The Bulls have had a not-so-great history in the 2000s where they have not seen anything close to the success of the Jordan Bulls. So in this article, we will be covering the history of the Chicago Bulls since the 2013-2014 Season. Let's jump straight into it.
2013-2014 Season:
The Season begins with the Bulls having a core of Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, and Mike Dunleavy(picked up in the off-season). The Bulls would go into December only 7-8 and struggling, but after a 3 Game losing streak, the Bulls decide to sign D.J. Augustin who would go on to play 61 Games for them. The Bulls continue their lackluster season come January and end up deciding to move on from Luol Deng. Deng is traded to the Cavaliers in return for Andrew Bynum(Waived), 2015 2nd(Sir'Dominic Pointer), 2016 2nd(Paul Zipser), and a 2017 2nd(Jordan Bell). Fast Forward to March 2nd, the Bulls are above .500(33-26) and decide to sign guard Jimmer Fredette for the remainder of the season. The Bulls stay around this win% until a 7 Game Win Streak leads them to a 48-34 Record. The Bulls enter the playoffs in round 1 facing the Washington Wizards. This Wizards team led by John Wall ended up being too much for the Bulls who would go out in 5. The 5th Game of the series was a 75-69 loss, disappointing way to go out. In the Draft, the Bulls with 2 1st round picks drafted Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris respectively. While these draft picks look great on paper for non-lottery picks, the Bulls would decide to trade both of them to Denver for Doug McDermott and Anthony Randolph.
2014-2015 Season:
The Bulls go in during the off-season as they waive 4 players including Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer. These waives created roster spots for newly signed Nikola Mirotic and former All-Star Center Pau Gasol. Starting off the season, the Bulls go 12-8 in their 1st 20 games. The Bulls stay quiet with roster moves and finish off their season 50-32. Jimmy Butler and recently signed Pau Gasol both are named all-stars this season. The 3 Seed Bulls take on the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1st Round where they end up winning in 6 games. In the 2nd Round, the Bulls take on the Cavs in what I believe is the best series in the playoffs. The Bulls go into game 3 1-1 in the series, the game ends up going until the buzzer, where an inbound pass to Derrick Rose leads to one of those most iconic game-winners in Bulls History(image above). The Bulls go into game 4 with all the momentum and in the 4th Quarter, it is once again a close game. At 84-82, a Cavs turnover leads to a Rose game-tying layup with 8.5 secs left. Then in one of the dumbest moments in NBA History, David Blatt signaled to call a timeout for the Cavs but he had no timeouts left. What this should lead to is a technical foul for the Cavs which leads to 1ft for the Bulls and possession of the ball back, effectively ending the game. Miraculously, the ref "doesn't see him" so he never gets that technical foul. All of this leads to a Lebron game-winning shot to make the series tied up again. The Cavs end up taking Games 5 and 6 and then go on to beat Atlanta in 4 to make the finals. Truly, if the refs see this timeout call, I believe the Chicago Bulls make the NBA finals vs the Warriors and have a good chance of winning. Following another playoff disappointment, the Bulls fired head coach Tom Thibodeau and hire Fred Hoiberg. Headed into the draft the Bulls hold the 22nd Pick, which they go on to select Bobby Portis.
2015-2016:
The Bulls once again start the season with a similar roster. The Bulls main off-season move was locking up Jimmy Butler on a multi-year deal. Expectations this season weren't as high as in previous years but playoffs were a good possibility for the Bulls. In their 1st 20 games, the Bulls go 12-8 and still look mediocre.
Looking to make something happen, the Bulls trade Kirk Hinrich in a 3-team deal that sends him to the Atlanta Hawks, Justin Holiday to the Bulls, and Shelvin Mack to the Jazz. In another disappointing year for Chicago, despite being above .500, the Bulls miss the playoffs in a year that they had a good chance of making it. In the off-season, the core was blown up.
