Two years ago, the Chicago Bulls ended their rebuild in favor of constructing a new core of Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and DeMar DeRozan. Obviously, Lonzo Ball was a part of that, but his injury has kept him sidelined for the majority of the past two seasons. But regardless of Ball’s absence, the fact that the Bulls have won just one playoff game in the past two seasons is a major disappointment.
Despite that, Arturas Karnisovas has no intention of rebuilding the roster. He wants to run it back with the current core in hopes of making a playoff appearance next season. Unfortunately, his mindset might not be one Bulls fans agree with.
During Chicago’s Summer League game against the Sacramento Kings, Karnisovas joined the broadcast and spoke about the state of the team. He said that he hopes the parity in the NBA will help the Bulls compete. (H/t Bleacher Nation Bulls)
“I think the parity in the league is obvious,” said Karnisovas. “We lost a lot of close games last year. So we added a couple of guys and, hopefully, the parity in the league will help us compete in every game … We just need to be more consistent.”
AK on ESPN2: “I think the parity in the league is obvious. We lost a lot of close games last year. So we added a couple of guys and, hopefully, the parity in the league will help us compete in every game … We just need to be more consistent.”
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) July 12, 2023
What Karnisovas said is true – there is a lot of parity in the league. But if his plan is to bank on that parity as the reason for Chicago’s success, that’s a rough look.
The Bulls should want to be a playoff team regardless of the rest of the league, not depend on the parity around the NBA as a measure of their success.
And if they aren’t good enough to compete for a postseason spot in general, they should seriously consider rebuilding the roster.