My guy Ricky was on 670TheScore before the lottery and when asked if not winning a top pick would be a failure, astutely summed up everything in saying “the Bulls are already a massive failure”.
The opportunity for a top-1 (or if generous, top-3) selection wouldn’t actually validate anything about the latest in John Paxson’s many team building paths, it was more of a get-out-of-jail-free card. It meant that, like 2008, poor decision-making and planning were obfuscated by a transcendent talent.
Now that such a selection isn’t happening, we’re just stuck with these bad moves, generated by effortless outdated processes.