June 22, 2016, while Derrick Rose is doing an interview, he gets a call telling him he's been traded to the New York Knicks. Rose proceeds to start tearing up after this news, he goes back to the interview saying he's shocked. The full trade was Derrick Rose, Justin Holiday, and a 2017 2nd to the Knicks in return for Jose Calderon, Jerian Grant, and Robin Lopez. This trade effectively ended the Rose era in Chicago. The Bulls had the 14th Pick in the 2016 Draft, which they would use on Denzel Valentine.
2016-2017:
In the off-season, the Bulls give it one last go to make a playoff run by signing both Rajon Rondo and Dwayne Wade to multi-year deals. With Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol both walking, the Chicago Bulls had a new team to build around for the future. Starting the season 3-0 there was some hope for Bulls fans that this team was the next era for Chicago. Sadly this does not last, and come February, the Bulls are 29-29. Needing to make some sort of move, the Chicago Bulls traded Taj Gibson, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 2nd(Mitchell Robinson) to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Cameron Payne and Anthony Morrow. The mediocre season continues and the Bulls have a 41-41 record at the end of it. Being the 8 seed, the expectation was a 1st round exit, but the Bulls were fighters. The Bulls had gone up 2-0 on the 1st Seed Celtics and had all the momentum going back to the United Center. Sadly, nothing ever goes well for Chicago as point guard Rajon Rondo fractured his finger and went out for the series. This proceeded to the bulls losing 4 in a row and being eliminated. Now the Bulls have the decision to make, run it back with the aging roster or commit to a tank. The Bulls chose the latter and come draft time, the Chicago Bulls sent Jimmy Butler and 16th Pick Justin Patton to the Timberwolves for Kris Dunn, Zach Lavine, and Lauri Markannen. Bulls later waived Rajon Rondo.
2017-2018:
In the off-season, the Bulls kept relatively quiet, with the biggest moves being signing Nikola Mirotic and waiving Dwayne Wade. The Bulls went into the regular season with very low expectations, but somehow they were even worse than thought. Through 23 games the Bulls were 3-20 looking like one of if not the worst team in basketball. But surprisingly they started to win going 15-13 from December 6th to February 1st. Seeing as they were winning too often the Bulls made some moves to try and change that, sending Nikola Mirotic and a 2018 2nd to the Pelicans for Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Omer Asik, and a 2018 1st. Days later, they sent Jameer Nelson and a 2022 2nd to Detroit for Willie Reed and a 2022 2nd. Chicago ended up finishing the season 27-55 and looked to build their future through the draft. In the lottery, the Bulls ended up landing the 7th Pick, which they would use on Center Wendell Carter Jr. Also, the 2018 1st received from the Pelicans trade, ended up being the 22nd Pick, which the Bulls would use on Chandler Hutchinson.
2018-2019:
Once again the Bulls have a quiet off-season, resigning RFA Zach Lavine and signing Jabari Parker. Now come December 3rd, the Bulls are once again around the same record as last year being 5-20. But this year, they make the drastic decision to fire Fred Hoiberg and sign Jim Boylen as the new head coach. A move that would go down in Bulls history as one of the worst moves of all time. From this point, the Bulls go 5-8 headed into January and decided to trade Justin Holiday to Memphis for Wayne Selden, Marshon Brooks, a 2019 2nd, and a 2020 2nd. The Bulls continue trading, sending Tadija Dragićević to Houston for Carmelo Anthony and cash. After waiving Carmelo, the Bulls sent a 2020 2nd to OKC for Timothe Luwawa-Cabarrot. And with the final trade of the season, the Bulls sent Jabari Parker, Bobby Portis, and a 2023 2nd for Otto Porter Jr. Otto Porter only ends up playing 15 games with the Bulls that season and continuing the tank fest, the Bulls ended the season 22-60, a worse record than last season. Now going into the draft, the Bulls have the 4th best odds at one, so it's expected they can't get a worse pick than last year. Well sadly, the Bulls get the 7th Pick, which they would end up using on Coby White. The Bulls also held the 38th Pick and would select Daniel Gafford.
