The Chicago Bulls are only five games into the 2023-2024 NBA regular season and their season has been filled with drama.
The season began with the Bulls having a players’ only meeting after their blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and rumors have already surfaced that the Philadelphia 76ers are eyeing Zach LaVine ahead of the NBA Trade Deadline in February.
Again, there have only been five games to the Bulls’ season and this is where we are.
LaVine, for his part, did very little to put an end to the drama surrounding the Bulls when talking to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports.
"“You get your ass kicked on the first day and we’re having conversations from top to bottom,” LaVine said. “If we don’t want the coaches in there while we are talking, that’s not a team meeting, it’s players talking amongst ourselves. I don’t know if coach got that misunderstood or not.”-Zach LaVine via Yahoo Sports"
Zach LaVine’s latest comments only confirm that there is a fracture between the Chicago Bulls roster and their coaching staff.
Despite the unclarity of whether or not the Bulls players are on the same page as their head coach Billy Donovan, one clear thing is that the end is in sight for this current core. Despite center Nikola Vucevic signing a three-year extension with the team this off-season, the shelf life on the core involving Vucevic, LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan appears to be nearing its end. Barring the Bulls turning into a team they have failed to be since Lonzo Ball’s injury, the core is going to be taken down at the deadline in February.
That would be the reason why many fans have questioned the Bulls’ direction dating back to the NBA Trade Deadline of last season. After a disappointing first half of the season, there was an opportunity for the Bulls to begin the deconstruction of their core and trade DeRozan and Vucevic. Instead, the team preached continuity for a roster that has failed in each of the past two seasons.
For now, it would seem that the time between now and the trade deadline in February will be filler until we have a sense of what the new direction of the team will be.