🚨 NBA TEAMS EMBRACE THE TANKING TREND: Bulls and Others Begin Shifting Focus to the Future👇

As the NBA season heads into the final stretch, the league’s tanking issue is front and center. Among the teams with the most challenging remaining schedules, the Chicago Bulls stand out, sitting at number four with the toughest road ahead. But, what’s even more telling is that Chicago is the only team among the top 10 with a schedule so daunting that isn’t currently in the playoff picture. This means their post-All-Star break battles are likely going to be filled with a lot of “L’s.”

Despite having shown some resilience against teams above .500 this season, this Bulls squad is a completely different team compared to earlier in the year. What was once a promising unit has now been overhauled with the largest trade deadline influx in the NBA, adding seven new players, while parting ways with eight players — the most departures of any team. With this roster overhaul, comparing their past performances, especially against quality opponents, has become nearly impossible.

The New Look Bulls

The changes in Chicago’s lineup make this team a different animal. It’s a fresh start for them, with continuity and cohesion now at the forefront of the team’s challenges. With a newly constructed roster, Billy Donovan’s squad now finds itself not only struggling to find its groove but also enduring the most unique type of tanking — a soft tank.

In this phase, while the Bulls will still play hard every game, the lack of a cohesive unit and glaring talent shortages will likely lead to more losses than wins. But Chicago’s soft tank isn’t something unique to them — they’re just one example in a growing trend across the league. Teams like Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards, after adding top-tier talent, have already started making it clear that their immediate focus is not on playoffs, but on improving their draft positioning.

Tanking Across the NBA

While some teams like Utah and Washington are openly engaging in a “hard tank” strategy, the Bulls’ version is more nuanced but essentially the same. The Jazz, despite leading Orlando Magic by 17 points late into the third quarter, ultimately lost after benching key additions, including Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen for the entire fourth quarter. A similar situation unfolded for the Wizards, who acquired big names like Trae Young and Anthony Davis, but neither player has seen any game action since their arrival. Washington’s long-term plans clearly don’t involve these new stars this season.

It’s easy to criticize tanking strategies, but the issue has only become more pronounced after the NBA flattened the draft lottery odds back in 2019. With the bottom three teams now each having a 14.0 percent chance to land the No. 1 overall pick, and teams lower in the lottery still holding a viable shot at landing a high selection, the temptation to tank has only increased.

Just last season, we saw the Dallas Mavericks surge from 11th to 1st in the lottery, and the San Antonio Spurs went from 8th to 2nd. The chance to land a franchise-altering talent like Cooper Flagg (who went No. 1 last season) is still fresh in the minds of NBA front offices. This year’s draft is stacked with multiple top-tier prospects, including Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, and AJ Dybantsa, who could easily be the No. 1 pick in a normal year. The prospects are too promising to ignore, and with fewer than 30 games left in the regular season, teams like the Bulls will only lean into their tanking strategies further.

Soft Tanking: What It Means for the Bulls

For the Chicago Bulls, the trade deadline was a critical moment. While the phrase “competitive integrity” has been a favorite mantra of Bulls’ decision-maker Artūras Karnišovas, it was clear that the team was prioritizing the future instead of continuing the cycle of Play-In appearances. Chicago is no longer clinging to the hope of sneaking into the playoffs — a reality that many fans have criticized for years.

Now, the focus is on building for the long term. The Bulls’ approach in the remaining games will include experimenting with different lineups, keeping players who are nursing injuries sidelined longer than usual, and prioritizing draft positioning over a playoff push. This is soft tanking, but make no mistake: the goal is the same as the “hard tank” teams — improved draft positioning and a future star.

With the emergence of tanking strategies as a league-wide trend, Chicago finds itself in the company of several teams that are essentially waiting for the draft to reshape their futures. Whether it’s in Utah, Washington, or beyond, tanking is on the rise, and Chicago is at the forefront of this wave.