(670 The Score) I'm not sure how all of these new Bulls pieces are going to fit together, exactly, but I'm sure interested in watching them try.
This new group as currently arranged may have only pushed the organization incrementally closer to winning a championship -- a middle playoff seed in the Eastern Conference seems a reasonable expectation -- and yet the tone set by the moves and what they tell us in aggregate is reason for continued belief that the team of executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, general manager Marc Eversley and coach Billy Donovan is going to pursue one without stripping down to build up.
The deadline deal in March for All-Star center Nikola Vucevic was an indication that this would be about competing in the moment no matter what, betting on a 30-year-old as part of the core of this phase. Executing a sign-and-trade for Lonzo Ball on Monday gave the Bulls a long-sought point guard, and the acquisition of four-time All-Star wing DeMar DeRozan on Tuesday adds firepower to an offense still presumably constructed around the unique individual scoring skills of All-Star guard Zach LaVine. A team that has to cut down its turnovers (an NBA fourth-worst 15.1 last season) and increase its free-throw attempts (dead last by a mile at 17.5) is poised to do that both by adding DeRozan's ball-handling efficiency and ability to get to the foul line and by deploying guard Coby White as a second-unit scorer instead of continuing the failed experiment that has been him playing facilitator.
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Guard Alex Caruso gives the Bulls a dogged defender who can space the floor with his stand-still shooting, and now center Tony Bradley will be a viable rim-runner/protector off the bench at a team-friendly rate.
It matters, too, that we have yet to mention second-year forward Patrick Williams, who's arguably the Bulls' most important player. He was a Day 1 starter despite being the youngest player on the floor every night, and it'll be his development that's the best barometer for how high the Bulls can set their sights. If and when he realizes the upper ranges of his vast potential as both a scorer and defender, we'll be more comfortable discussing bigger things.
Which is why we have to look at all of this in a developmental context, now. It's clear that the new administration believes it can make players better over time -- and perhaps significantly so in a way that hasn't been appreciated here. The Bulls clearly don't care about hoarding draft picks, evinced by how casually they move such capital for established veterans. That's in large part due to a confidence that they can find and create value through other and subtler means.
What also resonates are the commitments by players like Ball and DeRozan to multi-year contracts that enable sign-and-trade arrangements -- and in doing so establish the Bulls as a desirable destination in a way that once seemed more difficult under dated leadership still stubbornly connected on some level to the ancient ghosts of grudges, legacies and failed pursuits. The optics are better in that regard, as then will be the player-to-player conversations that are now so critical to building a team.
Not so long ago there were really only two paths to get into the championship conversations: be bad enough to luck into a top draft pick that could be counted upon to become a generational player or hope against hope that one already established as such would grace you with his free-agent presence and change your stars. That's not the case anymore, as the old NBA hell of glass-ceiling success can potentially be averted by smart basketball business of different kinds, and this administration gets that in ways the previous didn't and is willing to try that route if need be.
The players are in power now too. A team's forward-facing image has to acknowledge and embrace that truth, and that's why the Bulls establishing themselves as professional, competitive and flexible has undeniable value in a league where branding means far more than selling clothes to kids.
It's impossible to measure the Bulls' proximity to real contention, but sometimes you can allow yourself to feel it for the first time in a while.
Dan Bernstein is the co-host of the Bernstein & Rahimi Show on middays from 9 a.m. until noon on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
