“Do you think that you can still win that second championship here in Milwaukee after a third straight first-round exit?”

The question came after the Bucks’ season ended in Indianapolis on Tuesday night. Antetokounmpo is surely asking himself the same question right about now.

Antetokounmpo didn’t have a public answer for it following the 119-118 overtime, season-ending loss in Game 5 of Round 1 against Indiana. He probably doesn’t have a private answer to it, either. But he needs that answer sometime over the coming days or weeks, because he is now officially at the crossroads that plenty of superstars have reached over the years.

Stay or go?

Yes, a fair question — though it’s not really Antetokounmpo’s decision. He’s under contract to the Bucks for multiple seasons. Even if he asks for a trade, they don’t have to accommodate him.

It could be great for Antetokounmpo; he’d pick a new spot and that team would instantly be considered a title contender. It could be great for the Bucks; most teams after years of contending have to hit the reset button at some point anyway, and they could get a haul of players and picks to begin anew.

“I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to do this,” Antetokounmpo said in response to the question. “I know … whatever I say, I know how it’s going to translate. I don’t know, man. I wish I was still playing. I wish I was still competing and going back to Milwaukee. I don’t know.”

Here’s what might figure into the answer, whenever the time comes to formulate the real one: His place in Milwaukee lore is secure, he’s brought an NBA championship to the city, he won’t have Damian Lillard for much if not all of next season because of Lillard’s torn Achilles, his team just got eliminated in the first round for the third consecutive season and the Bucks aren’t exactly loaded with draft picks or easy ways to bolster their roster.

Antetokounmpo is in his prime. He’s about to finish in the top four of the voting for the NBA MVP award — a trophy he’s won twice — for the seventh consecutive year. He just averaged 30 points per game for the third year in a row, and if he had scored eight more measly points in the 2021-22 season it’d be four straight years of doing that. He just averaged at least 25 points and 10 rebounds for the eighth straight season; only Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone have more such seasons.

Antetokounmpo will want more, whether he’s in Milwaukee or elsewhere.

“There’s a lot of times that life has made me sad or frustrated since I was a kid. I never gave up,” Antetokounmpo said. “You know, I always try to find solutions in my life. I think it translates to the basketball court. I always try to, even though things might not happen the way I want it to happen. I always have class, and I have this optimistic mentality of coming back, keep on working. And there’s going to be a day that’s it going to be your turn.”

Moving someone with two years and $113 million left on his contract — not to mention a player option that could extend it by another year and tack $63 million more onto the bill — will be difficult. And players don’t always get traded where they want to go; the obvious case in point there is when Lillard wanted to be traded by Portland to Miami and wound up in Milwaukee instead.

But if it’s what he wants, teams will jump at the chance to make it happen.

“Giannis is one of one,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “I think, unfortunately for all the voters, they’re tired of voting for him for stuff. But he had every bit of an MVP season this year. What I’m most proud of is he has turned into a leader. I’m not just talking about on the floor, but off the floor.”

Antetokounmpo has received tons of praise in recent years for the way he has sometimes given long, well-thought-out, from-the-heart answers to important questions in postgame news conferences. He handled a question about the postgame fracas that involved Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton’s father essentially taunting Antetokounmpo on the court seconds after the final buzzer with his traditional grace and charm. It wasn’t the first time Antetokounmpo found the right words in an important moment.

Another important moment is here. Another big question. Stay or go?

After yet another play-in tournament collapse against the Miami Heat, the Bulls are awaiting the draft lottery in April to determine their odds for a stacked 2025 class. And the Sky have less than three weeks until they kick off the regular season with the first of five matchups against the Indiana Fever.

What’s in store long-term and short-term for these teams? Here are the top questions from fans as the Bulls near free agency and the Sky kick off the 2025 season.

Would like to know about the Bulls potentially trading for Zion Williamson. Seems like a stretch, given his injury history. What do you think? — TJ M.

I don’t mind this idea. The Bulls need a star. And Zion Williamson — despite the inconsistency and the injuries and everything else that comes with it — is a star.

Yes, Williamson is officially tagged with the “injury prone” label. He averages only 42.8 games per season, not including an entire season missed due to a fracture in his right foot. His inconsistent fitness has been a source of derision and criticism. But Williamson is still a former Rookie of the Year finalist who has been an All-Star in two of his five available seasons. And when he’s available, he’s electric — a verified superstar who can rip off 24.7 points per game.

This is the kind of juice the Bulls have been missing. This current roster doesn’t include a single player close to All-Star status. Would Williamson fix this team’s lack of depth and overall stagnancy in the Eastern Conference? Probably not. But it would provide the type of fireworks that will remain far and few between in Chicago without a true star on the roster.

