The headlines of the day happened long before the Chicago Bulls’ disheartening loss against the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Bulls stood pat at the trade deadline. In a rare media cameo, executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson justified the decision by saying the Bulls still don’t know what they have in Year 3 of their rebuild, so they didn’t want to trade any core parts away.
Like the Bulls’ trade deadline exploits, their effort in a 125-119 loss against the Pelicans were mostly lifeless, at least until two-way player Adam Mokoka started going wild in garbage time.