The Bulls front office is disrespecting fans by pretending anything has changed

After two years of inactivity, the Chicago Bulls finally made a major move, trading Zach LaVine as part of the three-team deal which sent De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs, getting San Antonio to remove the protections on their first-round pick for the 2025 NBA Draft.

The return for LaVine was a bit underwhelming considering the year he's having, but, at the very least, it felt as if the Bulls had finally begun to fully embrace a rebuild. More moves were surely to come by Thursday's trade deadline. Well, that wasn't the case.

Instead of trading Lonzo Ball, Chicago extended him for another two seasons. That was all they did. The Bulls did not make a single trade on Thursday, continuing their infuriating tradition of doing absolutely nothing on deadline day.

Arturas Karnisovas, the team's vice president of basketball operations, held a post-deadline presser on Thursday, and it's safe to say nothing has changed in the Windy City.

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Post-deadline press conference proves nothing has changed in Chicago

So, let me get this straight. The Bulls traded Zach LaVine, their best player, in a deal that allowed their first-round pick to be fully unprotected, only to then say that the goal is to make it to the Play-In tournament? How does this make any sense?

If the goal was to compete for a playoff spot, why did they trade their best player? Why should they care about removing the protections on the pick when they're now hoping it's outside of the lottery?

Even with that trade taking place, why didn't they make another move to get better? The Bulls have a slew of small guards, yet refused to trade any of Ball, Josh Giddey, Tre Jones, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, or even Jevon Carter for a better roster fit? This team's starting lineup included Ball, Giddey, White, and Ayo Dosunmu just two games ago. It's really hard to win with just guards.

I can understand not wanting to sell incredibly low on Nikola Vucevic - a solid veteran having a nice season with another year on his contract. The same can be said about Coby White. However, the Bulls traded LaVine at a low value when he had more control on his contract, then did nothing and still act as if playoffs are the priority.

If playoffs were the priority, trading LaVine made no sense. If rebuilding was the priority, more should have been done. Standing pat is the worst thing an NBA team that is not an established title contender can do, and yet, the Bulls seem to do that every year at the worst possible time. Maybe next season will be when the Bulls front office starts taking things seriously.