Chicago Bulls’ dismissal of Peter Patton puts player development in the spotlight for front office

I’m not saying this is the only — or the best — option for the future. The Bulls just worked their way out of the binding of a maximum contract after trading Zach LaVine, so there’s a sizable argument to make against tying themselves to another financial monstrosity. Williamson is entering the third season of a five-year, $197 million deal that would severely hinder the front office’s ability to remain mobile in a rebuild.

Regardless, this will be a goofy offseason, so strap in for a sea of rumors and postulations. Nikola Jokić to Chicago? How about Giannis Antetokounmpo? No idea is too big or small as the league enters a summer of potential superstar shakeups. Just make sure to approach every trade idea with a healthy dose of incredulity.

Will Ajša Sivka come to the WNBA this season? — @tkharris76 on X

Don’t expect to see Ajša Sivka in a Sky uniform this season. The No. 11 overall pick is fully committed to EuroBasket with the Slovenian national team, which will keep her in Europe through the WNBA All-Star break. And the Sky front office and coaching staff have indicated that all future plans with Sivka revolve around her making a debut in the WNBA next season.

So if Sivka isn’t coming this season, why would the Sky spend a first-round pick on her?

I think it’s helpful to view the 19-year-old as a 2026 draft pick. That’s exactly what the Sky traded to Minnesota to secure the No. 11 pick, which granted them the ability to take Sivka and Hailey Van Lith in the first round. Sivka is expected to play in the WNBA next season, deferring her rookie year by a season.

So the Sky essentially utilized one of their 2026 first-round picks to select a player who would be available as a rookie in 2026 — but available in the draft in 2025.

Is Nikola Vučević gone? Would the Bulls trade him this summer or wait until next deadline? Could that recreate the risk they ran into with Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine where holding onto the asset too long resulted in a quieter market for the player? Do you think Zach Collins can be a replacement-level 5 for the Bulls if they deal Vooch in the offseason and draft a young player at the position? And what does Jalen Smith need to improve most to have a future with the Bulls at that position? — Eric B., Doug S. and @TheNBAIndex on X

These are a lot of different questions, but they all gravitate around one of the biggest looming uncertainties for the Bulls — the center position.

Nikola Vučević is not the future for the Bulls. He does not want to spend the final years of his career slogging through a rebuild. With one year left on his contract, the question is “when” not “if” Vučević will leave Chicago. The smartest option for the Bulls would be to figure out a deal for Vučević this summer. His value won’t be high — he’s a 34-year-old center with steep defensive limitations — but his 3-point shooting and versatility as a passer should be enough to entice teams looking for a backup option.

There is, however, good reason to fear that the Bulls will hold out until the trade deadline. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas has an unfortunate proclivity to wait too long on these deals, ultimately giving up players for little to nothing. Even if Vučević repeats his strong shooting (40.2% from 3-point range) from this season, it will still be a tough sell to convince another front office that the veteran center could be a game changer for a team looking to stock up ahead of the playoffs.

Whether or not the Bulls manage to move Vučević this summer, drafting a center should be a priority for the front office in the next two years. Although the Bulls have a few genuinely promising options at guard and wing positions, their current frontcourt is threadbare. Zach Collins is a perfectly reasonable stopgap, but the Bulls need to bring star power into the position.

Jalen Smith has clearly been phased out of the Bulls rotation, going from the No. 2 center to playing only 14 minutes per game after the All-Star break — a stretch that included 10 healthy scratches. Smith could improve his versatility as a scorer to keep up with the Bulls’ new pace of play. But he also could be one of the easier trade assets this summer due to his team-friendly deal and relative youth at 25.

Who will be the backup forward for Angel Reese on the Sky? Assuming Van Lith is a lock to make the roster, who gets the final spot? Why didn’t the Sky offer Brynna Maxwell a training camp contract? — Eric N., Terrance H. and M.E. J.

The Sky have one clear need in training camp: a backup forward to play behind Angel Reese. Maddy Westbeld seems like the most natural option for a second-string as a stretchy four who can still compete physically with larger forwards at 6-foot-3.

This also feeds into the answer to the second question regarding the final spot left on the roster. The Sky only invited two other bigs to training camp: 6-foot-5 center Jessika Carter and 6-foot-4 forward Morgan Bertsch. Westbeld would need to outplay these two players — who are more experienced, although they have struggled to stick on WNBA rosters.

However, the Sky could also make cuts from their current roster to reshape the balance between the front and backcourts. The Sky are currently carrying seven guards, two centers and only one forward. Even if the final roster spot goes to a forward or center, this 7-to-4 ratio isn’t an ideal balance between the two halves of the roster. The Sky could look to waive a third-string option like Moriah Jefferson to make way for multiple forwards or for a lengthier guard.

Photos: Chicago Sky open training camp for 2025 WNBA season

This overflow of guards is also the main reason why the Sky did not bring 2024 second-round pick Brynna Maxwell back on a training camp contract. Maxwell was drafted last year to provide some much-needed support to the Sky’s 3-point shooting, but she suffered a preseason knee injury that kept her out of the WNBA.

