It’s time for the Bulls to play the game.
Not just the 27 left on the regular-season schedule when the Association reconvenes on Wednesday, but what’s really going on in the bottom 10 of the standings.
Lose at all costs. And it shouldn’t be just a one-year philosophy for the teams in this zip code of the have nots, either.
The NBA All-Star Weekend was a nice little breather. A moment to reset and for teams to actually embrace what’s important. What should be important – and realistic – for Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas is to make sure he puts his organization in the best situation possible for the May 12 draft lottery.
“Competitive integrity” be damned.
The Bulls currently sit 8th in the pecking order of poor. There would be work to get done to get down to No. 6, falling below the likes of Philadelphia and Brooklyn, while making up Toronto’s five-game lead of being bad to capture No. 5 is a longshot at best.
Charlotte, Utah and New Orleans – each with 13 wins apiece – are pretty locked into that bottom four, while golf clap for Washington, who came into the season with a mission statement to be awful for not only this season, but next, and have pulled it off magnificently.
In a copycat league, Karnisovas and the rest of his front office should take a close look at the Wizards plan.
Whether the executive wants to admit it or not, the next two draft classes are his only way out of the mess that Karnisovas, himself, has built.
Detroit and Houston are just the two more recent models of tank, draft well, and watch the product advance, and it’s no secret to scouts from around the league what’s coming not only in Cooper Flagg and the 2025 class, but 2026.
First thing first, and what Flagg has been doing lately. In his last 10 games, he’s averaging 23.1 points, while calming down the concerns some scouts had with his three-point shot, shooting 21-of-46 (46%) from beyond the arc in that time.
He not only leads the Blue Devils in scoring, but rebounding (7.5 per game), assists (4.0), steals (1.6), and blocks (1.2).
No word yet on if he also drives the team bus to away games.
And it’s not Flagg’s skillset that has caused a team like the Wizards to be historically inept for just a 14% to hit on the No. 1 pick in the lottery. It’s his make-up. In talking to scouts and NBA personnel that know Flagg, his approach to the game and doing whatever it takes to impact winning is off the charts.
Combine his 6-foot-9 frame with a kid that is only 18, the skillset, and has that mindset? A bad team can get a seismic game-changer quickly.
But there’s three more reasons why the Washington plan is genius: Duke commit Cameron Boozer, BYU commit A.J. Dybantsa, and Kansas-bound Darryn Peterson.
Each of these players can be the No. 1 pick in ’26 and instantly turn a franchise around. The scary thing is there’s a strong debate on which one is even the top pick.
Dybansta is a freak athlete who can score from anywhere, Boozer (yes, son of former Bull Carlos Boozer and who also has a highly-ranked twin named Cayden) not only has NBA athleticism but NBA high IQ, and then there’s Peterson.
All the 6-5 guard has done this season is single-handedly put on shows against not only the Boozer twins – he dropped 33 points on them – but then took Dybansta to class with a 32-point, 10-rebound showing.
So while the Wizards have been a punchline for many this season, they may in fact be laughing last in a few years.
Hopefully, Karnisovas can start laughing alongside them.