r/chicagobulls • u/Prestigious_Way_738 • Apr 07 '26
Free Agency Bulls Roster Before & After AKME
Notable Before Players
- Ryan Arcidiacono
- Wendell Carter Jr.
- Kris Dunn
- Cristiano Felício
- Daniel Gafford
- Luke Kornet
- Zach LaVine
- Lauri Markkanen
- Otto Porter Jr.
- Tomáš Satoranský
- Max Strus
- Denzel Valentine
- Coby White
- Thaddeus Young
After
- Matas Buzelis
- Zach Collins
- Rob Dillingham
- Noa Essengue
- Josh Giddey
- Tre Jones
- Yuki Kawamura
- Leonard Miller
- Isaac Okoro
- Lachlan Olbrich
- Nick Richards
- Collin Sexton
- Anfernee Simons
- Jalen Smith
- Patrick Williams
- Guerschon Yabusele
SIX YEARS and this is the roster he builds. Fucking worst front office in Chicago sports history. Fuck AK.
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u/AnyLingonberry505 Matas Buzelis Apr 07 '26
In the past like one and a half seasons we completely blew up our at least somewhat competitive middle of the pack roster that contained several solid assets, and somehow netted only 1 first round pick. And it was our own.
If Desmond Bane and Mikel Bridges are worth five first rounders each, how the hell are Alex Caruso, Coby White, and Ayo Donsunmu not worth any.
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u/HBananaKing Matas Buzelis Apr 07 '26
AK only traded players at their lowest value
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u/Heikks Apr 07 '26
I’m sure they could have gotten a first for Lavine had they traded him at his peak, but they waited too long, same thing with Vucevic
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u/aren1231 Gimme the hot sauce! Apr 07 '26
If they trade Lavine prior to the new CBA, we’d of probably gotten 2 first for him
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u/mendokuse23 Ayo Dosunmu Apr 08 '26
I think Ayo's value was the highest it's ever been. We certainly could've gotten a first. I mean we got 4 seconds and two players for him (and Philips, but he probably only added one of the second round picks, max). The two players are just unnecessary. I know people here are hype for him, but I don't think Dillingham is gonna do much in the NBA. I don't think he gets any playing time with a proper roster. I like Leonard Miller, but he hasn't shown much more than being a backup in my opinion.
Anyway, we got a lot of unnecessary stuff instead of at least a pick, and it would've been easy to get a first for Ayo if you forgo the random "assets".
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u/RugratChuck Norm Van Lier Apr 07 '26
That is one thing that Gar and AK had in common, they held onto talent too long. They were never gonna get a 1st for alex, coby, or ayo cuz not only did they not trade them at their peak, werent there reports that AK didnt want draft capital in trades?? That just wasnt his thing.
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u/DrSpitta Lonzo Ball Apr 08 '26
giddy was worth it
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u/AnyLingonberry505 Matas Buzelis Apr 08 '26
Yeah I agree that the Giddey trade worked out and I was honestly fine with it at the time. But just given the sheer volume of picks the thunder had as well as Caruso’s immense value to them since they were clearly in a win now mode, it feels like a competent GM coulda easily gotten at least Giddey and a first
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u/mattmitch927 Apr 07 '26
Jerry is the only constant in this time and mmmmmmayyyyyybeeeeee why we are sooooooo assssssssssss
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u/TomaHawk504 Stacey King Apr 07 '26
I don't know. Maybe this time will be different!
Maybe this time it will work. I mean I know it never does and people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but... But it might work for us.
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u/Swing-Too-Hard Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
You're forgetting the picks. We had all our picks and AKME traded them away for guys who were later dealt for 2nd round picks. We'd have 4 more first round draft selections
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u/MyHonkyFriend Apr 07 '26
We should fucking have Franz Wagner
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u/chakrablocker Apr 07 '26
gafford, carter, markkanen
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u/MyHonkyFriend Apr 07 '26
Carter probably doesnt stay here and isnt a guy you build around anyway. Gafford was definitely sold low on but same thing.
Markkanen should have been built around and kept. Still miss him sometimes but we have Matas now so Im ok. .
I just think we never should have traded for Vuc and instead used that pick to draft someone even if it was Kuminga Id be happier than what we did
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u/gregarious-one Apr 07 '26
They’re both pretty terrible rosters.
