The Chicago Bulls were one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference through the early parts of the season. Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball were coming back from injury, Coby White had a breakout year, and they added Josh Giddey to be the primary playmaker.
After staying steady at the bottom of the play-in tournament, they got busy at the trade deadline, sending LaVine to the Sacramento Kings, in a three-team deal that resulted in the San Antonio Spurs acquiring De’Aaron Fox. LaVine was their best player averaging 24 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.5 assists on .511/.446/.797.
With conceding their best player, Chicago seemed to be on the hunt for the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. Despite losing every game since the trade by an average of 24.5 points, the Bulls are still the 10th seed and a game and a half ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers.
For the last three seasons, the Bulls have been in the bottom of the Play-In tournament and are heading towards that again, but the front office shouldn’t want this.
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The Chicago Bulls were the No. 1 seed halfway through the 2021-22 season. Once Lonzo Ball got hurt, they’ve been in mediocratic limbo for the last three years. They’ve made the playoffs once, a first-round loss, and lost in the Play-In tournament twice. This season, they’re headed for their third consecutive Play-In appearance.
If the Bulls do end up making it, that would most likely mean that the Philadelphia 76ers would miss the playoffs and Play-In all together. As a lot of fans would enjoy seeing 76ers miss the playoffs after being deemed preseason contenders, Philly has a much greater chance to create noise then Chicago.
The Bulls core is young. They have Nikola Vucevic, who’s 34-years old, but Coby White, Patrick Williams, Josh Giddey, and Matas Buzelis are 24 or younger. With no potential superstar, they need to draft one, and Cooper Flagg could be a prime fit.
Chicago has the eighth best odds or a six percent chance of acquiring the first pick in the draft. If they make the Play-In and either win a game or make the playoffs, they lose their odds get lower or they miss the lottery all together. It would make a lot more sense for them to want to get Flagg than to worsen those odds.
So far, the team with the worse record has not won the lottery since the NBA changed the disperse of the lottery odds to prevent tanking. Even if the Bulls stay where they’re at and lose the first play-in game, they still have a chance to get a decent draft choice but also risk falling in the lottery.
The Bulls front office should have no incentive to make the Play-In. No one in the draft is guaranteed but drafting with the hope of getting a franchise player, especially someone with the hype of Cooper Flagg, they should increase their odds to win in the future and not now.
