The Chicago Bulls chose not to fix their 3-point problem. How can they compete in a league dominated by the arc?

CLEVELAND — Midway through Thursday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets, Billy Donovan knew the Chicago Bulls had a problem.

They were being outshot from the 3-point line. This was nothing new for the Bulls, whose lack of scoring from behind the arc has become a well-worn grievance the longer the team fights to reach .500.

But this time, the margin was extravagantly steep. The Nets made 10 shots from 3-point range in the first half, the Bulls zero. Donovan looked to the four-point deficit with a sense of relief — things could be much, much worse.

“It’s really hard,” Donovan said. “We’ve got to look at ourselves in terms of what kind of shots we’re generating for each other. When you look down at that stat sheet, it’s really, really difficult to win.”

The Bulls know they struggle with 3-point shooting. Executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas openly identified the weakness at the end of the 2022 season.

Yet after electing not to acquire shooters at the trade deadline Thursday, Karnišovas voiced ambivalence about the role of the 3-point woes in the Bulls’ inability to climb above .500.

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“Some games we have a good 3-point rate,” Karnišovas said. “The reason why we were in a lot of games last year (is) we were not shooting a lot of 3s but we were making them. We’re still making them. … In terms of rate, yes, we’d like to bring the 3-point rate up more. But we’re still making (3-pointers) at a very good rate.”

Karnišovas did not provide his definition of a “good rate” of 3-point shooting, but it’s unclear how that review could match the reality of the Bulls’ shooting statistics.

It’s true that the Bulls shoot 3-pointers with decent efficiency — 36.2% — for the 15th-ranked accuracy in the league. But they also only take 28.9 attempts, placing them last in the NBA with 5.2 fewer attempts than the league average.

The Bulls have shot on par with the league average of makes (12.3) only 15 times in 55 games. As a result, they make on average 1.8 fewer 3-pointers than their opponents. Against top-shooting Eastern Conference teams such as the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, they are completely outgunned.

Throughout the last two seasons, the Bulls have leaned on their efficiency as a counter to their lack of attempts. But that higher shooting percentage clearly isn’t paying off as the Bulls slip further from the rest of the league from behind the arc.

“It just depends on the game,” LaVine said after Thursday’s loss. “Sometimes we make them. We don’t shoot a lot of them, but we’re pretty accurate when we do. We still find ways to win games, tonight just wasn’t one of them.”

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With the trade deadline past, the Bulls have little choice but to stay the course. They have chosen to opt out of the 3-point duels that define the modern NBA. Only four players on the roster average more than one 3-pointer made per game: LaVine (2.8), Nikola Vučević (1.7), Coby White (1.6) and Patrick Williams (1.4).

As the Bulls’ leading scorer, DeMar DeRozan averages one 3 made every other game — a crucial aspect of his midrange-heavy style that should not (and could not) be changed at this point in his career. But to offset this reality, the Bulls would need to load up on efficient shooting guards who could complement DeRozan around the perimeter.

As the Bulls face the laborious task of outscoring opponents with a higher volume of lower-value shots, Donovan’s solutions focus on other areas of the court — better rebounding, better ball protection, better defense.

“We’ve got to be able to sustain a standard of play over a period of time,” Donovan said. “That’s what we got to keep fighting for. And I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m just trying to be as honest as I can of the issues that we’re all trying to confront and deal with.”