The Chicago Bulls ended the 2024-25 regular season Sunday in relative anonymity.
Standings were set in the Eastern Conference by the end of Friday, leaving little to play for in Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Philadelphia 76ers. The Bulls played all their available starters for the first half to prepare for Wednesday’s play-in tournament game against the Miami Heat, allowing the secondary rotation to handle the second half for a 122-102 win.
What stood out most on Sunday, however, was the mundane uniformity of this season’s results. The Bulls finished the 2024-25 season with the exact same record (39-43) and the exact same standing (ninth in the Eastern Conference) as the prior season.
Nothing and everything have changed. The roster is overhauled. The goals are different. And yet, the results remain identical. So what — if anything — can be learned about a season that is simultaneously so familiar and transformative?
Here are seven takeaways from the 2024-25 season.
1. An era is over.
It might not have been an ideal ending. But the Bulls front office finally ripped off the bandage and blew up the former core, trading Zach LaVine at the deadline after parting with Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan last summer.
Did the Bulls get enough in return for the bulk of their former stars? Probably not. But they finally took the hard and messy first step of establishing a new identity for this Bulls roster.
2. Josh Giddey is here to stay.
Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey grabs a rebound during the second half of a game against the Miami Heat at the United Center on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/Chicago Tribune)
Josh Giddey’s numbers after the trade deadline jumped off the page — he averaged 21.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 9.3 assists while shooting a ridiculous 45.7% from 3-point range in his last 19 games. But the guard also started the season as a disastrous shooter and defender who balanced gorgeous assists with boneheaded giveaways.
In such a small sample size, it’s hard for the Bulls to define which version of the guard is the “real Giddey.”
The guard’s current injury status certainly won’t help answer that question. The Bulls needed to utilize the postseason to assess Giddey’s ability to impact meaningful games, but he will be playing through a forearm injury — if he’s cleared for the play-in tournament at all.
That likely won’t impact decision-making for the Bulls. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas has been bullish on Giddey since he executed a rare player swap trade for Caruso last summer. Giddey is expected to return on a long-term deal with the Bulls next season. The only uncertainty is the price tag.
3. Matas Buzelis is the real deal.
The Bulls landed one of the steals of the 2024 draft by grabbing Matas Buzelis at No. 11. The rookie’s development was arguably the best omen for the future to come out of this Bulls season.
Buzelis is still defining what his ceiling will be as an NBA player. But his floor is relatively high. He’s a solid defender and an elite shot-blocker. His creativity on offense is balanced with promising efficiency from the 3-point arc. And, of course, the dunks speak for themselves.
Will he develop into a true centerpiece star? At age 20, it’s too early to tell. But landing and developing Buzelis showcases how this front office can begin to mold success in Chicago.
4. The kids are the future.
With the clear exception of Patrick Williams, every young player in the Bulls organization took a substantial leap in his respective development this season. Coby White recorded career-highs in points per game, total free throws and overall shooting percentage. Ayo Dosunmu elevated himself as the anchor of the secondary unit. Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips showed improved reliability off the bench. Giddey shored up his defense.
The blueprint for the Bulls is simple: develop the young core while consistently stocking up on higher-level talent through the draft until the roster is competitively advantageous enough to sell a star in free agency. If, along the way, the Bulls can hit on a true star in the draft, even better.
5. Drafting is still not a priority.
The problem for the Bulls is the incongruity between the last two points and the actions of the front office.
At no point this season did the Bulls prioritize their draft stock over perceived competitiveness for a play-in tournament slot. The team refused to tank at any turn, stressing the importance of developing their young core through the regular season.
This was the main reason the Bulls wanted to re-secure full rights to their 2025 draft pick in the LaVine trade. And Karnišovas will no doubt laud that decision when the Bulls land one of the last picks in the draft lottery this year.
Karnišovas has never wanted to play the draft lottery game. Whether that changes over the next two seasons will be a crucial test of how quickly the Bulls can execute a rebuild — if at all.
6. Lonzo Ball can’t be a building block.
Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball goes up for a basket during the third quarter against the Los Angeles Clippers at the United Center Wednesday Feb. 26, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
The best story for the Bulls this season — without a doubt — was the return of Lonzo Ball. Every player, coach and executive in the NBA agrees that the league and the sport is better with Ball on the court. And his ability to return from a still highly unprecedented knee cartilage transplant reflects a considerable step forward in sports medicine that could pave the way for improved longevity for athletes from a variety of backgrounds.
That doesn’t erase the fact that Ball played only 35 games due to an unrelated wrist injury. He was never able to emerge from a minutes restriction, mostly due to the lack of playing time. This new injury contributed to a career-long tendency toward fragility. Ball has never played more than 63 games in a season and averages only 58% availability — even when excluding his last two seasons on the sidelines.
This doesn’t mean the Bulls should give up on Ball. Extending him on a team-friendly deal will allow them to continue rehabbing the guard, either as a veteran leader for a young roster or as a trade asset at the next deadline. But Ball should no longer be counted on as a building block as the front office shifts its focus to the long term.
7. Mediocrity is too easy.
There’s one main reason the Bulls keep repeating the same results: it’s relatively not hard.
The Eastern Conference is not competitive. Two teams will advance into the first round of the playoffs through the play-in tournament with a sub-500 record. In any given year, at least three programs are aggressively tanking for a lottery pick.
And that means teams in the East need to adjust their perspective. Making the play-in tournament is not a great achievement. Frankly, neither is advancing via the play-in tournament. So even if this is the year the Bulls return to the playoffs — and even if they take a game or two off the Cleveland Cavaliers in that series — this season has not been a success.
Does Karnišovas see it that way? And will that outlook impact decision-making in the draft, free agency and beyond? The answers to those two questions will define the start of a new era for the franchise.