What an extremely Bullsian day we just witnessed

they're not even serious about the dumb stuff they say they're serious about

Banner day for your Chicago Bulls, who no longer raise championship banners so instead that phrase means bad news delivered clumsily.

After extending their streak of disastrous appearances to the media after a historically inactive transaction period, the team has slinked back under cover of average “competitive” basketball to only address the fans via press release* and put-upon Billy Donovan**

*I found it funny that their injury statement had FIVE signees from the comms staff. Seems like corporate bloat, though I’m sure they make a lot less than the luxury tax payout and they likely are outwardly grateful to ‘dorf for employment which is the best thing you can do

**it’s not so bad for Donovan: he’s extremely well paid yet has zero expectations (one of the cited reasons for never getting new players is it’ll shake up the locker room), plus gets to give his son a job

Dr. Billy Donovan giving a medical update, probably

First on Friday was news that the Bulls took themselves out of the buyout market by using their remaining open roster spot on a player already in their building who was on a two-way contract.

This does not mean anything for this season and the very thin playing rotation, as two-way players could’ve been contributing to the active squad all along. There is some optionality gained in having a below-vet-minimum signee on the main roster for next cap/tax season, though it’s funny that KC Johnson keeps putting that out there every year like the Bulls will actually use that flexibility (and also never mentioning that they could’ve done the same thing with a more useful player, or simply do the same thing later).

That benefit is all theoretical, and under a theory that the Bulls have a functional front office. What’s actually a result of this ‘contract conversion’ is that now they can opt out of signing someone who would actually help.

Shortly after, the Bulls announced they signed ‘beloved’ (‘gritty’) former Bull Ryan Arcidiacono to their GLeague team. While not a truly correlative transaction - Arch is ineligible for a two-way deal - it was fitting timing.

Then, after waiting for the afternoon news dump period, the team announced Patrick Williams is out for the season after pending foot surgery. This result was always likely after parsing previous injury-related communications knowing their history, but the timing (again) is interesting to any cynical Bulls fan (redundant, that). Remember they did the exact same thing after last trade deadline with Lonzo Ball.

Altogether, just a really brutal day for the Bulls.

It showed they are not a serious team, even about the dumb thing they purport to be serious about.

In his fiasco of a trade deadline, Arturas Karnisovas was at the least consistent in his messaging: that he is delusional and ignorant in thinking his team is very good, and wants to have the most competitive team competing for the competition of the final two playoff spots in the JV conference.

That’s why, when asked simply why not take slight steps back in transactions for better long-term planning while still hitting this low bar of “competitiveness”, Karnisovas’s answer not only didn’t make sense it showed he didn’t even understand the concept.

So, to recap: the Bulls passed on that opportunity at the deadline, said all that stuff about their goals this season, AND touted the 14-9 stretch from last season that was the result of signing a buyout free agent, AND it was all while knowing it was likely Williams wasn’t returning…and then in the time since simply punted on helping this year’s team.

It’s just one long disaster class.

And the team on the floor has to still go out there and finish out the season, now knowing no reinforcements are coming after outwardly asking for help.

I was trying to think of what to ‘root’ for in the interim. The front office has created this dynamic that puts fans against ‘customers’, which should be a fireable offense in itself. Not that they’d admit failure or face repercussions regardless, but it looks downright impossible that the Bulls don’t at least make the play-in tournament even with this breaking down skeleton crew.

But if we are being conditioned to be antagonistic towards spending money on the team, then instead hope they fall to 10th? That at least means no guaranteed home postseason revenue.