Chicago Bulls Star Reveals Major Reason for Team’s Downfall

The Chicago Bulls have been a disappointing team for the past few seasons

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine (8) celebrates a three point basket against the Indiana Pacers with forward DeMar DeRozan (11) and center Nikola Vucevic (9) during the second half at United Center. Mandatory Credit: / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

During the 2021-22 NBA season, the Chicago Bulls looked like a promising team with a bright future in the league. Ever since then, the team finished each season worse and worse, with them ultimately on the verge of blowing the roster up now.

Chicago Bulls All-Star Nikola Vucevic believes he knows the reason why the team has struggled. In his eyes, one of the major reasons was the injury of Lonzo Ball. During an interview with Meridian Sport, Vucevic opened up about the Bull's recent downfall.

“Since Lonzo Ball’s injury, we haven’t been able to achieve the results we could have," Vucevic said. "It disrupted us a lot. When he played, we were at the top of the East for a while, which maybe wasn’t a realistic result, even though we were playing well, but with him, we would have fought for anything between third and sixth place in the end. The rest of us focus more on scoring: LaVine, DeRozan, and me. He brought us all together, sped up the game, meant a lot on defense, guarding the best players with Caruso."

LONZO BALL TO ALEX CARUSO WOW.@NBCSChicago | @ACFresh21 pic.twitter.com/WaYSFhBdNu

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) October 23, 2021

It wasn't just Lonzo Ball's injury that affected the Bulls, Vucevic believes it was also the constant trade talks surrounding the team. What makes that even worse, is that the Bulls didn't even trade any of their players until just this offseason, essentially self-sabotaging themselves the past few season.

"Although [Lonzo's] numbers might not have been impressive, he meant a lot to us," Caruso said. "We tried with young players, and then we had numerous injuries. Trade talks also affected us, preventing us from achieving the results we thought we could, but when results don’t follow, changes come… DeRozan left, Caruso left, the team got younger, and they wanted to go in a different direction."

As it stands, the Chicago Bulls are not any better than they are now, than they were last season. However, the team is now completely caught in a limbo between tanking and trying to raise assets to tank in the future.