Bulls unburden fans "worried" they'll be "too good", now to other worries
just some Bulls bullets now that the play-in push is already over
While many Bulls “observers” were quickly seduced into debate over what the Bulls being better than expected meant, this here site reassured: no, they are not good.
And the Bulls confirmed that by losing the next two games to the likely bottom-feeders of both conferences:
in Brooklyn versus the Nets, where the “formula” actually held for much of the game until clutch moments when - as this stuff can happen in clutch games! - Cam Thomas won the game with shotmaking.
At home, where Arturas Karnisovas pleads for his team to establish “advantage” again, their heretofore-lucky defense allowed the Jazz - without two of their more productive players in a tank-y season - to score 135 points and win their first game of the season.
So that’s settled: unintentionally bad, but bad.
Some other stuff I’ve been thinking about instead:
The Zach LaVine value rehab is going poorly
The Bulls should’ve never played him in the regular season once he proved he was healthy in preseason after his foot surgery. While LaVine had a couple good games, he had a couple stinkers too. It only reminded everyone that while perhaps “back”, LaVine is massively overpaid at that level of productivity.
He also reminded everyone that he gets hurt a lot. It never made sense to me why the Bulls were hammering “he’s finally healthy!”1 as their PR campaign for LaVine when it implied that he hasn’t been healthy often. And this year, while the lower extremities look good, he’s suffered a partial shoulder dislocation and an adductor strain, missing that Jazz contest.
descent towards irrelevance continues unabated
I said this in the Nets game thread, but worth repeating in a main post: per Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times2, he was the only media member present in Brooklyn to cover that Nets game. Even media partners Sam Smith and KC Johnson weren’t there.
On top of that, the broadcast is still not easily available for a large swath of the local market, and it looks like carriage negotiations are at a stalemate. Unsurprisingly, the 2024-25 NBA regular season for an adrift team with a total lack of star power is not considered must-see TV.
Chicago is the third biggest media market in the league, and with one team in it.
why is Dalen Terry?
Last week was the deadline to pick up team option decisions on rookie contracts. Somewhat under-the-radar (everything surrounding this team is, see above), weeks ago the Bulls picked up Dalen Terry’s option for next season, guaranteeing him $5.4M.
Why? Terry has improved his physical strength but not so much basketball skill3. seasons in the league. If Terry was on the open market, I would expect him to have to settle for a 2-way contract, maybe league-minimum standard contract. He is 22 years old, still clearly young but now in a larger cohort of recent draftees to compete with for a job.
Is this just because of where he was drafted (18th overall)? There are plenty of similarly-busted picks in his range that had options declined, the highest being the 10th pick in Johnny Davis of the Wizards. But a likely-important distinction is that Washington has a new front office that didn’t draft Davis, and several others had their options declined by teams that didn’t draft him.
Even if Terry showed something this year to where the Bulls would want to keep him, they could still re-sign him with bird rights, just not over the amount of that option. They had little reason to think there was much risk in him blowing up and generating a ton of interest in the offseason, given that he’s like the 6th or 7th guard on their depth chart.
Additionally, now his trade value is lower because his contract is no longer expiring.
The Bulls would like to say that they’re in a ‘youth movement’ with an emphasis on players ‘with experience’, and Terry fits that ethos. Plus, it’s not that much more money than the league minimum salary in that roster spot. But the Bulls actual overriding franchise philosophy is to keep payroll low, and we can now add Terry to the overpaid members of the roster.
extending to outright lying that health was why he was so bad last season. He didn’t get hurt until after the 5-14 start.
an always-present caveat with Cowley: he’s a true moron and can’t be trusted to report because he can’t interpret and disseminate information properly. Also he’s a tool. But he provided some fan service here that I genuinely appreciate.
outside of a “my bad” gesture, which Terry is elite at in terms of delivery and earnestness
Yep. As I said in the other thread, the path to this team being a -12 point differential team is pretty straightforward. Basically, this team is the Process Sixers, except they owe a pick and no prospect on this team has the upside of Robert Covington.
They’re so bad and irrelevant that The Athletic left them out of their power rankings on first post.