MILWAUKEE — The Chicago Bulls might be bracing for a nosedive. After years of relative reticence at the NBA trade deadline, executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas came into this week swinging. The Bulls pulled the trigger on five trades between Saturday and Wednesda y, picking up five second-round draft picks, three new guards and two new forwards while parting ways with Coby White, Nikola Vučević, Kevin Huerter and Dalen Terry. Related Articles Column: A well-timed escape for Chicago Bulls’ Nikola Vučević — and other thoughts while waiting for Bad Bunny Chicago Bulls’ flurry of NBA trade deadline activity includes moving ‘always available’ Nikola Vučević NBA trade deadline: Is Coby White the Chicago Bulls’ highest-value asset? ‘It’s good to be wanted.’ Ayo Dosunmu has been a stabilizing force for the Chicago Bulls. Is he also one of their best trade assets? Bulls fans aren’t quite accustomed to this much deadline action. And looking at the current state of the roster might evoke an automatic reaction: “What the hell?” But for the Bulls front office, there’s a purpose to the strangeness. The Bulls entered this crucial trade window with eight expiring contracts on their books. Only a few of those players — Ayo Dosunmu and White — were considered serious candidates for re-signing or an extension. Essentially, the Bulls carry a wealth of cap space with the ability to take on money from other teams while reaping as much value as possible from players who were already on their way out. There are two ways to use this type of positioning at the deadline. The most straightforward approach is to ship off expiring players for second-round picks or comparable players set to become restricted free agents, such as acquiring Jaden Ivey from the Detroit Pistons and Collin Sexton from the Charlotte Hornets. But the other approach is more subtle: offloading genuinely productive players to prevent the Bulls from winning just enough games to squeak into the play-in tournament. Tanking does not happen by demanding coaches or players to lose games on purpose. There may be a scant handful of examples of this strategy being applied in other markets, but in Chicago, it always has been clear that this burden can’t be placed on the men actually playing the game. These players care. Coach Billy Donovan cares. None of them wants to lose, even if it clearly — and logically — helps the team in the long term. Executives are the ones who tank teams. They do so by trading the right players at the right time to ensure a team’s competitiveness dips low enough to guarantee losses. And Karnišovas appeared to pull that lever Tuesday, moving two Bulls anchors to create a talent vacuum in the roster. Heading into this week, the front office felt more willing at the deadline than in prior seasons to make the type of “losing moves” that could ultimately benefit the Bulls in the draft. This marks a significant shift away from the team’s prior strategy for midseason roster management, embracing pragmatism to take a step (however small) backward with the intention of long-term improvement. This is not the type of thing that can be done halfway. If the Bulls don’t complete their intended moves this week — which could include offloading Dosunmu — they could end up in the unfortunate purgatory of being pretty bad. Pretty bad teams are essentially unwatchable but still not quite abysmal enough to drop out of the play-in tournament and secure a top-eight (or top-four) draft pick. Pretty bad is the stuff that mires a team in mediocrity. Pretty bad is the mind killer. As underwhelming as this season has been, the Bulls are still stuck in the pretty bad sector of the league. But with Karnišovas’ work this week, their season is beginning to trend in the right direction — especially after trading White to the Hornets. A fan cheers to get on the big screen in the third quarter during a game between the Bulls and 76ers on Dec. 26, 2025, at the United Center. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune) With Tuesday’s dismal loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, the 24-27 Bulls fell to 10th place in the Eastern Conference. The Hornets are only one game behind with a full head of steam to push for play-in position. The Bulls are embracing this challenger with open arms by handing them their leading scorer in White, a guard who will immediately round out the Charlotte starting lineup. Few moves signal a team is committed to a tank job more than sending an 18.6 points-per-game scorer to the team chasing them for the last spot in the postseason. The Bulls also have sunk to the 13th-worst record in the NBA. That makes them bad, but not bad enough. In their current standings as the second-to-last team in the lottery, the Bulls hold only a 4.8% chance at landing a top-four pick in the draft (and only 1% odds of landing the No. 1). But they still stand only 3½ games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies, who are tied for eighth-worst in the league. Closing the gap on those teams would boost the Bulls’ odds of picking in the top four above 20%. The Bulls might never catch up to true tankers such as the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards, but there’s still plenty of value in improving their odds by losing a handful more games than expected. There’s a reason tanking isn’t popular. Losing isn’t fun. Rooting for a team to lose is even less fun. It’s painful even when it’s on purpose. And ultimately, this tactic still comes down to luck, a fact teams such as the Utah Jazz have cursed after years of failed tank jobs. If the Bulls execute this plan effectively, this version of losing doesn’t have to last long. That’s the whole point of using expiring-contract acquisitions to force a late-season collapse. The Bulls have not hindered themselves with any bad money deals that will last after this season. In the summer, they will be open for business to embark on another round of trades and free-agent pitches to build on that younger timeline. And with a little lottery luck, this team could be on track to resemble a youth-focused rebuild rather than cycling through mini “retooling” projects ad nauseam. Most importantly, for the first time in a long time, the Bulls finally have a burst of momentum that actually matches the stated goals of the front office. But first, Karnišovas has to finish the job. Start counting down the seconds to 2 p.m. Thursday. ...read more read less