Page views, ticket sales or win totals? Why Bulls stuck with the same group
The NBA season begins in a few days, but you have to dig pretty deep to find any national buzz about the Bulls.
That's no surprise, since they made so few changes to a 40-42 squad. Oddsmakers set the Bulls win total at 37.5.
So why were the Bulls content to stick with essentially the same team? It's not a mystery, but a combination of two factors.
One is something that's been mentioned here since the play-in tournament in April. Management put so much effort into ending the rebuild, there weren't any more moves to make.
The Bulls can't trade a first-round pick until 2027, since they owe next year's selection to San Antonio for DeMar DeRozan. After sending two second-rounders to land an extra draft pick (Julian Phillips) this year, the Bulls don't have another second-round pick until 2028. Teams that trade star players are generally looking for multiple draft picks in return and the Bulls can't play that game.
Then there's the state of their nucleus. Zach LaVine should be headed into his peak years, so this is not the time to trade him. If they deal DeRozan, they'd be a young team in need of veteran guidance. If they let Nikola Vucevic walk away as a free agent this summer, who would play center?
So that's one piece of the puzzle. The other is from an ownership and business perspective, the Bulls brain trust likes this team.
It's no secret what the business plan is about. Go to a Bulls game and you'll get to see Benny spill the popcorn, the Dunkin' Donuts race and also some of the world's greatest athletes play basketball.
A team that's easy to root for is acceptable here and the Bulls have plenty of good guys. They have fun in the locker room after wins and seem to get along really well.
DeRozan is great at the role of steady NBA veteran who can dispense wisdom and also act like a surly father figure for more energetic youngsters like Dalen Terry.
Vucevic is cerebral, LaVine the low-key highlight machine. Coby White might be the loudest player in the locker room when he's in the right mood, while Ayo Dosunmu is one of the quietest, but he carries the inspiring tale of South Side success story. None of them is a candidate to demand a trade or cause any trouble.
This is all good news for the marketing department. The Bulls are solid subjects for entertaining all-access videos posted on the YouTube channel, with breakout viral moments like DeRozan playing quarterback at the Tennessee Titans training facility.
Now a team like the Miami Heat might look at this roster and think, "We have to make drastic changes because this team won't contend for a championship." The Bulls don't do that. They see this as more of a "Don't fix what's not broken" situation.
That's not to suggest the Bulls were wrong to stick with this group. The only real alternative was to blow it up and play for lottery position, but the Bulls already tried doing that and failed.
Denver proved NBA champions can be built through the draft, but never tanked to do it. The three key draft picks were Nikola Jokic in the 2014 second round, Jamal Murray at No. 7 in '16 and Michael Porter Jr. at No. 14 in '18.
Be lucky enough to land a superstar, get better and become a desirable destination for other stars - that's how most good NBA teams are created these days. It's possible the Bulls could get to that level, but there's work to be done.
In the meantime, whatever happens on the court, this will be an easy team to cheer for. And don't act shocked if this group sticks around for another year, because that's when Lonzo Ball might finally return from a knee injury.
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports