Why The Bulls Future Isn’t as BAD as You Think

Why The Bulls Future Isn’t as BAD as You Think

One thing I’ve seen a lot of people talk about over the past week or so, and this stems from comments from Bill Simmons that he made on his podcast around which team has the worst situation in the Eastern Conference, which team has the worst outlook over the next 5 years. And of course, it sparked a lot of controversy and debate about which team based on their current state and what they have available to the team both in terms of players on their current roster and future assets has the worst situation over the next 5 years. And this, of course, stirred a lot of debate among Bulls fans because Bill Simmons believes that it’s the Chicago Bulls. Out of all teams in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls have the worst future when we’re looking out five years from now. And look, while I think there was a lot of truth to some of the things Bill Simmons said on his podcast about the state of the Bulls, which I’ll leave a link to it in the description in case you guys missed it, and I’ll talk about what I do agree with him on, but for me, if we’re talking about the future outlook of all the teams in the East over the next 5 years, I don’t know how you can’t put teams like the Bucks, Sixers, Raptors, hell, even the Knicks as having some of the worst futures in this conference or at least ahead of the Bulls anyway. And before you go off of me in the comments or click to the next video, I’ll explain why the Bulls strictly looking at things in a vacuum and their team’s future over the next 5 years, while certainly not great, isn’t as bad as what some people are making it out to be. So, let’s talk about it. So, what’s going on everyone? You’re listening to Bulls Central here. Hope you’re all doing well. Now, to be fair to Bill Simmons and his comments around the current state of the Bulls franchise. A lot of what he was basing his ranking off of as a team in the East with the worst situation was mainly due to the fact that the Bulls have lousy owners. talking about how the Ryan Source are completely fine just cashing in checks, selling tickets, and living off the Michael Jordan nostalgia. And he even went further to say that if there was any rich billionaire out there that was thinking of buying an NBA team, the Bulls would be the one because you could revitalize it, make it one of the biggest global brands again, ignite the fan base, a fan base that loves their team, and really create something special. I 100% agree with that. And my hope is that the Ryanorfs listen to something like this and it makes him either get off his ass and actually bring respectability back to this team or maybe he says, “You know what? I’m gonna sell because I can probably cash out for a pretty big payday.” He’s never going to sell, but one can dream. So, I say this to be fair to Bill Simmons because I’m sure in his view, Bulls ownership is what’s going to hold this team back regardless of the current assets that the Bulls have at their disposal and obviously the current state of the roster. And I get that. You don’t have to tell me how much I want Ryan Zorf gone and out of this franchise. But in any event, what I actually don’t get, and it’s not so much what was said on this podcast, but what I see coming from a lot of NBA fans, including Bulls fans, is they firmly believe the Bulls have the worst outlook in the Eastern Conference. And yes, even putting ownership aside, they’re talking about the worst outlook because they don’t have big names on the roster and not a lot of talent to get excited about for the future. And that’s where I disagree. Like I’m not saying the Bulls have a bright future by any means, at least as we know it today. There are teams in the East, quite a few teams that are much better in a much better situation than the Bulls are in right now. But when I think about a team’s future, whether it’s 3, four, 5 years out from now, I’m looking at four things. what current stars they have on their roster, what players have future star potential, so not stars right now, but have shown that they have the kind of upside in the next few years to be able to get there, how much draft capital they have at their disposal, because we all know draft capital is like currency in the NBA that can be used to package and trade deals or of course draft future talent. And then finally, what financial flexibility do they have? How are they using their overall cap sheet? And when I look at the Bulls, unlike a year or two ago where I would have agreed that they did have the worst future in the NBA, when you take all those four variables into consideration, but when I look at the Bulls and where they are now, it is considerably better. Like the Bulls don’t have any stars on their roster, so that goes against them when talking about their future. Future stars, that’s tough. I would say the only one I would have confidence in saying he could be an all-star at some point in his career is Modus Buselis because he’s shown such promise in his rookie season as a two-way player, not afraid of the moment and born for this type of shine at the NBA level. Kobe White and Josh Giddy, maybe maybe Giddy I could see becoming more of an all-star because he’s younger and still developing whereas Kobe, he’s still progressing, but I don’t know that we’ll see a 25-year-old player all of a sudden become a perennial all-star. But I could be wrong and I would love to be wrong as long as it’s with the Bulls and not some other team. Uh, Noah Seni, I’ve got to see him play in an NBA game first before I start saying he’s got future all-star potential. Now, what the Bulls have going for them though, which they did not have going for them previously after they traded a combined three first round picks for Vuvich and Demard Rosen, but now the Bulls have full control of all their first round picks. No picks owed to any other team. They have the one first round pick as well that’s owed to them from Portland, albeit lottery protected. may not convey, but it is a first round lottery protected pick until 2027, I believe, at which point it’ll turn into a second round pick in 2028. And while the Bulls do owe their next two second round picks to the Wizards for the Julian Phillips trade deal on draft night, outside of that, they own all of their future second round picks as well. So, the Bulls are armed with draft capital that can be used at their disposal. But not only that, unlike where they were just a couple of seasons ago, they actually have more financial flexibility than most teams do throughout the league for now anyway, cuz at the time of this recording, we still don’t know what Josh Giddy’s contract is going to be. If they pay him a 5year $150 million deal, well, that’s going to limit the Bulls a bit in terms of what they can do for the future. But regardless, as of right now, they don’t have much long-term money on their books outside of the four years remaining on Patrick Williams contract. As