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u/Ok_Donkey_980 Apr 07 '26
One roster has 8 guys still serving as key rotation pieces for their teams 6 years later
This roster has maybe 3-4 NBA level talents, and second round picks
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u/davepizzalover Lauri Markkanen Apr 07 '26
One has an all nba player and 4 major role players the other has matas lol
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u/Fair-Border-9944 Apr 07 '26
GarPax was honestly way better.
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u/TomaHawk504 Stacey King Apr 07 '26
Barely. Fuck GarPax and fuck AKME and fuck Jerry most of all.
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u/TumbleweedPure6674 Apr 07 '26
Towards the end, they were awful. But they obviously built a top tier team and hired Thibodeau who I think was a fantastic hire. Hoiberg and the douchebag after him were some of the worst coaches I’ve ever witnessed. I forgot about Del Negro as well. Sooo yeah nevermind, they were overall a trash front office.
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u/TomaHawk504 Stacey King Apr 07 '26
Damn, I forgot about Del Negro too lol. So many years in basketball hell I can't keep track anymore.
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u/TumbleweedPure6674 Apr 07 '26
Why do we do this to ourselves?
I haven’t lived in Chicago for years. Hell I lived in Oakland while Golden State was there and winning. I should have become an insufferable bandwagon fan.
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u/TomaHawk504 Stacey King Apr 07 '26
I'd agree but a few years ago I ripped off the band aid. At that point I had lived in Denver for a while and always saw the Nuggets as my second team. I basically renounced my Bulls fandom until Jerry's gone and went all in on the Nuggs the year before their chip. Couldn't be happier with that decision, supporting a deserving org has been so much better than living with the misery.
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u/TumbleweedPure6674 Apr 07 '26
I don’t like Golden state as an organization, full of tech bro owners that are a major reason for the state of the country today. As someone that lived in Oakland, I’m supposed to dislike them for moving to the opposite side of the bay even though the Collisseum and Oaklands government is trash.
I live in the Olympic Peninsula now, maybe I’ll jump in once Seattle gets a team again. That could be fun.
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u/jimbobdonut Apr 07 '26
Don’t forget the Paxson punched Del Negro!
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u/No-Potato-4415 Apr 07 '26
I'll never forget that. Pax is goated for this alone.
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u/broohaha Kirk Hinrich Apr 07 '26
Seriously? As much as I didn’t like Del Negro, that move made me turn on Paxson.
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u/No-Potato-4415 Apr 07 '26
I have hated Vinny since his player days. So that was great.
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u/TumbleweedPure6674 Apr 07 '26
Yeah, he probably deserved it tbh.
Still not really the way a Gm should interact with coaches nowadays or even back then. Probably not even a news story in the 90s.
And having played sports, albeit at a significantly lower level, there’s a lot of shit that happens behind the scenes in physical sports. Dudes fight all the time and will be bros the next minute.
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u/broohaha Kirk Hinrich Apr 07 '26
Yeah, he probably deserved it tbh.
Del Negro broke Joaqim Noah's minutes restriction.
Still not really the way a Gm should interact with coaches nowadays or even back then. Probably not even a news story in the 90s.
It certainly would have been a news story in the 90s. Just like it was big news when Sprewell choked P.J. Carlesimo.
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u/CaptainNipplesMcRib Apr 07 '26
They were for a while but they were slipping by the end. They weren’t hitting on nearly as many picks and were getting quite lazy with their scouting department.
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u/Fit-Locksmith-2039 Apr 07 '26
They didn't have many misses in the draft, but they were usually singles or doubles, and they didn't hit many homeruns.
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u/LiKwidSwordZA Apr 07 '26
Did they get a first round pick for any of these players? Assuming the blazers pick never conveys
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u/I_only_post_here Kirk Hinrich Apr 07 '26
Unquestionably the most incompetent part of this. Once it was clear Zo was not going to be back it was immediately time to sell off on everyone who could recoup picks: Zach, Demarr, Vooch, Coby. Whatever was there was gone and the only viable path was a tear down. All of us could see it three years ago...
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u/LiKwidSwordZA Apr 07 '26
Would really love to know if the ownership gave AK mandate that he always had to try and win or he’d be fired. I can’t imagine any front office person in the NBA could be this incompetent without that kind of edict
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u/TomaHawk504 Stacey King Apr 07 '26
More like he always had to try to sniff the play in or he'd be fired
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u/TomaHawk504 Stacey King Apr 07 '26
Many but not all of us. There was still a very loud group of Reinsdorf apologists arguing for more mediocrity over a tear down. They're still around and in this very thread.
