Why Chicago Bulls will be left on the outside again in free agency and trades

One day, the Chicago Bulls will land a top name like LeBron James, Paul George or Kawhi Leonard in free agency or in a trade. It just won’t happen this year.

It’s becoming a fairly routine thing for the Chicago Bulls and their fans to look forward to potential free agent signings every year that could vault them into championship contention only to come up with: A., nothing or B., Plan C or D.

For whatever reason, that’s just how it goes. And this year is unlikely to be any different.

Yeah, it’s no given that LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George will all actually end up on the same team, even though the Los Angeles Lakers could conceivably, if not practically, pull it off. And in that case, one or multiple of them will end up on a team that people perhaps didn’t foresee.

And surprises do happen in trades and free agency each year, so you can’t rule out something amazing happening. After all, I don’t think anyone was banking on the Oklahoma City Thunder making the big move for George last year.

That said, those surprises aren’t coming for the Chicago Bulls this year because of the current state of the team. So don’t get your hopes up.

They’re still a year or two away from attracting top-flight free agents that would want to play with this burgeoning young core. Though Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen showed promise in 2017, there’s some development that still needs to happen there. And it could be that the Bulls don’t even view Dunn as a true long-term option at point guard. Not a great selling point.

If the Chicago Bulls draft well and win 30 or more games next year, then this probably starts becoming a more interesting destination for free agents. For now, though, even though the Bulls have some cap flexibility, no one looking to win will be flocking here in 2018.

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As LeBron and George fall into those categories, they won’t be coming to Chicago.

And in the other scenario, what could the Bulls possibly offer in a trade for Kawhi Leonard?

Obviously, that does offer the Bulls some opportunity that free agency wouldn’t as they deal with the organization, not Leonard. Furthermore, there’s not a player on this Bulls team I wouldn’t package in a deal for Leonard, one of the best two-way players the NBA has seen in decades.

But aside from Markkanen and maybe Dunn, who would Gregg Popovich and the Spurs even want? That’s a huge thing to consider for any trade. In relation to the Spurs, that probably makes this potential deal unworkable, maybe even if you threw in this year’s first-round picks or some combination of picks from this year and 2019.

Next: Five missed opportunities for Bulls in NBA draft

It’s unfortunate that the Bulls are where they are right now and that it will likely preclude them from changing their fortunes on the fly. But with two first-round picks this year, including No. 7 overall, they have a chance to rebuild the old-fashioned way. And hopefully, within a few years, they’ll be in a better position when opportunities like this come around.

Eventually, the Bulls finally have to catch one big fish, right?