However, they continued to struggle finishing last place in the Central Division with a 23–59 record, missing the playoffs for the sixth straight season.
This happened just days after the team learned it would be without services of Jay Williams, who was injured in a motorcycle accident in June and would miss this entire season.
A few days later, Scott Skiles was named head coach (11/28/03) as he set out to instill a tough, defensive-minded, and high-effort mentality upon his new team.
A blockbuster of a deal went down on 12/01/03, when Chicago traded Lonny Baxter, Donyell Marshall and Jalen Rose to Toronto for Antonio Davis, Chris Jefferies and Jerome Williams.
Other Notes: Hired Assistant Coaches Johnny Bach (07/15/03) and Ron Adams (07/16/03) ... snapped a 26-game road losing streak versus Western Conference teams with a 95–79 win at Utah (02/04/04) ... Hinrich dished out 506 assists and his average of 6.7 apg ranked tied for 7th in the NBA, despite the Bulls ranking last in the league in team field goal percentage (.414) ... Hinrich was the only rookie in the NBA to tally a triple–double when he registered 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists against the visiting Golden State Warriors (02/28/04) ... Jamal Crawford went for a career–high 50 points (18–34 FG, 8–11 FT) at Toronto (04/11).