The Sky stocked up on 3-point shooting veterans like Ariel Atkins, Kia Nurse and Rebecca Allen in free agency, which skewed their needs in training camp to taller, more athletic backcourt options — which ultimately did not fit Maxwell’s profile.

With the Sky finally playing at the United Center this year, do you see a strengthening relationship with the Bulls? Any more collaboration potentially on the way? I’ve noticed CHSN posting more about the Sky. Maybe a new broadcasting partner in 2026 to move away from Marquee? — The Sky Show Chi on X

This is an interesting question. While I don’t expect the two teams to become more collaborative in the future, I do think there is potential for the other Reinsdorf-owned properties — such as the United Center and CHSN — to embrace more Sky programming as the team’s popularity grows.

CHSN may need to think outside the Comcast cable box with Bulls and Blackhawks done and White Sox struggling

Crossover between the Bulls and the Sky is extremely limited. The Reinsdorfs have displayed no concrete interest in the WNBA prior to leasing out the United Center for this year’s games against the Indiana Fever. And the Sky have already welcomed Laura Ricketts as a minority owner, aligning the team toward a different powerhouse family in Chicago sports.

However, that doesn’t mean the Reinsdorfs won’t pursue potential TV and arena collaborations in the future. For instance, if the Sky’s games against the Fever sell effectively, the partnership could become a regularity in future years to accommodate the popularity of those Indiana-Chicago clashes.

And Reinsdorf is attempting to navigate the harrowing frontier of regional sports networks, which saw a disastrous start for CHSN as Bulls and Blackhawks viewership plummeted in Year 1. The Sky would be a sensible target for CHSN to improve its portfolio. However, given the lack of buy-in for CHSN — which still is not available on Comcast, YouTube TV and other major providers — the Sky would likely favor their long-term relationship with WCIU, which is available over the air and via most cable and streaming providers.

The uniforms, which will debut at Rate Field on Friday, feature a crossover with the Bulls — which makes sense as Jerry Reinsdorf owns both Chicago teams.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

• High temperature: 86 degrees (1915)
• Low temperature: 28 degrees (1992)
• Precipitation: 2.04 inches (1981)
• Snowfall: 0.4 inches (1951)

1955: Eight people — including a Chicago fire captain — were killed and 20 others injured in a fire at the Green Mill hotel, 518 N. Green St. in Chicago. Officials believed the fire was intentionally set.

Vintage Chicago Tribune: As McDonald’s turns 70, a look back at its suburban origins

1977: Ronald McDonald House opens in Chicago. The second of its kind in the United States, was housed inside a former convent at 622 W. Deming Place and served as a home for families whose children were being treated at nearby Children’s Memorial Hospital (now Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago).

Today, there are six Ronald McDonald Houses near Chicago-area hospitals.

2012: Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose — who had already missed 27 games during the 2011-12 season with back, groin, toe, ankle and foot injuries — tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee with 1:22 left to play in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal opener against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Bulls lost that series and, eventually, their championship window as Rose endured a succession of knee surgeries that eventually led to his trade to the New York Knicks.

2017: Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for scheming to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks in return for steering contracts to SUPES Academy, an education consulting firm where she had formerly worked.

She was released about a year early, through an initiative to free inmates particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Her lawyer said at the time of Byrd-Bennett’s release that she would serve the rest of her sentence on home confinement.

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This year’s voting had a mix of contentious decisions — Nikola Jokić versus Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for MVP, Draymond Green’s late push for Defensive Player of the Year — and relatively straightforward ones, such as Clutch Player of the Year.

The voting also highlighted the lack of impact by the Chicago Bulls on the league. The only Bulls player on my ballot was Matas Buzelis, whom I voted for on the All-Rookie second team. Buzelis made a strong impression in his debut season, averaging 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 80 games. He was especially notable in his final 31 games, in which he averaged 13 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.1 blocks as a starter.

Buzelis was held back from most rookie conversations by his lack of playing time in the first half of the season, but that deliberateness might pay off for his future success. Still, outside of Buzelis, the Bulls were entirely sidelined from the awards process.

I was surprised by how evenly my ballot was split between the two conferences, considering the West’s dominance. This might be a slight reflection of my viewing habits while covering the Bulls, but mostly it illustrates how individual excellence buoyed the East, which had plenty of talent but little depth below the No. 4 seed.

Here’s how I voted on the main end-of-season awards.

Most Valuable Player: Nikola Jokić

There’s no sugarcoating it — this was a very difficult decision.

Gilgeous-Alexander is one of the league’s most effective and efficient players, leading the NBA in scoring (32.7 points per game) and estimated plus-minus (plus-8.6). The Oklahoma City Thunder have become a buzzsaw with Gilgeous-Alexander helming the offense — which was painfully evident to the Memphis Grizzlies during the first two games of their playoff series.

