Better late than never, but somehow, never on time.
That might as well have been the Chicago Bulls’ motto with Artūras Karnišovas and Marc Eversley at the wheel.
It wasn’t exactly a winning formula, just one playoff appearance in six years, and not a single series win to show for it. Still, they clung to it like gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe.
Eventually, the frustration of being trapped in a monotonous, mediocre rut reached a boiling point, and that seemingly ‘endless’ leash finally ran out.
But why now? Why wait six years, and then pull the trigger just a couple of weeks before the end of the season?
Let’s break it down.
Stephen Lew-Imagn ImagesThe Straw that Broke the Bulls’ Back
In response to a question posed to Bulls CEO Michael Reinsdorf about when he first started considering changes, he said:
“Over the last few months, I started looking at where we were at. And I thought to myself, how are we going to get out of this mess?”
He went on to say they began cleaning things up at the trade deadline, getting assets in return for the expiring contracts of Ayo Dosunmu, Coby White, Nikola Vučević, and Kevin Huerter.
If that was the cleanup phase, then the thought process clearly started before the deadline, before all the Jaden Ivey drama, and before the Bulls were officially eliminated from postseason contention. Those moments may have helped him pull the trigger, but they weren’t what got him thinking. (His words, not mine)
So what actually pushed this to happen now?
(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)End of the DeRozan-Lavine Era
In 2021–22, the Bulls, led by DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball, and Nikola Vučević, stormed out to a 27–11 record by mid-January, one of the best in the league. Riding a 10–1 stretch, everything was clicking.
Three days later, Lonzo Ball underwent surgery on his left knee, and just like that, the waves shifted.Without him, the Bulls went 19–23 the rest of the way, finishing 46–36 before getting bounced in the first round.
Disappointing, sure, but there was still faith. At one point, they were the best team in the NBA. Maybe, without the injuries, the Bulls could’ve been something more.
So they ran it back in 2022–23. Lonzo never played. The team slipped anyway.
Then they doubled down in 2023–24. Same core, worse results. It felt like denial was overtaking reality.
Why? Because the talent was still there, sort of: DeRozan was averaging 24, LaVine was averaging 25 when he was 27, Alex Caruso made back-to-back All-Defensive teams, and Vučević was still doing a bit of everything. The pieces had value. They just waited too long to act on it.
The Bulls let DeRozan walk for essentially nothing in free agency. They waited until LaVine’s value dipped below his contract. They turned him into a single first-round pick and a salary dump.
ESPN Sources with @TimBontemps: The Sacramento Kings are agreed on a sign-and-trade that will land DeMar DeRozan on a three-year deal, send Harrison Barnes to the San Antonio Spurs and Chris Duarte, two second-round picks and cash to the Chicago Bulls. pic.twitter.com/eopPkSPBvc
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2024Lonzo Ball eventually returned, but as a shell of the defensive playmaker he once was, and was flipped to the Cavaliers for Isaac Okoro, a good regular-season player whose performance didn’t translate in the playoffs. Caruso? Moved for Josh Giddey, and no future first-round picks from a team that had plenty to spare.
If the options were Giddey or the 13th pick in the 2024 draft, i’d rather have Giddey. The problem is waiting until these were the options t.co/PI798Xh27d
— KENNY BEECHAM (@KOT4Q) June 24, 2024In short, this was a contending team derailed by injuries, but instead of adjusting, they held on for too long. Chasing what that first season looked like it could become. And in the process, they drained the value out of every major asset, until settling for far less than they could’ve had.
Which is why, during the 2026 season, they were shopping around Vučević, and when he was traded for an expiring contract and a second-round pick, it finally closed the door that was left open for longer than it should have.
© Reggie Hildred-Imagn ImagesConsistently Inconsistent
Another thing that defined the Bulls this season was how their wins and losses came in waves. They opened 5–0, looked sharp, in control, then a week later dropped five straight, right back to the middle.
And it didn’t stop there. Later that same month, they rattled off a seven-game losing streak, falling five games under .500. So what did they do next? Won five in a row, just to even things out again.
Bulls first 5 games: 5-0Bulls since then: 4-9Dropped from 1st to 10th place. pic.twitter.com/yaIzjER6Vu
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) November 29, 2025At a certain point, it stopped being frustrating and started being almost comical, how magnetically drawn this team was to .500. Because it wasn’t exactly new. This was the same story for three straight seasons, stuck in the middle, never bad enough for a top pick, never good enough to make the playoffs.
The only real difference this time? It wasn’t aging stars underperforming their contracts anymore; it was younger players stepping up, overachieving, and still landing in the exact same place. Which means there was a chance for a clean slate before the ‘new guys’ get stuck in the same quicksand the players before them could not get out of.
Matt Marton-Imagn ImagesA Big Offseason
Even if the Bulls hadn’t sold off what they could at the trade deadline, they were headed for this same spot anyway. Nearly $65 million in cap space. A lottery pick in one of the stronger upcoming drafts. A 23-year-old point guard in Josh Giddey averaging near triple-double numbers. And a 21-year-old in his sophomore season, Matas Buzelis, leading the team in total points while emerging as one of the league’s better shot-blockers.
The blueprint was there.
The Bulls GM job is a good one (if Jerry lets you actually make decisions)A few intriguing young players. All your own draft capital. Great city with fans starving for success. And itll be almost impossible to be worse than the last guy.
— KENNY BEECHAM (@KOT4Q) April 6, 2026But the last time this front office had something like that, they rushed it, spent on short-term success, missed on key draft picks, and boxed themselves into the exact situation they were trying to escape. And this time, Michael Reinsdorf couldn’t afford to sit through another six-year mistake.
“I just felt like now is the time,” Michael said. “We tried the other route, it didn’t work. We failed. And now we are in position to get this right. Clean slate.”
Maybe if the Bulls had won the lottery last year and landed Cooper Flagg, that would’ve been the moment. But they didn’t. So they kept driving, stuck on the same road, going nowhere, until they finally found an exit. And Michael took it.
Maybe years too late. But also, just in time.
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