national NBA observers offer yearly mention of the Bulls, and, yup: still cheap and stupid

the DeRozan trade is another example of mismanagement and poor ownership, and it takes outside perspective to accurately assess this

It’s always nice to hear national NBA podcasts mention the Bulls. The team’s been mostly irrelevant for 2+ seasons, and will be even less relevant going into this one. They don’t even get the ‘glamor franchise’ bump in The Discourse that the Lakers and Knicks do.

But the Bulls were the center of that discussion for once, as the lead story in the tier-2 free agency market in their Sign&Trade of DeMar DeRozan to the Kings.

I hated the move: it was both too late and too little and only necessary due to past errors by the same awful front office regime. And the underlying issue of not spending money loomed over those past errors and this one as well.

But even I didn’t put the blowtorch to the ‘dorfs and AKME like these above-the-murk observers, who absolutely torched the Bulls for being cheap AND¹ poorly-run. I suppose it helps to have this outside perspective, versus those - fans, media partners, and the dwindling few local reporters alike - who follow more closely and thus are pretty beaten down, even to the point of Stockholm Syndrome.

First, and most bluntly, is Bill Simmons, who’s ragged on the Reinsdorfs many times over the years:

Why did the Spurs get a pick swap out of this, and not the Bulls? Oh wait I have the answer for you: the Bulls are cheap. They don’t want to pay the luxury tax. So they end up with Duarte and two 2nd-round picks so they don’t have to take the Barnes contract.

The Bulls being cheap just makes no sense to me. It’s the third biggest market in America. Why are they avoiding the luxury tax here? I’d love to have that pick swap.

Simmons’s guest, Ryen Russillo, went on to say he didn’t like the Patrick Williams contract extension either. He’s not alone.

Next is Zach Lowe, which was very entertaining and cathartic to hear:

“look at your face right now”

The Bulls are a year and a half late to the tear-down party. They had chances to trade DeMar DeRozan for value, they didn't. They hard capped themselves at the first apron by using part of the mid-level exception on Jalen Smith, who's fine, whatever.

And now, we're hard capped at the first apron because god forbid the Chicago Bulls pay the freaking luxury tax.

We now have to trade DeMar DeRozan and we can't get the good stuff back for DeMar DeRozan. It's an absolute disaster. The fact that they arrived at this point where they have to surrender in the DeRozan trade and let another team come and poach the good stuff from the trade is a disaster.

Jalen Smith is a backup center. That’s nice, he’s worth a flyer. Maybe someone else was going to offer $8-9M…it’s just stunning…I just don’t know how you trade the best player in the trade and get the worst return when everybody in the world could see a trade deadline ago, two trade deadlines ago…it’s over, man. Start the process now.

Lowe’s guest, Chris Herring, is a Chicago native who obviously no longer is a Bulls fan but converses with many of them: And he went back to his outright confusion seeing the Josh Giddey trade:

They [Bulls fans] have been able to rid themselves of the emotion, they’re used to it, they see what it is. But for me, the Giddey trade, I know there were rumblings the Bulls were interested in Giddey before. That’s fine, there was a market for him, other teams would’ve wanted him including Oklahoma City before the playoffs played out for them.

But why Caruso specifically? The best asset you have on your team, a player you can plug into a title contender. You see Giddey’s market has essentially kind of cratered: for the off-court stuff, the on-court stuff in the playoffs. Caruso’s value should’ve been higher than it’s ever been. Giddey’s value should be lower than what we’re used to with him.

Lowe went on to speculate how the Giddey move could perhaps be spun as an “accidental tank” but that’s incongruent in keeping LaVine and Vucevic (described, respectively, as “no market” and “I don’t know who they could offload him on”). I don’t totally agree, as I think Zach will be parked if not traded and Vuc is a losing player who will drag down the squad when he plays, but even so: that’s all by accident, and counter to what the Bulls themselves believe.

Finally we have Nate Duncan, whose guest John Hollinger of the Athletic certainly has panned the AKME regime plenty, but in his DeRozan trade analysis allowed the caveat of not holding past trade deadline mistakes against them in this DeRozan deal.

Duncan disagreed and pointed to decisions this very offseason: the aforementioned Smith contract, having Patrick Williams’s first year be flat $18M instead of lowest and raising, and:

Why not just waive-and-stretch Lonzo Ball? They don’t have nearly as much cap committed the next two years. Or get off Jevon Carter (or Duarte) reasonably easily. Are they thinking Ball’s going to actually contribute this year? And if so: what the hell does it matter? Clearly worth waiving Ball for a first-round pick swap.

Everyone’s taking it as fait accompli, like “well, given where they were after all their past mistakes…” no, they could’ve made it happen now! easily!

They went on to award the Bulls as one of three teams with the worst offseasons this summer.

It’s altogether a nice reprieve of gallows humor in the downtrodden mess we have to endure as Bulls fans. The downside is these podcasts probably won’t talk about the Bulls again until next year’s draft lottery.

And that attention versus scrutiny trade-off is one the Bulls will take every time.

1. I think it’s always important to emphasize that a team can have a cheap owner like this but still be better managed. Saying ‘well, you know, the ‘dorfs aren’t leaving’ lets AKME off the hook in my opinion.