But Jokić averaged a triple-double (29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, 10.2 assists), performing at an all-time high while playing with one of his weakest supporting casts since he became a superstar for the Denver Nuggets. And when the best player in the world is having the best season of his career — career highs in points and assists per game and 3-point percentage (41.7%) — there’s no reason to overcomplicate things.

Defensive Player of the Year: Dyson Daniels

I wasn’t swayed by Green’s late-season campaign. This award — which Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley won Thursday — had a bit of an open runway after Victor Wembanyama’s midseason injury disqualified him from eligibility. The Atlanta Hawks’ Daniels ultimately won me over with the sheer breadth and depth of his disruptiveness on defense.

Daniels tallied a stunning 229 steals this season. The next-closest player — Gilgeous-Alexander — finished with 131. Daniels averaged 3.0 steals while also posting a league-high six deflections per game, eclipsing the rest of the NBA with the overall activity of his hands as a defender.

One impressive stat that wasn’t amplified enough during this year’s debate: No one has averaged that many steals since John Stockton — who accomplished the feat 14 years before Daniels was born. Defensive seasons like this just don’t come around that often, and Daniels should have been awarded accordingly.

Most Improved Player: Ivica Zubac

One of the most interesting award debates is the definition of “most improved.” Improvement is hard to quantify or compare — in addition to their own progress, players often get better because of a change in their role, a new coach or improved talent around them.

I landed on Zubac because of his growth after nearly a decade in the NBA. It’s rare for a player to take a leap in his ninth season. After being pushed into the Los Angeles Clippers starting lineup by the departure of Paul George, the 28-year-old averaged 5.1 more points, 3.4 more rebounds and 1.3 more assists than he did in 2023-24.

Even with more playing time, Zubac cut down on fouls and maintained his shooting percentage. And over the course of the season, he cemented his role as the final piece in the Clippers’ central trio alongside Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, lifting them to the fifth seed in the competitive West.

Sixth Man of the Year: Payton Pritchard

There’s something incredibly fun about the unpredictability Pritchard creates for the Boston Celtics. At any moment he’s liable to rip off a quick handful of 3s — the type of flurry that can change a game.

His statistics made a clear argument for Sixth Man of the Year — and he won the award Tuesday. Pritchard led the league in bench points, bench 3-pointers (1,079) and overall plus-minus off the bench (plus-428). He’s also one of the best facilitators and rebounders for the second-best team in the East. And he started only three times this season even as the Celtics battled injuries, a reflection of the stability he provides as the first player off the bench.

Rookie of the Year: Stephon Castle

An early season-ending injury to Philadelphia 76ers breakout star Jared McCain upended what otherwise might have been a cut-and-dried race for Rookie of the Year. This was a relatively weak rookie class, which made for a difficult race given the imperfections of every candidate.

Still, Castle emerged fairly quickly as the outlier. He led all rookies in scoring (14.7 ppg) while averaging 26.7 minutes in 81 games for the San Antonio Spurs. He needs to shore up his shooting, but in a fairly large role on a fairly young team, he proved to be well-rounded enough as a defender and offensive creator to make an impact.

Clutch Player of the Year: Jalen Brunson

Few players were more automatic in the final five minutes of a close game than Brunson, who won this award Wednesday. The New York Knicks guard led the league in clutch scoring (5.6 ppg) and clutch field goals (52).

Brunson shot 51.5% from the field and 84% from the line in clutch situations, and he finished second in total clutch points (156) — only one behind Anthony Edwards despite playing in 14 fewer clutch games than the Minnesota Timberwolves star.

Coach of the Year: Kenny Atkinson

In his first year in Cleveland, Atkinson led the Cavaliers to the top of the East with a 64-win season. Sure, he benefited from a healthy team after the Cavs suffered disastrous injuries last season. Still, Atkinson revitalized the Cavs offense. He tweaked Donovan Mitchell’s role and figured out how to get the best out of Evan Mobley. As a result, the Cavs are the top seed in the East.

This is another close race. Like many voters, I had no strong prediction for whether Atkinson would beat out J.B. Bickerstaff — who rallied the Detroit Pistons from a 14-win season to a 44-38 record and a playoff spot in his first season — as both are very deserving.

Player development never has been more important for the Bulls as executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas embarks on a new rebuild, which he addressed at length during exit interviews Thursday. After a third consecutive year of missing the playoffs, Karnišovas is attempting to chart a path forward by investing in the development of “young, experienced players.”

That process started by opting not to exercise a team option on Patton’s contract, removing him as player development director after two seasons. The decision was not well-received by many Bulls players, a source said.

The Bulls originally hired Patton after the 2022-23 season following a dismal year as the NBA’s worst 3-point shooting team.

