bulls truly feel like they have the pieces in place to make some noise on a championship level, the time to do so is now. Otherwise, a lot of those pieces may not be around anymore, even as this still feels like a new-ish iteration of the team.

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The Bulls’ Roster Situation Makes Their Thrifty Approach to the Summer All the More Puzzling

In a vacuum — looking solely at the players’ potential on-court impact — there’s a logic to Arturas Karnisovas’ decision to make Andre Drummond and Goran Dragic his big offseason acquisitions. Both are the kind of battle-tested vets a contending team needs on its bench (assuming they’re healthy and performing).

At the same time, though, both players were bargain-basement pick-ups that were, at least in part, made to stave off the luxury tax. Instead of realizing that their window could be short-lived and going all-in to maximize their potential, the Bulls arguably did the bare minimum to improve their title chances.

In the past, the Reinsdorfs have said that they would pay the tax if it was funding a bona fide contender. However, Chicago has only ventured into that territory one time since the tax first became a thing way back in 2001.

Make no mistake, the Bulls have done enough in the last couple of years to convince LaVine to commit long-term to the organization, and that’s no small thing. But if they were looking to both open a title window and keep it ajar for as long as possible, they may have already missed the boat.

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