The Chicago Bulls are trapped in NBA purgatory and seem determined to stay there forever, something fans of the Detroit Pistons know all about.
According to insider Jake Fischer (subscription), the Bulls are casually shopping Coby White but have no plans to blow up the rest of their roster, which is not surprising since the Bulls have made very few trades in the Arturas Karnisovas era, but their mediocrity spans much longer than his tenure.
The Bulls are currently the 10th seed, a spot they know well, as they’ve been hovering around it for the last decade.
In the last 10 seasons (starting from 2015-16), the Bulls have finished 9th, 8th, 13th, 13th, 11th, 11th, 6th, 9th, 9th and 10th in the Eastern Conference.
This is precisely the spot no NBA team wants to be in, as you aren’t good enough to compete for anything but not bad enough to get a realistic shot at a top pick to turn things around.
All logic points to the Bulls selling off all of their expiring contracts for whatever assets they can get at this point and starting a rebuild around Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis, the only two interesting young players they have, but the Bulls have never been guided by logic.
Instead, according to Fischer, the Bulls could actually look to be buyers at the trade deadline, which makes absolutely no sense given how far away they are from being competitive. I know a lot of Bulls fans, and as much as I like to argue and banter with them, I actually feel sorry for them, as Pistons fans know what it’s like to be stuck in the meaty gray area of the NBA standings.
The Detroit Pistons had a long road to being good
Bulls fans can take comfort that the Pistons had a long stretch of being mediocre to terrible themselves and are now the best team in the Eastern Conference with a strong young foundation and hopes for long-term sustained success.
But it was a long journey to get here.
After winning 59 games in the 2007-8 season, the Pistons won 39, 27, 30, 25, 29, 29, 32, 41, 37, 39 and 41 games before finally tearing things down and starting over. They did exactly what the Bulls have done of late, which is to give lucrative extensions to mediocre players, build around the wrong guy and continue to try and put Scooby Doo band-aids over gaping wounds that likely require amputation.
Neither team had a real star in that time, but players like Andre Drummond and Zach LaVine who were better served being complementary pieces rather than players you try and build around. They gave big money to players like Josh Smith and Patrick Williams, which blew up in their faces. The lists of bad moves for these two teams are lengthy.
The Pistons finally wised up, bottomed out and started fresh. Getting lucky and landing the #1 pick and Cade Cunningham didn’t hurt, but it took some pain to get there, as the Pistons were the worst team in basketball for years leading up to it.
When you’re stuck in no man’s land, it’s sometimes easier to go down before rising back up, something the Bulls are reluctant to do, which is why they are a perpetual 10th seed with no end in sight.