“Peter comes to us not only as a shooting coach, but somebody who can actually oversee our player development function,” general manager Marc Eversley said in June 2023. “We thought we needed a fresh look. We thought we needed to look at a different approach. And he brings a wealth of experience to that position.

“So we’re excited about having him here in our building, working with our coaching staff, working with our players, and we feel like he can help the overall look and feel of how to play the game and shoot the ball.”

The team’s shot profile changed significantly over the next two seasons. In 2022-23, the Bulls took 2,367 3-pointers and made them at a 36.1% rate. This season, they took 3,447 3-pointers and shot 36.7%, resulting in a 48.2% increase in made 3-pointers in two years.

The increase can’t be entirely credited to Patton. Coach Billy Donovan installed a new offense this year that required a significantly higher 3-point volume. But Patton played a key role in improving individual players’ shots enough to maintain relative stability in shooting percentage while the volume increased rapidly in a short time.

Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu, Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis were among the players who openly praised Patton’s influence on their improvement. For long hours before games and after practices, Patton was ever-present on the Advocate Center and United Center courts, guiding drills to highlight minute details in a shot that could lead to increased consistency.

Although he specialized as a shooting coach, Patton oversaw the entirety of internal development of Bulls players. And a source said Patton didn’t refrain from sharing his opinions on how the Bulls could improve on and off the court — insight that wasn’t always well-received by the top brass.

Photos: Chicago Bulls’ end-of-season news conference after finishing short of playoffs

This isn’t the first significant — or unpopular — staffing change Karnišovas made in the past two seasons.

The Bulls demoted assistant coach Maurice Cheeks last summer, leading to his departure for the New York Knicks this season. The team also parted with assistant coach Chris Fleming last year. Both coaches had formed close ties with young core players, including White and Dosunmu.

The Bulls also opted not to extend the contract of vice president of basketball strategy Steve Weinman earlier this season. That left the Bulls with only one analytics staffer in the front office. By comparison, teams such as the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics employ five staffers in their data and analytics departments.

Patton operated a staff of three player development managers — Austin Dufault, L.D. Williams and Peter Crawford — who will remain with the Bulls after his departure. The team will begin a hiring search for a new player development director immediately, a process that could result in an internal promotion.

Roster decisions are the flashiest piece of Karnišovas’ job, but his decisions on positions in the front office and on the coaching staff also carry important weight in the team’s overall success.

The current Bulls roster includes nine full-contract players who are 25 or younger, and they will add another this summer with a lottery pick in the draft. Any success the Bulls hope to find — short or long term — will derive from the potential improvement of that group.

Succeeding at player development will start at the top — a decision made under heavier scrutiny as Karnišovas begins the second roster rebuild of his tenure in Chicago.

While there are other ways to watch the nascent network, including competing pay-TV providers, streaming services and over-the-air TV, at least one sports industry expert believes CHSN and the White Sox may need to think outside the cable box this summer to stay relevant.

“They may need to put some games on WGN or some other over-the-air channels,” said Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports marketing consultant. “And then you sell commercial time and see if maybe the White Sox can get some traction in the marketplace based on simply being on free TV.”

CHSN is broadcast over-the-air in Chicago on the digital subchannels of WJYS-Ch. 62, but viewers need to buy an add-on antenna to get the programming. Ganis believes running some games on a mainstream Chicago TV station such as WGN, which previously carried the Cubs, Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks, would provide broader distribution and the opportunity for cross-promotion to get CHSN off the ground.

A report in the Chicago Sun-Times Friday suggested that WGN-TV is open to a deal with CHSN. Spokespersons for the TV station and the regional sports network declined to comment.

A joint venture between the Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks and Nashville, Tennessee-based Standard Media, CHSN went live Oct.1 on pay-TV platforms DirecTV and Astound, and over the air on WJYS-Ch. 62. It subsequently added streaming service FuboTV and its own direct-to-consumer streaming app, but has yet to strike a deal with Comcast, the market’s largest pay-TV provider.

Comcast was a partner in the predecessor NBC Sports Chicago, the regional sports network which ended a 20-year run in September at the conclusion of a White Sox season that saw the team set an MLB record for losses.

A Comcast spokesperson said in an email Thursday the cable giant is “continuing to have discussions” with CHSN but had no updates to share.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said Comcast is looking to move both CHSN and Marquee Sports Network, the pay-TV home of the Cubs, to its more expensive Ultimate tier, something it has done with other regional sports networks across the U.S. in recent months.

Marquee, which launched in 2020, has remained on Comcast through a series of short-term extensions after its inaugural carriage agreement expired Sept. 30. A Marquee spokesperson did not return a request for comment this week.

Column: Free TV could be the poison pill in the Chicago Sports Network’s impasse with Comcast — and a deal may take awhile

The Ultimate tier costs an additional $20 per month — on top of the $20.25 regional sports network fee Comcast charges Chicago-area subscribers each month. Comcast has been issuing a monthly $8.85 credit to partially offset that fee during the ongoing carriage negotiations with CHSN.

