No, you're not having deja vu. This has all happened before — the Chicago Bulls once again did not defy the NBA Draft Lottery odds, and the Bulls will settle for the No. 12 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
So, Cooper Flagg is not coming to Chicago. Now what?
Well, I would say the Bulls are going to find a gem at pick No. 12, trade Nikola Vucevic, Patrick Williams and Lonzo Ball for more assets and enter next season with a young core that will lose a lot of games and put the Bulls in position at the top of next year's draft.
Okay, now you're probably having deja vu.
Bulls in same situation again, and it's the front office's fault again
Chicago also had a chance to position itself well for this draft but decided scraping into the play-in game was a more successful outcome. The year prior was the same story. The year prior was the same story. You know how it goes; instead of a full rebuild, the Bulls opt for existing in the middle and find themsleves stuck in that middle.
Good players can be found at the backend of the lottery; Matas Buzelis was the No. 11 pick last year and looks like a star in the making. But this is an impossible route to contention.
President of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas, general manager Marc Eversley and owner Jerry Reinsdorf haven't been short on chances to start the rebuild. If anything, they've been spoiled with clear opportunities to tear it all down and start fresh. It appeared they were on the way to that decision after trading Zach LaVine... but then the middling on-court product continued as usual.
We all know there is no goal in mind, and that aimlessness is on display fully on nights like draft lottery night, when other teams that had a clear objective get players like Cooper Flagg, and the Bulls settle for less.
I know that having a good chance at getting Cooper Flagg and actually getting him are two very different things. But Chicago refuses to give itself a chance.
But maybe this twelfth pick will change everything, right?