If the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors were playing basketball last night, then I’m pretty sure the Chicago Bulls have been playing Yahtzee all season long.
I know it sounds cliche, but Game 2 of that series felt like a completely different sport. Not only was there a level of physicality that I just couldn’t have seen the Bulls matching, but the level of shotmaking was undoubtedly something the Bulls could never replicate. It was another painful reminder of just how far away the Bulls are from truly feeling like a playoff threat.
Arturas Karnisovas sounded like his goal was to further shrink the gap between the Bulls and the league elites this offseason. But I’d be lying if I said I believe he can accomplish that right now.
The Chicago Bulls won their draft lottery tiebreaker against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. As fancy as that sounds, it really doesn’t change much when it comes to their probability to land a top 4 pick in the draft. But, hey, I’ll take whatever small victories I can get at this point.
All things considered, I’d be happy to see Jones Jr. stick around. He’s been a perfectly fine role player and does provide a level of energy and athleticism that any team would be happy to have off the bench. As I was thinking about this news, however, I started to think about how many roster spots the Bulls will actually have to work with this summer. With Jones Jr. staying, I only counted three empty seats for the front office to mess around with, and those belong to Andre Drummond, Patrick Beverley, and Javonte Green. And, to be clear, Drummond also has a player option, so he could give the team even less flexibility to work with.
My best guess is that the front office does try to re-sign both Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu. I do have some questions about their interest in Dosunmu long-term, mainly because of his lack of shooting, but I do think he’s shown enough to warrant further investment. Anyway, we’ll do a solo post on this looking at the financial ramifications and the team’s true flexibility in the coming weeks. We’re in the early stages of thinking about all of this, but we should understand that the Bulls are going to have to get very creative if they want to make meaningful changes to this roster AND stay competitive.
Why do you guys have to do Vooch like that!?
Jaren Jackson Jr. joins Marc Gasol as the only other player to win DPOY in Grizzlies’ history 🐻 pic.twitter.com/lqN7rjS71F
The NBA will announce its first-ever winner of the Clutch Player of the Year award later tonight. DeMar DeRozan is one of three finalists, but my gut tells me this year’s Jerry West Trophy is going to De’Aaron Fox.
The first Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year will be announced tonight on @NBAonTNT at 7 PM ET.
Draft combines can be pretty silly, but I do think this is probably the right move by the NBA. Teams should be able to get a closer look at all prospects, especially the most high-profile ones.
NEWS: Players who decline to fully participate in the NBA Combine will be ineligible for selection in the NBA Draft starting in 2024, according to a memo obtained by ESPN.
I’m torn on the idea of not voting for somebody to win MVP because they’ve won it “too many” times. On one hand, yeah, we should spread the wealth. A lot of times the race is pretty darn close, and I don’t mind giving it to the guy who hasn’t one it yet. On the other hand, most valuable is most valuable. I think that Nikola Jokic likely was more important to the Nuggets’ success this season than Joel Embiid was to the 76ers’ success. That’s not necessarily because I think Jokic is the better overall player but simply because I think Philly has the better supporting cast. With that said, again, I don’t really care if Embiid wins it. He was great, too!
NBA teams keep 75% of their playoff ticket revenue, a higher share than NHL (65%), MLB (~55%), and NFL (0%)
Last year’s Warriors title run of 12 home playoff games grossed >$100M in tickets (before the league took its cut) pic.twitter.com/wiVkkZQTiA— Lev Akabas (@LevAkabas) April 17, 2023
Seriously, though, you need to spend money to make money. Investing more in the team and ensuring they’re a consistently winning organization will pump even more dollars into the United Center. If simply not being an embarrassment is motivation enough, that sure should be!
Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.
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