A similar battle had been playing out in New York, where Comcast threatened to black out the Yankees’ YES network before opening day as it looked to move the broadcasts to its Ultimate tier. The Federal Communications Commission weighed in and an agreement was reached to keep the YES network on Comcast’s basic tier, at least for now.

Last week, Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the White Sox and Bulls, made a visit to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, ostensibly to lobby for government help in getting CHSN on the air with Comcast in Chicago.

Ganis said CHSN and the White Sox have a lot less leverage than YES and the Yankees, who have a winning tradition, a larger fan base and big TV ratings.

“The big difference is how many people watch Yankee games in New York — it’s hundreds of thousands,” Ganis said. “It’s very different than the number of people who watch White Sox games in Chicago, even when they were on Comcast.”

Last year, when the White Sox lost a record 121 games, the TV audience during the team’s final season on NBC Sports Chicago shrank to a fractional .7 rating, according to Nielsen data. Sox games averaged a 1.0 rating in 2023 and 1.7 rating the previous year.

For comparison, the Cubs averaged a 4.5 rating on NBC Sports Chicago during the team’s championship season in 2016.

CHSN has yet to provide TV ratings for the inaugural Bulls, Hawks and Sox seasons.

Ganis suggested Comcast can afford to play hardball with CHSN on carriage negotiations because the three teams on the network do not necessarily make for must-see TV.

The Hawks missed the playoffs and the young Bulls fell flat in their play-in game Wednesday against the Heat and also missed the playoffs. And the White Sox, off to a dismal start to the new season, are actually on pace to set a new record for futility.

Meanwhile, one million Chicago-area Comcast subscribers who didn’t cut the cord, switch pay-TV providers or buy an antenna, may have missed the entire Bulls and Blackhawks seasons, with the new White Sox campaign slipping away by the day.

“It’s bad timing for all three teams to be in the valley of their success cycles,” Ganis said.  “Maybe one of the ways they can break that paradigm is to add visibility by putting a lot of the games on free television.”

rchannick@chicagotribune.com

The problem goes far beyond Wednesday’s demoralizing, disgraceful blowout loss to the Miami Heat. It goes beyond losing in the play-in tournament to the same team for three consecutive years. This team is broken. There’s no clear path forward. After a full decade without winning a playoff series — or a single home playoff game — the Bulls no longer represent winning.

So where are the consequences?

Most of the talk around the Bulls offseason is focused on minutiae — the right price tag for re-signing Josh Giddey, targets for a late lottery pick in the draft. But if the Reinsdorf family is still serious about the Bulls in any capacity, ownership should take on a bigger task this summer: determining the source of the problem and digging it up by the roots.

Let’s start at the bottom. This isn’t the fault of the players. This season’s roster bought into a new mentality and a completely fresh style of play, ran harder than any other team in the league and still finished with a losing record.

There was no extra sacrifice or strategy that individual players could have delivered to elevate their play to a competitive level. Wednesday’s 19-point play-in loss put into sharp contrast the worst aspects of this team: a dismal defense paired with an offense that is overdependent on transition scoring and 3-pointers — a simple formula any top coach in the league can crack.

If it’s not the players, then logic leads us further up the ladder to coach Billy Donovan.

Despite posting a 195-205 regular-season record, Donovan has been considered one of the safest members of the current Bulls regime. After five seasons in Chicago, the newly minted Hall of Famer is the fifth-longest-tenured coach in the NBA — a reflection of the league’s volatility as much as a statement on his dependability.

Every year, so-called gambling experts set odds that Donovan is one of the five likeliest NBA coaches to lose his job. And every year, they’re wrong.

Donovan’s presence is a constant. The front office loves him. The players love him. And his work ethic and ability to develop young players have shielded him from internal questioning even after three consecutive losing seasons.

For a different coach or team, Wednesday’s play-in loss might have signaled a change. Donovan was outcoached. Solidly. He hasn’t been in many postseason situations during his tenure in Chicago: five playoff games in 2022 and five play-in games over the last three seasons. He’s 3-7 in those games.

But executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas remains dogged in his belief that Donovan is the correct coach for the Bulls, who are prioritizing player development over postseason strategy as they enter another rebuilding cycle.

“He’s done an unbelievable job to transform this group and accomplish certain goals of changing the way we played,” Karnišovas said during exit interviews Thursday. “It’s a buy-in from the players’ perspective. They buy into (what) Billy’s trying to teach them and they respond to him. So he’s done an unbelievable job and I have full confidence moving forward with Billy.”

Photos: Chicago Bulls’ end-of-season news conference after finishing short of playoffs

If the players and the coach are safe from the hot seat, that means only one person is left: Karnišovas himself.

