The Chicago Bulls' early-season struggles continued Wednesday night as they were blown out by the New York Knicks 135-105 in one of their ugliest performances of the young season.

Chicago struggled to generate consistent offense, couldn't slow down New York defensively and once again found itself fighting an uphill battle after a slow start.

There weren't many positives to take away from this one, but a couple of reserves deserve some recognition. Unfortunately, the negatives far outweighed the positives.

Let's get into the good, the bad and the ugly from Wednesday night's loss.

Shoutout to Tre Jones and Jaylin Sellers for actually showing up to play basketball.

Chicago's backup backcourt was one of the few bright spots Wednesday night, combining for 28 points on an efficient 9-of-16 shooting from the field.

Sellers was particularly impressive from beyond the arc, knocking down four of Chicago's 10 made three-pointers. That's right, Sellers accounted for 40% of the Bulls' made threes by himself.

Jones continued to provide solid minutes off the bench, giving Chicago some much-needed stability in a game where just about everything else was going wrong.

Neither player was going to single-handedly save the Bulls from this disaster, but their performances deserve recognition. On a night when most of the roster struggled to get anything going, the backup guards at least gave fans something positive to watch.

Just when it seemed like Chicago's center rotation couldn't get any thinner, Jalen Smith left Wednesday's game with a hand injury.

It's another frustrating development for a Bulls team already dealing with injuries in its frontcourt.

Smith has quietly become one of Chicago's more important players this season. His chemistry with Josh Giddey has been particularly impressive, whether he's rolling to the basket, popping out for jumpers or cutting into open space.

He's also provided valuable rebounding, rim protection and energy for a team that desperately needs all three.

Losing Smith for any significant amount of time would be a major blow, especially with Nic Claxton still working toward his season debut.

Hopefully, the injury isn't serious. Chicago simply cannot afford to lose another reliable big man right now.

Where do we even begin?

Let's start with the point-of-attack defense, which has been absolutely atrocious.

Starting Josh Giddey on Jalen Brunson is a perfect example of both the flaws in this roster and some questionable decisions from head coach Tiago Splitter.

Giddey has plenty of strengths as a basketball player. Defending an All-NBA-caliber guard is certainly not one of them.

There is absolutely no reason Giddey should be tasked with guarding players like Brunson if the Bulls have any way of avoiding it. He's simply not equipped to consistently stay in front of quick, skilled guards who can create their own shots.

That's not entirely Giddey's fault. It's a roster construction issue, but it's also something Splitter needs to recognize and address.

Speaking of Splitter, the first-year head coach needs to start making adjustments earlier in these games.

Chicago has repeatedly dug itself into massive holes with slow starts, and Wednesday night was no different. At some point, continuing to roll out the same approach and expecting different results becomes a problem.

A starting lineup change might need to be on the table.

Matas Buzelis has struggled mightily to begin the season, and Wednesday was another disappointing night for Chicago's young core.

Even Caleb Wilson, who has been one of the few consistent bright spots this season, finally had his first truly poor performance.

The rookie finished just 2-of-12 from the field and 1-of-7 from three.

Wilson deserves some patience. He's a rookie, and bad games are going to happen. But his shot selection is something Chicago needs to address.

I love that Wilson has made improving his three-point shooting a priority. Developing that part of his game could eventually make him a nightmare matchup.

But it doesn't need to be such a massive part of his offensive arsenal right now.

We're talking about a 6-foot-10 freak athlete with excellent touch in the midrange. Why are we settling for seven three-point attempts instead of finding more creative ways to get him involved around the basket?

Get him touches near the elbows. Let him attack off the catch. Find opportunities for him to use his athleticism going downhill.

Developing a jump shot is important, but so is learning how to consistently generate efficient offense with the tools he already possesses.

And that brings us to perhaps the ugliest statistic of the entire night.

The Bulls attempted 44 three-pointers and made just 10 of them.

That's an embarrassing 22.7% from beyond the arc.

Chicago simply does not have enough reliable shooters to justify launching 40-plus threes every night.

There's nothing wrong with embracing the modern NBA's emphasis on perimeter shooting, but there needs to be some level of self-awareness.

When the shots aren't falling, adjust. Attack the basket. Get into the midrange. Find easier opportunities instead of repeatedly settling for contested jumpers.

Watching this team willingly shoot itself out of games is becoming exhausting.

This is a rebuilding team, and nobody should be expecting a playoff contender. But rebuilding doesn't mean abandoning smart basketball.

There needs to be a better offensive identity, and Splitter needs to start figuring out what works for the players he actually has.

The good news is that Chicago won't play again until Sunday.

That gives the Bulls three days to get healthier, regroup and hopefully make some meaningful adjustments in practice.

There is plenty of time to experiment with different lineups, rethink defensive assignments and find more creative ways to generate offense.

Nobody should be panicking about the win-loss record this early in a rebuild. Development was always going to be more important than victories this season.

But development also requires putting young players in positions to succeed.

Right now, the Bulls aren't consistently doing that.

Chicago doesn't need to come out Sunday looking like a completely different basketball team. It just needs to show that it's learning from these ugly performances.

Because losing games during a rebuild is expected.

Continuing to make the same mistakes without adjusting is a different story.