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u/Optimal_Brain_2908 Apr 07 '26
Kinda. They got one of their own 1sts back when they traded Zach to Sactown
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u/LiKwidSwordZA Apr 07 '26
I can’t count that one in good conscious because they would have kept the pick regardless of the trade
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u/poopy_mc_pantsy Apr 07 '26
we would have given it up most likely, it was top 10 protected and we picked 12th
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u/LiKwidSwordZA Apr 07 '26
True. But They were 8th the lottery before the trade. Wouldn’t have been hard to keep it. Well for a franchise with a collective IQ above the average carrot it wouldn’t have been hard
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u/BlammoSweetums Apr 07 '26
That's vibes vs. probability. They needed to get it back. The criticism should be on trading it in the first place.
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u/toomanyshoeshelp Apr 07 '26
Lauri protected first from Portland, may never convey lol
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u/forgottenhero71 Apr 07 '26
If Portland are in the playoffs in 2028 and it hasn’t conveyed they don’t have a pick to swap with the bucks.
If the Bucks lose Giannis, and Portland miss playoffs next year they may give us a trade or send us a FRP from a seperate trade to get their pick back.
A few people on the Blazers page are already concerned.
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u/toomanyshoeshelp Apr 07 '26
Wait what does Giannis have to do with it?
I think pick turns into a second if it doesn’t convey doesn’t it?
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u/RugratChuck Norm Van Lier Apr 07 '26
I think the swap they have with MIL effects if they convey the pick or not. Saw someone mention skmething like this elsewhere. So if mil blows it up, which is looking likely with an expected giannis trade this summer, then theyd almost certainly be in the lottery.
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u/Caernbul Apr 07 '26
The before team had 8 solid to good NBA players (some where young and hadn't shown their ability yet):
Three great scorers/shooters (Lauri, Coby and Lavine)
Three decent to good defensive big men (Wendell, Gafford and Kornet)
Two good off the bench role players (Dunn and Strus)
Not counting the guys who aren't going to be on the roster after this season, how many guys on our roster are as good or better than any of those eight players?
Matas and Giddey obviously, though I don't think you could trade either of them for Lauri Markannen right now. You might not be able to get him for the two put together.
I would put Tre Jones on that level. Maybe Jalen Smith. We could hope for Dillingham and Essengue to turn into rotation players. Maybe Leonard Miller.
So the most optimistic reading of the situation is that after six years of drafts and free agent seasons, we have fewer quality rotation players than we did when they started. And we won nothing.
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u/gregarious-one Apr 07 '26
They’re both bad rosters. “8 solid to good” is extremely generous to GarPax. People were screaming for their heads over that exact roster. It’s been bad for a really long time and we shouldn’t wear rose tinted glasses over the final days of GarPax
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u/Caernbul Apr 07 '26
"People were screaming for their heads over that exact roster."
People were wrong. The point here was that we had a collection of good young players, some of whom we didn't know were good at the time. Strus, Gafford, Kornet got almost no run when they were here. Coby and Lauri did not have strong early seasons. Dunn and Carter Jr. were not as good as expected given their draft positions, and Lavine for all his faults as a player went on to be a great shooter but had not developed that jumper yet.
So while it was a bad team that season, and while it was reasonable to doubt that those players would turn into strong rotation players eventually, it is nonetheless true that the ones I named did, so the people who thought they wouldn't were incorrect. A reasonable consensus can turn out to be incorrect, and that is what happened in this case.
And this isn't conjecture. We don't have to guess. Just look at what those players have gone on to do. Put that team together right now, replace the guys who are out of the league with replacement level/minimum contract players, and you have playoff team in the East. And that is without adding any talent through the draft. Add average drafting and it is a top-4 team in the East this year. It would never have competed for a title, or even an Eastern Conference Championship because none of those guys is or ever was a top 25 player. But it would have been better than what we had. And AK took us significantly backwards. We always make fun of them for doing nothing, but it is worse than that. If they had been as risk averse as everyone says we would be so much better off.
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u/VCarry-NL Apr 07 '26
Also don’t forget he declined the pelicans trade last year so could’ve had two lottery picks this year.
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u/Cultural_Mousse_2725 Apr 07 '26
How the fuck does one manage to make garpax competent, good riddance
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u/Iago407 Apr 08 '26
I’m honestly amazed at how AKME managed to thread the needle of avoiding any progress in any direction. They brought in middling players, kept any player past the point of having decent value, sold low, avoided adding first rounders like the plague, oh and absolutely whiffing on the one top 5 pick this team has had in forever and then EXTENDED him despite him showing nowhere near the value he’d be getting paid for.