Ultimately, the blame for the Bulls’ demise this season lies with the front office’s strategy. Karnišovas refused to tank to improve the team’s lottery odds in a potentially game-changing 2025 draft. He spent most of his exit interview preaching the importance of “young players with experience,” an emphasis that has stuffed the roster with decent supporting-cast players and zero future All-Stars.

And Karnišovas doesn’t seem to fundamentally believe in the value of a rebuild. For years the Bulls front office has referenced the Detroit Pistons as a cautionary tale of the risks involved in fully committing to building through the draft. Even as that argument was disproved this season — as the Pistons returned to the playoffs with a 44-38 record — the Bulls stayed the course in the middle.

Let’s be realistic about this roster. Coby White is performing to his ceiling. Giddey has improved but is nowhere close to a star who can bail out a team in a must-win game. Lonzo Ball is a potential game changer but still can’t shake the injury bug. Matas Buzelis is years away from developing into any kind of stardom. Nikola Vučević is reaching the end of his rope. The second unit is steeply limited. Patrick Williams might be flat-out hopeless.

Before the season even started, Donovan admitted the outlook was bleak for his roster. The defense was bad. The offense had to rely on an unsustainable pace of play and prolific 3-point shooting, two features that immediately dried up in Wednesday’s elimination game. The flaws were obvious from a mile away, long before the play-in debacle.

And here’s the thing — the Bulls aren’t cursed or unlucky. They just aren’t any good. And, no, it’s not a matter of injuries or continuity or competitiveness or youth development or any other excuse Karnišovas has thought up over the past four years.

This team is not good. It can’t compete with the bottom-shelf playoff teams in the league’s inferior conference. And there’s little evidence the front office possesses the creativity or pragmatism to compile a competitive roster in the next five years.

Some fans saw a glimmer of hope when the Denver Nuggets fired general manager Calvin Booth days before the playoffs, opening the top executive role at Karnišovas’ former workplace. But Karnišovas said Thursday the Nuggets haven’t contacted him: “I’m in Chicago and focused only on this roster.”

Tumult has defined this NBA season. Four coaches and three GMs have been fired since late December. When the Sacramento Kings reached the same bitter ending as the Bulls — a brutal blowout loss on their home court in the 9/10 play-in game — ownership fired GM Monte McNair within hours of the final buzzer.

Bulls ownership gave 17 years to the former front-office duo of Gar Forman and John Paxson. There’s no reason for the team to show similar patience this time. If the Bulls are going to escape the mediocrity in which they’re mired, the top seat in the front office needs to become uncomfortably hot for the foreseeable future.

This doesn’t have to mean immediate change. If nothing else, apply pressure. But stagnancy can’t remain a prerequisite for this job — even if it feels comfortable.

This is one of those occasions, a week in which the bosses of the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox and Blackhawks could send a “Hang in there” text and fist-bump emoji on their group chat, knowing they all could use a group hug.

Our five fearless executives go by different titles but have two things in common: They work for a professional sports franchise in Chicago and have received poor job performance reviews from their respective fan bases.

Bears general manager Ryan Poles, Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, Sox GM Chris Getz and Hawks GM Kyle Davidson — also known by their pseudonyms, “Poles,” “AK,” “Jed,” “Getz” and “Kyle from Chicago” — have all had an interesting week.

Let’s start with Karnišovas, who held his annual autopsy Thursday after the Bulls’ play-in implosion and actually answered a question from CHGO’s Will Gottlieb by pointing out that Gottlieb “projected” the Bulls to win 28 games and instead they won 39. Scientists might have to do studies to find any human being, outside the White House, with thinner skin than AK.

Karnišovas brought up the Bulls’ 15-5 finish and asked for patience, downplaying Wednesday’s brutal ending as angry Bulls fans watched the Miami Heat outsmart, outcoach and outhustle their team in a gruesome, season-ending 109-90 loss.

It was gaslighting at its finest. You can only imagine how Karnišovas felt when he logged on to his laptop Thursday morning and saw that his old trading partner, Sacramento Kings GM Monte McNair, already had been jettisoned after Wednesday’s play-in loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

“Wow,” he might have thought in a brief moment of self-awareness. “Lucky me!”

Many owners would look at the Bulls’ 195-205 record in Karnišovas’ five years on the job and ask themselves whether a change is mandatory to appease an impatient fan base. So look for an extension for AK from the ruling Reinsdorfs, Jerry and Michael, who aren’t in any hurry to mess with the status quo.

Photos: Chicago Bulls’ end-of-season news conference after finishing season short of playoffs

Next up is Getz, who sarcastically “guaranteed” before the season the Sox would not lose 121 games again, getting a big laugh for his bold projection. Even a younger and less talented roster couldn’t repeat that nightmare, right?

Right?

