The Chicago Bulls lost in the play-in tournament to the Miami Heat 109-90, and missed the playoffs for the third straight season. That should make them second-guess a move they made at the trade deadline — and one they didn’t make.
As a result of the loss, the Bulls will draft no higher than No. 11 in June’s NBA Draft, and could pick as low as No. 13. That means one of the prizes from their midseason trade of Zach LaVine has become far less meaningful.
In the three-team deal that sent LaVine to the Sacramento Kings and De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs, the Bulls took on three unwanted contracts and sent away a second-round pick along with LaVine to get their own 2025 first-round pick back.
That pick, sent to the Spurs in a trade for DeMar DeRozan in 2021, was protected for pick Nos. 1-10 — which means the Bulls would have retained it anyway.
While the Bulls moved to get rid of LaVine and his large salary, they held onto center Nikola Vucevic. The move helped the Bulls finish in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, but the end result was another season out of the playoffs. Not only that, by keeping Vucevic, they kept themselves from getting better lottery odds and a better draft pick.
It feels as if the Bulls make moves to ensure their continued mediocrity, neither rebuilding nor making moves that could actually launch them into the playoffs. At this year’s trade deadline, they managed to make the team worse, without improving their future outlook one bit. That’s a recipe for another play-in trip next season.