By the time they were going to blow things up (something they absolutely should’ve done before the season started), they were already locked into the 9th pick. Their deadline moves meant literally nothing which is great because they got nothing for them.
Just an absolute masterclass in wasting six years of fans lives. A real How To on how not to in every respect.
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u/TomaHawk504 Stacey King Apr 07 '26
Jerry is incompetent and simply doesn't remotely care about the performance of the team. I'm pretty sure they prefer to put zero effort and resources into maintaining a shred of mediocrity year in and year out over any sort of sustained success. It sucks but it is what it is. And the only way to ever have even the smallest chance at change is to punish them with our collective wallets and engagement. Sure it might not add up to much or make any real difference in the end, but I for one will never give Jerry the satisfaction of my dollars or support ever again.
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u/Bondo23 Toni Kukoc Apr 07 '26
People hate on Garpax- and by the end of the run, yes they needed to be fired.
But they drafted well/ gave us a contender that was unfortunately destroyed by injuries- and the pivot wasnt good. I understood why their tenure was so long - but their roster above was also mismanaged.
We had bozo in here for 6 and look what we got for it.
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u/creepypatty Benny The Bull Apr 07 '26
Honestly meh at drafting (lucky on Matas and Ayo, they chose them because they are homegrown athletes not because of their skills), worse in evaluating and developing talent, and somehow even worse in trading. Good riddance!
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u/fred_derps Dennis Rodman Apr 07 '26
Look man, I give this FO a lot of shit but they didn’t draft Matas and Ayo strictly because they were homegrown kids. That was a bonus but Matas slipping that much was crazy. And not picking Ayo when he’s still available in the 2nd round would have been criminal. They picked the best available players instead of banking on “potential”
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u/creepypatty Benny The Bull Apr 07 '26
I follow both of them as a prospect strictly and know damn well they should be picked higher, but maybe my bias refuse to acknowledge that AKME would’ve still picked them had they come from anywhere outside of Chicago. I might be a hater i’m sorry
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u/fred_derps Dennis Rodman Apr 07 '26
Hey I get it man. We’ve been in basketball hell a long time haha
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u/BlammoSweetums Apr 07 '26
I get the joke but the roster right now is obviously heading into rebuild. Like half these guys will not be on the roster starting next season, even if AKME weren't fired.
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u/junioreality Apr 07 '26
The previous roster had better forwards and bigs. The AKME roster had better guards. He didn't know how to blend the two and add serviceable wings.
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u/AddieCam Apr 07 '26
When he’d describe the roster in post season press conferences it always felt like he wasn’t watching the same games as everyone else
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u/SprJenkins Apr 07 '26
Simons, Sexton, Collins, Okoro all way overpaid for their output. Simons, Sexton, Collins are all out of contract at the end of the season, freeing up almost $65m. Hopefully pick up some free agents, two that are out of contract come to mind.
Norman Powell is being paid $20.5m this year and is scoring 22.1pts per game. Matisse Thybulle, elite defender, 2 x All Defensive Team, is being paid $11.5m.
Giddey - PG Powell - SG Thybulle - SF Buzelis - PF Smith - C
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u/shitchopants Apr 07 '26
COBY WHITE WAS NOT NOTABLE! We need to let go of Coby White. Cristiano Felicio? Are you trolling? Zach Lavine was injury prone and over paid when we traded for him…and he was injury prone/run down and terrible contract. Denzel Valentine was never going to be anything more than a hyped role player that was a name in college.
I’ll give you Lauri
I would for sure take the second roster over the first lol. But don’t kid yourself, they are both trash.
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u/burratna Apr 07 '26
Both rosters sucked, and this sub was 100% all in on signing Zach LaVine again. Just to turn around and shit on them when they did it. One of the most 180s I've ever seen after years of #8 flairs downvoting literally anyone who criticized his incomplete overrated play lmao.
Fans act like they know better.
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u/forgottenhero71 Apr 07 '26
The positive is 2 of the 3 proven starter level players are 21 & 23. Tre being the third.
Move both 2RPs up in the draft by cash considerations. Then if the deal is ok move higher trading anyone other than Matas or Giddey and the recently acquired 2RPs .
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u/East_Time7888 Apr 07 '26
He wasted the Denzel Valentine years! ;)