Before DeMar DeRozan became a member of the Sacramento Kings in a sign-and-trade deal, the Chicago Bulls didn’t make a strong push to keep him.

Per ESPN’s Jamal Collier, DeRozan and the Bulls “never got close” to a new contract.

DeRozan landed with the Kings on a three-year, $74 million deal that saw the Bulls receive Chris Duarte and two second-round draft picks in the three-team sign-and-trade. Harrison Barnes went from Sacramento to the San Antonio Spurs.

The Bulls have been a puzzling organization to figure out. Their brief stretch early in the 2021-22 season when Lonzo Ball was healthy showed tremendous promise. They were tied for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with 12 games remaining in the regular season.

Since that time, though, the Bulls have compiled a record of 86-100. They made the play-in tournament in each of the past two seasons but were unable to make the playoff field.

Despite their struggles last season, Chicago’s front office opted to stand pat at the trade deadline rather than try to begin a rebuild.

The approach seemed to change this offseason, though the results have been underwhelming to this point. Alex Caruso was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Josh Giddey in a one-for-one move that was generally criticized on Chicago’s end.

Losing DeRozan this offseason for a package built around future second-round picks is better than nothing, but doesn’t add a lot of long-term value to the Bulls.

Even though DeRozan will turn 35 on Aug. 7, he is still an effective offensive player. The six-time All-Star averaged 25.5 points on 49.6 percent shooting in 299 games over three seasons with the Bulls.

DeRozan will bring his scoring ability to Sacramento for a team that has won a total of 94 games over the past two seasons but missed the postseason last season after losing to the New Orleans Pelicans in the play-in tournament.

The Bulls will go into 2024-25 with a nucleus of Giddey, Coby White, Zach LaVine, Patrick Williams and Nikola Vučević. Giddey, White and Williams are a promising young group to build around, but the ceiling for this team looks to be very low without an obvious potential long-term path to contention.