They are never going to trade the roster for draft picks like so many here want to do. They are never going to to put a team on the court at the UC that sucks for even one year. They aren't going to put a crappy ass team out there for the season ticket holders to suffer with, or to be an embarrassment to the suite holders or corporate sponsors and marketing partners who make the team worth nearly a billion dollars. Those are things that people who live with PER and fantasy sports and unrealistic internet GMs NEVER consider. They might slide to a .500 team and try to build up from there but that's it.
No one's saying trade the roster. Just trade useful assets for better long-term investments.
And yes, people do consider the money, the season ticket holders, and so on. But in the end, continued mediocrity is not likely to hold interest forever. And again, no worthwhile free agent is going to want to play here if this team doesn't look like it's going anywhere. So yeah, money and the business side is a big part of it, but if your product is consistently meh, people will eventually get fed up. Not quite sure this is like Bears football or Cubs baseball, where people will always watch/turn out in droves no matter how bad the team sucks. No one's asking them use the Sam Hinkie method here, just be realistic. Whether or not they want to, the Bulls have to consider the long game as well as short-term benefits and bottom lines. That's going to eventually pay off more for the Bulls than just running an also-ran out there every season.