But the Sox are 4-14 after Thursday’s 8-0 loss to the Athletics at Rate Field and are hitting .196 as a team. The “No-Hitter Alert” chyron will be on autoplay for Sox games on Chicago Sports Network, as it was Sunday for Garrett Crochet’s no-hit bid in his return to the South Side.

Getz had reason this spring to be optimistic thanks to the play of future ex-Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr., his only real trade chip. But Robert has started off slow again and is hitting .136 with a .438 OPS — one of three in Thursday’s lineup at .450 or below with Miguel Vargas (.449) and Andrew Vaughn (.450).

Robert on Saturday ended a 46-game homerless streak that conjured memories of Tim Anderson’s 96-game streak that ended July 29, 2023. The longer Getz waits, the lower Robert’s trade value.

Meanwhile, Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf might have to hire 24/7 security to make sure Getz doesn’t accidentally call Mike Clevinger’s agent and try to re-sign the injury-plagued pitcher for a fourth term on the South Side. The Sox won’t pony up to pay their top young starters for fear of injuries, but all bargain-basement signees are welcome, no matter their injury history.

Maybe the eventual Justin Ishbia era will change this philosophy, but would Ishbia give Getz the benefit of the doubt like Reinsdorf has?

On the other side of town, Hoyer, Getz’s BFF, is the only legacy team executive with a real chance to make the postseason in 2025. The Cubs’ 12-9 start, despite a difficult early schedule, is encouraging, though not yet cause for division title fever.

The Cubs love to use the word “depth,” as in the depth created by one of the top-rated farm systems, the depth of the overhauled bench and the depth of the rotation, with more starters stretching out at Triple-A Iowa. But now that Justin Steele is out for the year, we’ll find out whether the Cubs actually are deep in key areas or just like saying it a lot.

An early bullpen crisis has been a recurring theme during Hoyer’s presidency, and he’s in the middle of another one. The Cubs handed rookie Matt Shaw the third base job after failing to sign free agent Alex Bregman, despite an oblique injury that limited Shaw’s playing time in spring training. Shaw struggled and was sent back to Iowa, where he probably should’ve begun the season until he got more comfortable at the plate.

Hoyer’s contract is expiring, making him the Cubs’ first lame-goose president. The switch from lame duck to lame goose is necessary to honor the beloved and departed Wrigley goose, which was nesting comfortably in the bleachers during the last homestand but flew the coop, apparently realizing it wasn’t part of the Cubs’ depth.

The Blackhawks have a surplus of young talent but no indication it will lead to winning in the near future. Davidson’s fourth season in charge, including one as interim GM, ended with the NHL’s second-worst record.

No surprise. Rebuilds take a while. But, like AK, Davidson can point to the Hawks’ big finish — 4-1-1 in their last six games — as the real story of 2024-25. This qualifies as a tangible bright spot in the rebuild that keeps on building.

Re-signing Ryan Donato is Davidson’s primary task, though he also must decide whether to hire interim coach Anders Sörensen — who replaced Luke Richardson in early December and posted an unimpressive .361 winning percentage in 54 games — or find a new coach to serve as a coat holder until the rebuild finally turns the corner and a bigger name can reap the benefits of Connor Bedard’s prime.

University of Denver coach David Carle is reportedly the hottest prospect, though he’s unproven at the NHL level like the last three Hawks coaches: Jeremy Colliton, Richardson and Sörensen.

“If the right candidate comes along sooner than (the draft and free agency), that’s fine,” Davidson said Thursday. “If they come along later in the process and down weeks, months, that’s how it plays out.”

In other words, sooner or maybe later. Thanks, Kyle from Chicago.

No matter whom Davidson hires, the Hawks need to fast-forward this machine next season to keep Chairman Danny Wirtz happy. Bedard won’t be a precocious kid forever.

Of all our Big Five execs, Poles had the easiest week by far, signing cornerback Kyler Gordon and linebacker T.J. Edwards to contract extensions and practicing his draft-day speech for next Thursday.

Poles seems to enjoy secrecy and keeping people guessing. But everyone knew whom the Bears would pick with the No. 1 selection in last year’s draft, so the only pressure on Poles was to look and sound cool.

Few Bears employees came off cooler in “Hard Knocks” than Poles, who also showed his tender side in the tear-jerking scene in which he informed safety Adrian Colbert he wouldn’t make the final roster. Poles didn’t receive an Emmy and the Bears went on to finish 5-12, but few blamed Poles for the disaster.

That will change if the Bears waste another first-round pick, and there’s much debate over what Poles will do with the No. 10 selection. Another offensive lineman? A running back? A tight end? The proverbial “best player available”?

Like the rest of his peers in big-time decision-making positions in the corporate world, Poles is on the clock.

• Artūras Karnišovas asks Chicago Bulls fans for ‘patience’ after missing playoffs for 3rd straight season
• Chicago Bulls collapse in 109-90 blowout, ending season with play-in loss to Miami Heat for 3rd straight year
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