of right now, they’re projected to have more cap space than any other team, which yes, I know having a ton of cap space doesn’t really mean what it used to, as most players nowadays sign extensions to stay with their team, which really limits the amount of cap space and players being available for teams to sign in free agency. But regardless, it’s worth noting that the Bulls have their books fairly clean in this new CBA environment that really tries to curb high levels of spending. Now, when I compare that what the Bulls are working with in the near future, to some of their competitors around the Eastern Conference, you can’t definitively say, yes, the Bulls clearly have the worst future right now. I look at a team like the Bucks who, yes, they have Giannis, one of the greatest players in the league. And sure, that alone probably gives the Bucks a better future than the Bulls do, but keep in mind, Giannis is 30. Would be different if we were talking about a 26-year-old Giannis. The Bucks had to wave and stretch Dame Lillard’s contract, which they’re now going to have dead money on their books for the next 5 years. They signed Miles Turner who sure is a good pickup for them but I don’t think that it makes them a shoein to win the title. They’ve got that bad contract of Kyle Koosma on their books and a bunch of average to below average players in filling out their bench. So for the Bucks one star I can’t say anybody their roster has future star potential. They’re cap strap from a payroll perspective for the foreseeable future and they have very limited draft capital just one future first to trade and no second round picks. That’s a franchise 5 years from now I can see bottoming out in the east. And what makes it worse for them is they don’t even have control of their first round picks where they can tank to try to get a top one. How about the Sixers? Two old wash players both on max contracts, both injuryprone and Joel Embiid and Paul George. And be will probably never be the MVP level player that he used to be. Yeah, they got Maxi McCain is nice and of course now VJ Edgecomb who looks really promising. So, sure, they could build around those guys moving forward and just trade away Paul George and Embiid, but good luck with trying to get off Paul George’s max contract where you decided to pay him max money to age 38. You’re going to have to give up picks to get off that contract. Oh, and guess what? They don’t have that many picks either to work with for the future. We can keep going down the list in the Eastern Conference. I know people will say I’m crazy for this, but the Knicks, I mean, they went all in on this court, trading six first round picks and pick swaps just for ML Bridges. They’re going to extend him to a big contract because they have to. They’ve committed so much of their cap for the foreseeable future to this core without any depth outside of their starting lineup. They’ve fired Tom Thibido, hire Mike Brown, who is a downgrade as a coach in my opinion. The biggest thing the Knicks that I would say that they have going for them right now is they currently have stars. They’ve got Jaylen Brunson and they got Carl Anthony Towns. They’ve got complimentary players in Ojana Nobi, Bridges, Josh Hart. But even that core is quickly approaching 30. And if it doesn’t work out, well, too bad because they don’t have control of any of their picks until 2032. How about the Toronto Raptors? Like everything the Raptors have done since the start of last off season to this one. I’m just like, what are these guys doing? They’ve got Scotty Barnes, who sure is a piece you can build around, even though I’m not that sold on him. They overpaid Emanuel Quickley, which has been a pain for the Bulls because now you got a Josh Giddy thinking he’s worth that kind of money. They extended Yaka Purle, who I like, but just doesn’t really make sense for their timeline. They traded for Brandon Ingram, also a player that doesn’t really make sense for their timeline. RJ Barrett, still two more years left on his contract. Like, their timeline and their direction is so unclear to me. I would argue even more so, more unclear than the Bulls. They’re already close to the luxury taxes currently constructed, but they’re barely good enough to make the playoffs. What the Raptors do have going for them is they own all their picks. So, they could in theory try and sell off all their draft capital and try and make a big splash for say a player like Giannis or John Morant. Maybe that’s what their endgame is. I don’t know. But to me, the Raptors right now are kind of in no man’s land, and I would argue in a worse situation than the Bulls because they have so much committed money on their books for the foreseeable future. What about the Heat? I like their pickup of Norman Pal, but I don’t think that that’s suddenly going to get them out of the East. They’ve got two max level players that are fringe level allstars and Tyler Herro and Bam Adabio, and yet they won 37 games last season and got bounced in the first round of the playoffs in a sweep. Like, what is there to be excited about the Heat’s future, especially when they’ve given all of their second round picks out to other teams and still owe a first round pick to the Hornets as part of the Terry Roier trade? Hell, man, I know everyone is high on the Magic right now, but they’ve committed $800 million in guaranteed salary to four players over the next six seasons for an unproven young core. I would obviously still put the magic ahead of the bulls when it comes to their future. Just saying that could easily go sideways for them, especially in the new CBA when you commit so much of your cap to a few players and then don’t have flexibility to fill out the rest of the roster. And don’t even get me started on teams like the Wizards and Hornets. I do like what both of those teams are doing in terms of accumulating draft picks and building from there. But both of these franchises haven’t exactly demonstrated a strong ability to develop young talent that we can confidently say they’re going to turn things around and be competing 5 years from now. The same goes for the Nets as well, who have zero stars, zero potential future stars, and took on a negative contract in Michael Porter Jr. So anyway, enough ranting about all this. My point in all of it, based on what other teams are working with right now in the East, I don’t know that you could say that without question, the Bulls have the worst situation in the Eastern Conference, the worst outlook 5 years out from now. They obviously have a lot of work to do, but the Bulls are actually in a better place as it relates to their future than they were while they were waiting for Lonzo Ball to come back and be healthy. I would love to hear what you guys think though. You let me know in the comments. As always, be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next one.

Do the Chicago Bulls really have the worst situation in the east?

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