Bulls fans are starting to hit the panic button, and rightfully so.
Through the first 30 games of the 2022-23 season, Chicago sits at 12-18 and is on the outside looking in on the Play-In Tournament. Not the playoffs — the Play-In.
With three former All-Stars in DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, the Bulls are supposed to be a team with championship aspirations, but over one-third of the way through the season, they've been anything but.
Just when it seemed like things couldn't get worse, The Athletic's Shams Charania and Darnell Mayberry dropped a report on Dec. 20 that feels like the final straw for the current state of the Bulls.
Charania and Mayberry stated that the franchise and LaVine "are not seeing eye-to-eye" and that they're making "efforts to manage the on-court disconnect with LaVine and DeRozan." With LaVine in the first year of his five-year, $215 million contract he signed this offseason, that is... less than ideal.
On top of that, even if the Bulls decide to blow it up and shift their focus to the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, they may not even own their own first-round pick. Here's why.
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Bulls 2023 first-round draft pick, explained
At the 2021 NBA trade deadline, the Bulls made an all-in-type move in a deal with the Magic. Here's how that trade shook out:
Bulls received
- Nikola Vucevic
- Al-Farouq Aminu
Magic received
- Wendell Carter Jr.
- Otto Porter Jr.
- 2021 first-round pick (became Franz Wagner)
- 2023 top-four protected first-round pick
MORE: Is it time for the Bulls, Raptors to enter the Wembanyama sweepstakes?
In return for Vucevic, the Magic landed a former top-10 pick in Carter and two first-round picks, one of which became Wagner. The other is still to be determined, which is where this season comes in.
The Bulls will only receive their 2023 first-round pick if they land in the top four of the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery. Any pick outside of the top four will go to Orlando.
According to Tankathon, given Chicago's current spot in the standings, it is projected to land at No. 7 overall, meaning the pick would go to the Magic. Even if the Bulls were to trade players like LaVine, DeRozan and/or Vucevic at the deadline, there is no guarantee they would even retain their first-round pick this season.
If you're a Bulls fan, you'll likely be praying that the ping-pong balls fall in your favor regardless of how this year's trade deadline shakes out.
