The Chicago Bulls overachieved to begin the 2024-25 NBA campaign but have come back down to Earth. A team within three games of a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference a month ago has now lost five straight, seven of its last 10 and is closer to finishing in the top half of the draft lottery than the postseason.

All the Bulls can do (or at least should do) over their final 26 games is load their young players up with minutes, experiment with lineups and see if anyone sticks out as a potential cornerstone for the future.

Matas Buzelis has proven himself to be one such player. But outside of the rookie forward, no one on Chicago’s roster is a lock to be around the next time the team is truly competing in the playoffs, and this trio (ish), in particular, may have cost themselves money in addition to a future in The Windy City.

2.5 Bulls players who have cost themselves money in 2024-25

3. Ayo Dosunmu

Dosunmu signed a team-friendly three-year extension worth $21 million after the 2023-24 season. His scoring had jumped from 8.6 points per game in 2022-23 to 12.2 last year. He also dished out 3.2 assists per game, shot 40.3 percent from three and showed glimpses of being a high-level, versatile defender.

But the Illinois product hasn’t made the kind of leap the Bulls were surely hoping. His scoring has stagnated, his three-point shooting has dropped to 33.2 percent and those flashes of defense have been few and far between.

His 118.4 defensive rating is the worst among any Bulls player who’s appeared in more than four games. His net rating isn’t much better, as he trails only Dalen Terry among that group.

Another leap this season, like the one Dosunmu made last year, would have put him in line for a much larger extension in 2026-27. Instead, it looks like the 25-year-old may have maxed out his potential as a valuable role player, not a starting-caliber NBA guard.

2. Coby White

Even with a depressing, uneventful trade deadline, Coby White’s failure to prove he’s capable of leading the Bulls offense could be the most disappointing development of 2024-25.

He has the pedigree. White was a one-and-done star at North Carolina before Chicago nabbed him with the seventh overall selection in the 2019 NBA Draft. He finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting and put up better numbers in his second season.

Things leveled off for the next two years, but then White broke out in a big way in 2023-24, earning himself an extension at the same time as Dosunmu. He averaged career highs across the board: 19.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists. He shot a career-best 44.7 percent from the field and connected on 37.6 percent of his 7.0 threes per contest.

It seemed that White had finally found his stride and was ready to make good on that high potential. Instead, like Dosunmu, he’s plateaued.

The 25-year-old has seen a decline in points, rebounds, assists and shooting percentage (from the field and from three) and is turning the ball over at a career-high rate.

When the Bulls traded Zach LaVine, it was a logical assumption to make that White would take over the lead scoring duties; but in the five games since, he’s averaging only 14.0 points and shooting 34.4 percent from the field.

That stretch includes consecutive duds of five points and seven points, respectively, in back-to-back nights against the Detroit Pistons in which he shot a combined 2-for-17 from deep.

There’s still time for White to prove he can be a powerful offensive weapon for Chicago, but with his recent performances, he’s costing the Bulls wins and himself money.

0.5: Josh Giddey

Giddey has, without a doubt, cost himself money, which is why he’s on this list. He’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of the year and was reportedly seeking a new deal in the range of $30 million per season. But the same warts that caused the Oklahoma City Thunder to send him packing have followed him to Chicago.

Giddey is having a decent statistical season. He’s averaging 12.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.1 steals and has started all 52 of the games he’s played in. He’s also shooting just 45.2 percent from the field and 35.5 percent from three and continues to be a poor perimeter defender. He trails only Dosunmu, White and Nikola Vucevic in defensive rating among Bulls regulars.

Essentially, Giddey is the same player he was last season when he dropped out of the playoff rotation on a championship-contending Thunder team.

But confusingly, Giddey has flipped an invisible switch and has become a completely different player.

Over the last 30 days, the 22-year-old is averaging 16.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.2 steals; crucially, however, he’s shooting 50.3 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three. He’s also getting to the free-throw line more often, averaging 2.8 attempts over this span, up from his 2.2 for the season.

It’s not a small sample size, either, and the efficiency hasn’t risen just because he’s taking fewer shots. It’s a 13-game run, and he’s averaging 11.8 field goal attempts per game (compared to 10.4 for the season), while his three-point attempts have jumped to 4.8 (compared to 3.9 on the year).

Hence, Giddey’s place on this list as half a player who’s tanked his contract value.

For the first three months of the season, he had certainly cost himself money. But the way he’s played over his last 13 games looks a bit legitimate, and if it is, his value will start popping again ahead of a critical offseason for him and the Bulls.