The Record: 15-67 (.183 winning percentage)
They finally completely embraced the rebuild. For the first two years after losing Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Steve Kerr and Luc Longley, the Bulls were still giving a ton of minutes to veterans. But in 2000-01, the only guy on the roster with more than three years of experience was Fred Hoiberg, who had five. Eight of the 16 guys who saw playing time were rookies. If you're going to be awful, at least figure out who you can either build around or get good ROI for on the trading block.
Five of those eight rookies were out of the league within three years. And while Marcus Fizer and Jake Voskuhl were able to hang around a bit longer than that, neither amounted to much. The only one who panned out was Jamal Crawford, and the Bulls dealt him to the New York Knicks (for next to nothing) right after the first of his 14 consecutive seasons averaging better than 12 points per game. By the time they made the playoffs in 2004-05, there was literally no one left from this 2000-01 roster.
Despite having the worst record, the Bulls got shafted in the lottery and ended up with the fourth pick in a draft in which Tyson Chandler and Pau Gasol went Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. Chicago ended up taking Eddy Curry with the fourth pick and then traded its best player (Elton Brand) to the Los Angeles Clippers for the rights to Chandler. And, like, he was a good player, but he was no Brand. In his five seasons with the Bulls, Chandler went for 7.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. In those same five years, Brand was a two-time All-Star who put up 20.4 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per contest in Los Angeles.
