After the Bulls got completely pantsed by the Timberwolves in trade talks and gave away their far-and-away best asset, both John Paxson and Gar Forman (Bulls management for life) met the media and, by proxy, the fanbase to try and justify their existence.

I’ll start by giving them very modest credit: at least Paxson in particular said they were indeed ‘rebuilding’. It wasn’t an ‘actually, this is retooling’ nonsense, or whatever contradictory garbage they’d been selling the past couple seasons now.

But that’s about it. Most of it was trash, because the trade was trash and this organization remains trash.

Now, the Bulls were already in a bad spot. It’s outright embarrassing that the team has done such a bad job managing the roster that it put a player as great as Butler on the trade block in the first place. But in the build-up of Jimmy Butler trade talks, the word was at least the Bulls were looking for a great package of players and picks. KC Johnson of the Tribune frequently used the term ‘certainty’.

That said, Bulls remain active in talks on Butler. Parameters haven't changed: Need players and certainty on high picks to commit to rebuild — K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) June 21, 2017

John Paxson used the same words after the trade (guess KC does have good sources!), and watching on the live stream they did so with a straight face.

But this wasn’t the return at all! Instead of the relative ‘certainty’ of a true blue-chip young player or top 5 draft pick, they got return that does not project highly at all. Unless that’s what they meant when saying ‘certainty’?

We’ll have a lot more on the individual return, but on initial glance:

Kris Dunn was a 4-year college player who is now 23 years old coming off an awful rookie season.

Zach Lavine showed breakout potential (after the Bulls passed on him after trading two firsts and 3 second-rounders to draft Doug McDermott), to be sure, but he’s coming back from an ACL surgery and won’t be available to start the season. And worse yet, he’s going into restricted free agency this summer. That’s right, a full year before Jimmy Butler would’ve, a timeline that apparently freaked the Bulls out to the point where they moved him for scrap. Heck we may see the Bulls be extra ‘cautious’ with Lavine’s recovery as to low-ball his future contract offer.

And then Lauri Markkanen, the 7th overall pick of this draft. Here’s a quick note from our draft expert on how Chicago even got the direction behind this pick incorrect:

Markkanen is fine, but he was my least favorite player in the top 10. If you're trading up, get Monk or Smith! Instead, goddamn Kris Dunn. — Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) June 23, 2017

Gar Forman tried to pump up their evaluation of Markkanen, but they never worked him out or conducted an interview, and given the impotence of the Bulls basketball operations they likely just found him by typing ‘NBA mock draft #7 pick’ into their AOL search bar.

And with the Bulls giving Minnesota the #16 pick, this was essentially the same deal that the Bulls were in conversation for last year. And since that time Butler only got better, and Lavine+Dunn only worse.

Pax says last year's Wolves offer wasn't a good enough deal, then backtracks and says it was never offered. — Stephen Noh (@StephNoh) June 23, 2017

John Paxson repeatedly self-owned himself late last night in saying this was the first worthwhile offer they received for Butler, and they took that first chance. We can’t ever be sure of what they turned down (or, ya know, just hang on to Butler...), because in their minds they think Kris Dunn is great value. But it was already looking bad when Minnesota talks were labeled ‘progressing’ yet Andrew Wiggins wasn’t even mentioned. And it’s particularly galling that they couldn’t even get a top-5 pick. At least try and sell De'Aaron Fox or somebody as a future star.

Say your scouting unearthed a stud even without a top 1-2 pick, because we know this team doesn’t pro scout. They confirmed it last season when calling Cameron Payne ‘a lottery pick’ after that terrible trade, and kept up similar nonsense again last night. Tom Ziller noticed, too:

The Bulls' front office sold this as getting three lottery picks for Butler. This is an outrageous abuse of language. LaVine was a late lottery pick ... three years ago. He'll be a free agent in another year. Kris Dunn, bless him, was the rare four-year college player who went in the lottery to a bad, young team and still didn't put up the numbers to make either All-Rookie team. That's bad. Plus, the Bulls threw in No. 16, which is awful close to the lottery! And there's nary a future pick in the deal. What an awful trade.

This front office showed once again to be a combination of incompetent and unlikable. To the latter, Gar hilariously had to deflect accusations of immorality from Jimmy Butler’s trainer. Then Paxson attacked the accuser for a lack of professionalism, which is rich coming from a guy who once choked a subordinate.

Paxson was also talking straight garbage when trying to justify outright selling their 2nd round pick as there being no wings left they wanted, with some confusing allusion to ‘roster flexibility’. The rosters don’t enforce a maximum until the start of the regular season. There’s going to be roster spots for 2-way contracts where prospects can have their rights owned yet play in the GLeague. This is no justification, outside of the Bulls not knowing what they’re doing. And we’re supposed to be excited over them ‘picking a lane’ when they execute this poorly?

This is a bad lane. The Bulls didn’t get a single player you could squint to say you’re ‘building around’. Thus they’re relying on internal player development, after last month acknowledging they were woeful at, AND not making any changes in coaching or management.

And they didn’t get a 2018 pick, to where we could root for other teams to fail. Paxson intimated that they hope to build through their own picks, which is alluding to tanking but not outright saying it. So think of that: the Bulls are trying to believe they got a good return for Butler, have a couple veterans worth still keeping (there was no talk of using Rondo’s contract, which pretty much only had worth on draft night), a roster that better fits their head coach (though I don’t think they even mentioned Fred last night, which is appropriate), but the actual result that Bulls fans need to hope for is their team to be terrible enough to get a top pick in next year’s draft. So, like, don’t actually hope the players they got are any good? I guess that won’t be too difficult since it’s very likely they won’t be.

And worse, I don’t even think the Bulls planned this route. They likely thought they did pretty darn well. If they get the top pick next year it’ll be due to luck, kind of like how Paxson admitted they were lucky to draft Jimmy Butler in the first place.

We really should look to veteran leader Dwyane Wade. While myself and a lot of you care a bit too much about this team, Wade has an enviable ability to not give a shit.

D.A.M.N haha. My Guy!!! #Morelife A post shared by dwyanewade (@dwyanewade) on Jun 22, 2017 at 5:48pm PDT

The Bulls are now the least talented team in the NBA. Both in breadth of player value, but also in any high-end prospect. Their best asset is a pick that only becomes great if they’re terrible. Their management can’t plan and are even worse at executing, plus everyone thinks they’re a joke.

Wade is on to something: more life, less Bulls.