CHICAGO (670 The Score) – Just so we’re all clear, the Bulls aren’t yet actively trying to tank in the final months of the regular season.
If they were, they would’ve shipped out veteran center Nikola Vucevic at the trade deadline last Thursday, no matter the return. If they were, they would’ve traded veteran guard Lonzo Ball rather than agree to a two-year contract extension with him. If they were, they would’ve prioritized getting a first-round pick that wasn’t originally their own in the Zach LaVine trade, as that would’ve been a sign the Bulls eyed a bottom-eight path the next two years to enact the protections that would’ve retained their own first-round pick they previously owed the Spurs.
And of course, if the Bulls were trying to tank, executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas wouldn’t have then raised the possibility – in his opening statement last Thursday, no less – of landing a play-in round berth while also expressing the belief that securing the No.
10 seed in the weaker conference could be an achievement.
All of that is the context that made the result of Tuesday all the more ironic and embarrassing inside the United Center, where the Bulls lost 132-92 to the Pistons. Chicago trailed 71-29 at halftime, tying a franchise record for futility with its 42-point deficit at halftime, according to the Chicago Sports Network broadcast. The Bulls shot 23.1% overall, turned the ball over 10 times and didn’t hustle back on defense a number of times in the first half.
They looked like a team that was tanking, even though they’ve only taken the first step into the youth movement waters by starting rookie forward Matas Buzelis lately. In another indictment of Karnisovas’ work, his team just has the ability to get run out of the building.
“It’s embarrassing,” coach Billy Donovan said of the Bulls falling behind by as many as 49 points.
One of Donovan’s strengths is that he’s a strong, straight-shooting communicator. His players appreciate that, even when they don’t like the message, and it’s a much-needed quality for an organization that lacks the trait in management.
In recent days, Donovan’s candor has cast a light on the Bulls’ ill-fitting roster. On Saturday, he pointed out the Bulls having nine guards on the roster is an “overabundance” in the backcourt. On Monday, Donovan lamented how the Bulls couldn’t handle the brute force of the Pistons, who held a 55-44 rebounding advantage and scored 60 points in the paint.
“Their overall physicality against us, we had a hard time breaking away, getting off screens,” Donovan said. “I thought they ran through us straight to the rim. That was the biggest difference in the game for me, besides the shooting.
“Even if had we shot the ball better, I’m not so sure it still would’ve been a game we would’ve had a chance to win – just because I thought they physically overwhelmed us.”
A 40-point loss would be easily forgivable if it was by design from on high with a cohesive thread tracing through Karnisovas’ decisions, but that isn’t the case. To use Karnisovas’ terminology, the Bulls are a team in a “transitional phase” that took a “step back” at the trade deadline by dealing LaVine to the Kings. LaVine’s exit was meaningful, but there isn’t evidence that it’s part of a well-coordinated vision.
Having lost three straight games by a combined 80 points, the Bulls (22-32) might indeed enhance their draft lottery odds by season’s end, but it won’t be because Karnisovas enacted a prudent plan.
It’ll be because his previous shoddy, shortsighted work created an aimless team with glaring flaws while the grind of an 82-game season takes a mental and emotional toll on the players in the locker room who, just like the fans booing at the United Center on Tuesday, don’t really understand what the plan is.
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.