2019-2020:
Now the Bulls still were not ready to go all in, so they stayed quiet in free agency signing Thaddeus Young and trading 2 2nds for Tomas Satoransky and a 2022 2nd. This season was weird in general, as covid had shut down the league with no signs of how it will come back. So with no basketball going, the Bulls and every other team in the NBA stayed pretty quiet with transactions. But, the Chicago Bulls stayed a little less quiet when they decided to fire Gar Foreman and hire Marc Eversley to be the new GM. When the NBA started back up in late July, the Bulls weren't invited due to their record being too low. But just because the Bulls weren't playing doesn't mean they weren't making moves. The Bulls ended up firing head coach Jim Boylen and picking up Billy Donovan to replace him. Now once again the Bulls head into the lottery hoping for a top 4 pick, and surprisingly they get it. The Bulls have the 4th and 44th Picks in the draft and end up selecting Patrick Williams and Marko Simonovic respectively.
2020-2021:
Starting the season, there was more hope for Bulls fans. Zach Lavine looked like an all-star caliber player and with a young core of Wendell Carter Jr, Patrick Williams, Coby White, and Lauri Markannen, the Bulls this season could make a playoff push. Now in usual Bulls fashion, they had a pretty quiet offseason not making any major signings. They would keep up this lack of moves until the NBA trade deadline. The day started small with the Bulls sending Daniel Gafford and Chandler Hutchinson to the Wizards and Luke Kornet to the Celtics, and receiving Troy Brown Jr, Daniel Theis, and Javonte Green. But then, the Bulls made a blockbuster deal, sending Center Wendell Carter Jr, Otto Porter Jr, a 2021 1st(Franz Wagner), and a 2023 1st in return for all-star Center Nikola Vucevic and Al-Farouq Aminu. Due to injuries and health protocols, the Bulls would miss the play-in by two games. Now in the draft, the Magic owned the Bulls 1st, but what the Bulls did still own was the 38th Pick which they would use on Ayo Dosunmu.
2021-2022:
This off-season would change everything for the Bulls as they would make the blockbuster move of signing and trading Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, 2 2nds, and a 2025 1st for all-star Demar DeRozan. They also would sign and trade Garret Temple, Tomas Satoransky, and a 2024 2nd for Lonzo Ball, and would sign Alex Caruso. The Bulls weren't finished making moves as they sent Lauri Markannen to Cleveland in a sign and trade that would see the Bulls receiving Derrick Jones Jr and a 2022 1st. The Bulls would end up going into January 23-10 and the 1st Seed in the NBA. Everything looked bright for Bulls fans until tragedy struck. On January 14th, Lonzo Ball went down with a meniscus tear that would leave him sidelined for the rest of the season. Even with this huge loss, the Bulls would end up retaking the 1st seed in February and looked good for the playoffs. Sadly when it comes to the Bulls, things don't end well. Despite Demar Derozan's MVP type season, Zach Lavine being an all-star and the rest of the roster looking nice. The Bulls would end the season a 6 Seed and would be facing the Defending Champion Milwaukee Bucks. This matchup wasn't just bad because they were the former champs, it was bad because we didn't have the defense to stop or even limit Giannis. The Bulls would lose the series in a measly 5 games. Once again, DeRozan was named DeFrozen after only averaging 20.8PTS(-7.1 from RS) on 41.1% FG(-9.3% from RS). It also didn't help that Zach Lavine averaged a poor 19.3PPG. The Bulls went into the draft with the 18th Pick, which they would use on Dalen Terry.
2022-2023:
In the off-season, the Bulls decide to bring in some vets in Goran Dragic and Andre Drummond. While the Bulls currently are 6-9, we will have to see how the season finishes to determine how good they are.
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