Charles Barkley on Bulls' Situation: ‘You Got to Start Over'

NBA Hall of Famer on Bulls: 'You got to start over' originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

The Bulls have found themselves in a head-scratching, near panic-button-hitting dilemma just before the NBA trade deadline next week. 

They sit below .500, holding a 24-27 record. With the 10th-place spot in the Eastern Conference, they barely crawl into the playoff scene. 

Based on the Bulls' performance this season, one NBA Hall of Famer/TV analyst believes it's time to call it quits on the roster, starting with Zach LaVine. 

"You need to move Zach LaVine," Charles Barkley said on NBA on TNT. "They are not going anywhere. You got to start over. You can't play to be in the 8th seed and the play-in."

As NBC Sports Chicago's K.C. Johnson referenced in his mailbag, LaVine and Nikola Vučević have a negative rating on the floor in every season they've played together since the Bulls acquired the big man during the 2020-21 deadline. 

Will the Bulls deal the face of their franchise before the end of the first year of his freshly penned deal?

The NBA trade deadline is less than a week away, giving the Bulls a window to start fresh before heading into what could be a transformative offseason. 

Reports have shown the Bulls have interested suitors for LaVine, who signed a five-year, $215 million maximum extension this past summer.

MORE: Report: Zach LaVine 'no shortage of suitors' for trade

Bulls' management has preached the togetherness of the current group by way of "continuity." Last season was the first true season the Bulls had the opportunity of viewing the pieces they brought into the organization i.e. Nikola Nikola Vučević, DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso, Lonzo Ball, etc.

However, injuries to Ball, Caruso, Patrick Williams, and others caused a fatal variable in the experiment, and forced management to run another trial this season. 

It hasn't worked. As aforementioned, the Bulls are near the bottom of the Eastern Conference and hold the seventh-worst record in the association. 

Some believe Ball's extensive knee injury – which has forced him off the floor for over a year – is a factor in the team's output this season. However, other pundits and outsiders, like Barkley, believe the experiment is an overall failure.

Is it time to call it quits?

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