Our sweet dreams of a Zach LaVine Woj Bomb have officially been dashed.
- ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski officially announced his retirement from the media industry on Wednesday morning. The news comes only weeks before NBA training camps open across the league. Few reporters have left the kind of impact Wojnarowski has on the modern sports media landscape, so it’s hard to imagine an NBA ecosystem without him. Nevertheless, I wish him nothing but the best as he leaves this grueling line of work for a new adventure. I also thank him for his years of heart-pounding breaking news alerts … even if they weren’t always the most satisfying.
- As an homage to the great and powerful Woj, I’ll drop some of the more memorable and on-brand Bulls-related Woj Bombs in recent history.
- I went through a boatload of old Woj tweets about the Chicago Bulls this morning, and I’m ready to open up a pint of ice cream and cry. It’s honestly insane how few huge storylines this team has produced over the past decade or so. Not to mention, the vast majority of moves we could consider “big” all flopped. Who is going to fix this organization already?
- Speaking of which, I debated this morning who would be the Bulls’ best current trade asset. The easy answer is Coby White, particularly after his breakout 2023-24 campaign. But how much is he really getting you on the market at this very moment? Does he net you a lightly protected first and another young player? Can he get you two firsts? If that’s the return for your best trade asset, you know you’re in a tough spot. Patrick Williams used to feel like a potentially strong trade chip, but the new contract has likely dropped his value. Ayo Dosumu could garner a lot of interest, but enough to warrant considering an actual trade?
- The main reason I bring this up is because the Bulls have to keep all options on the table moving forward. When you’re in rebuild mode, practically nobody is safe. The issue they’ve had for years is holding onto their assets for too long and refusing to act aggressively in the open market. I’m not saying I want any of these guys traded right now, but thinking long-term means keeping the door open. This is especially true with both White and Dosunmu only having one season after this one left on their contracts. And the Bulls could struggle to extend either, as each player’s contracts are so darn affordable that the possible max extension (140 percent of the current deal) may not be enough.
- Ricky O’Donnell made a list of seven possible ROY candidates. Most players who appear are expected to be in winning environments, which speaks to why Matas Buzelis didn’t make the cut. Still, I kinda-sorta like Buzelis’ chances to make things interesting. I’m not saying I think the guy will win, but I can see him impacting the entire box score and eating up a lot of minutes as the season drags on. Especially if the Bulls move on from Zach LaVine or Nikola Vucevic early in the year, some scoring opportunities will really open up.
- The Chicago Sky’s chance at the postseason is still alive. While they lost to the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night, the Washington Mystics also stumbled. They will now need to win and see both the Dream and Mystics lose tomorrow to clinch the No. 8 seed. Whether or not they want to do that, however, remains a fair question. The Sky chose to sit both Kamilla Cardoso and Chennedy Carter for last night’s contest. To be sure, both were dealing with injuries, but it’s not crazy to think both could have played through those injuries if the goal was to crack the postseason. The Sky may have lottery odds in mind.
- I’m listening …
- Tab wrote a book!