It’s official: the Chicago Bulls are eliminated from Play-In contention, and for the first time in a handful of years we’re not getting any version of “postseason” at all. With nine games left, I asked the real question—what was the point of this season? When I look back at the preseason questions I had, most of the answers ended up being “no.” No playoffs, no All-Stars, no extensions for certain guys. But there were a couple important “yes” answers, and those matter if this season was really a factory reset. To me, the point was AK finally realizing he had to move on from this version of the roster and clear the deck. Even though we didn’t get a first-round pick back for moving pieces, the Bulls are walking into an asset-rich offseason with flexibility: cap space (about $22M under the first tax apron), a $20M trade exception, and potentially multiple picks in the top 35. And now the only “locked-in” starters are Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis—everything else is adjustable, including finally addressing the fact we don’t have a real starting-caliber center. I also talked about whether real changes are coming—Billy Donovan possibly walking away, and rumblings about front office shakeups. And while there’s been a lot of negativity, there were bright spots: Matas taking a real step (elite isolation defense), Giddey proving March wasn’t a fluke, Leonard Miller showing he can be productive with minutes, and vets like Trey Jones and Jalen Smith being positives or potential trade value. Now it’s on AK to use the flexibility the right way.