The consensus is that the Chicago Bulls’ trade deadline could have gone better. Days before the February 6 deadline, Chicago made an intriguing move: It sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento in a three-team trade. In return, the Bulls received Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, and their own 2025 first-round pick.

However, Chicago went radio silent after shipping off LaVine. There was speculation that the new acquisitions would be flipped, but that never came to fruition. Furthermore, Nikola Vucevic stays put in the Windy City despite attracting numerous suitors through the first half of the 2024-25 season.

Finally, rival franchises reportedly coveted several guards, including Coby White and Lonzo Ball. Instead of trading one or both guards, the Bulls held steady, rebuffing trade offers. Chicago even went the extra mile, extending Ball to a two-year, $20 million pact amid trade and buyout rumors.

Trading LaVine was reasonable, albeit long overdue. Holding onto 34-year-old Vucevic was, quite frankly, unreasonable. Even though the trade offers were reportedly underwhelming, extracting any draft capital is a win for Chicago following a trade that sent its best player elsewhere.

Then, to make matters worse, Bulls’ Vice President of Basketball Operations, Arturas Karnisovas, gave a post-trade deadline press conference where he expressed his belief in competing for a spot in the play-in tournament. Aside from that imprudent ideology, Karnisovas stated that he believes a team can win a championship with “9-10 very good players,” and that’s what he’s building.

3 Lessons the Bulls must learn to avoid repeating their current mess

Karnisovas’ actions and theory scream mediocracy. Moreover, mediocracy can be used to describe every Karnisovas-constructed Bulls team. Chicago has won one playoff game since the VP of Basketball Operations was hired in 2020. All things considered, the Bulls’ organization must learn from Karnisovas’s rocky tenure—beginning with the mindset to renounce mediocrity.

3. There’s no place for mediocracy

There’s nothing worse than being a middle-of-the-pack team. Such squads are tasked with selecting players near the end of the lottery if they don’t earn a playoff trip. And if they do sneak into the postseason, these teams face uphill battles to advance deep into the playoffs. For what it’s worth, only five of 78 NBA Finals have included a team seeded fifth or higher.

The Bulls are one of these teams. If Chicago sneaks into the playoffs, it will surely be bounced in the first round. However, the more likely scenario is that the Bulls finish somewhere between 10th and 13th in the Eastern Conference, ultimately earning a draft pick in the five-to-ten range.

None of those above results are worth it. Mediocrity is a repetitive cycle in the NBA, as evidenced by Chicago’s past four seasons. The decision to jettison LaVine ahead of the deadline was a step in the right direction, but there’s still work to do. Trading Vooch should be next up to start the rebuild.

2. Patience is overrated in the present-day NBA

Nowadays, patience is illogical. If the past week has taught us anything, it is that the NBA is an ever-changing landscape. Contending teams, such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, and so-so teams with exorbitant payrolls, such as the Phoenix Suns, made moves to increase their chances of a deep postseason run.

Moreover, aside from the recent slew of moves, teams with high expectations have routinely made drastic moves to set themselves apart from the rest of the NBA. Instead of stagnation, squads like the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, and Minnesota Timberwolves all completed massive trades in hopes of improvement following deep playoff pushes. These moves don’t always pay off (sorry, Wolves), but they display a heightened sense of urgency—something the Bulls have lacked.

Chicago notoriously delayed trading numerous veterans over the years despite struggling to reach the postseason. The Bulls held onto DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine much longer than they should have. Although he’s still on the team, Vooch falls into the same category.

1. Overpaying players limits their trade value

Overpaying its players has bitten the Bulls’ Front Office more times than not. While an extortionate contract is never wise to hand out to a middling player in the first place, there are multiple layers to a team overpaying its players.

Once a player is overpaid, it’s almost impossible for them to be traded in today’s NBA. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement has implemented strict trade regulations, hindering teams with high payrolls from acquiring significantly paid players. I.e., the reason LaVine was so difficult to trade.

Aside from LaVine, who’s handsomely paid yet enjoying a terrific season, there are more glaring examples, namely Patrick Williams. The Bulls inexplicably re-signed the former fourth-overall pick to a five-year, $90 million contract out of nowhere last off-season. The returns have not been justifiable. Williams averages only 9.4 points on 37.7 percent shooting. Now, earning $18 million per season, the 23-year-old is almost untradable.