After getting bounced in the play-in tournament by the Miami Heat this past season, the Chicago Bulls were determined to push forward. Arturas Karnisovas stated the team had no plans to rebuild, signaling his intention to keep the roster intact and push for the postseason again next year.
So far this summer, all of the moves have fallen in line with that thought process. The Bulls re-signed Nikola Vucecvic and Coby White and brought in free agents Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig. Most have seen it as a solid summer for Chicago, but Sam Quinn of CBS Sports disagrees.
When handing out grades for free agency, Quinn gave the Bulls a D, which was tied for the worst of any team. He also said that they could have gotten an F if it weren’t for the Carter signing.
“The only thing saving the Bulls from an “F” was the quietly valuable signing of Jevon Carter for $20 million over three years,” Quinn wrote. “Carter is an underrated offensive player that can fill either guard spot and plays tough defense. Otherwise? This offseason has shown a startling lack of self-awareness on Chicago’s part. It is coming off of a sub-.500 season. Lonzo Ball may never be healthy enough to play for them again. Zach LaVine has health concerns as well. Nikola Vucevic is 32 and DeMar DeRozan is about to turn 34. No front office genuinely interested in competing for championships would run it back with this team, but no sane observer would accuse the Bulls of having championship ambitions. Chicago has spent the better part of the post-Jordan era proving its goal is to make the playoffs and duck the luxury tax. That is the only way to justify the three-year, $60 million pact given to Vucevic. General manager Arturas Karnisovas raised eyebrows when he was asked about the disastrous Vucevic trade and declared that he “thought that deal worked out pretty well for us,” but if the goal was always to sustain mediocrity, he’s technically not wrong.”
In Quinn’s defense, this was written before the Bulls signed Craig, but that likely wouldn’t change his rating much. Quinn’s distaste for Chicago’s plans to run it back is a sentiment shared by a large portion of the fan base.
In a vacuum, the additions of Carter and Craig are great, but for a Bulls team that will likely peak as a first-round playoff exit, the fact they aren’t going to hit the reset button is a very questionable decision.
