Chicago Bulls
At the end of January a season ago, the Chicago Bulls had the best record in the Eastern Conference. DeMar DeRozan was playing at an MVP level. Zach LaVine was selected to his second straight all-star game, along with DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic was putting up double-doubles on a nightly basis. Head Coach Billy Donovan had the Bulls playing the best ball the franchise had seen since the prime Derrick Rose days.
Then things took a turn for the worse. Injuries combined with poor performance dropped the Bulls down to the sixth seed at the end of the regular season. Chicago ended up losing in five to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs and entered the off-season with a bunch of question marks.
Fast-forward to the present day, with those question marks not addressed, the Bulls currently sit at 10th in the East. They are four games below .500 at 20-24 and are in real danger of missing out on an invitation to the play-in tournament.
What has changed over the past 12 months in Chicago?
Well, for starters, the East has improved drastically from a season ago.
The Celtics have learned from their Finals failure and have looked like the favorite to win it all this year.
Before Kevin Durant’s injury, the Nets were playing the best basketball in the KD and Kyrie Irving era.
The Milwaukee Bucks continue to be a force, led by Giannis, despite the absence of Khris Middleton.
James Harden has embraced his new role in Philadelphia alongside Joel Embiid where the Sixers are 16-6 since the start of December and are winners of eight of their last 10.
Donovan Mitchell has been exactly what the Cleveland Cavaliers were missing a season ago and has propelled them into contender status.
The New York Knicks, the Miami Heat, and the Indiana Pacers, separated by just two games, are all formidable foes full of talent.
The East is stacked.
Along with an improved Eastern Conference, it turns out the Bulls just aren’t that good.
Since the calendar flipped over to 2022, and now 2023, the Bulls have a record of 43-50. They are a mediocre basketball team that sits smack in the middle of the league: The worst possible place to be in the NBA.
On the flip side for Bulls fans, Chicago’s front office may be thinking to themselves: If we could just get Lonzo Ball back, we’ll be the team we were at the beginning of the season a year ago.
The thing is though, Ball hasn’t played in over a year, and he might not play at all this season based on the following tweet quoting ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
"There are no guarantees that Lonzo Ball plays at all this season. He's rehabbing that knee now and he's still feeling some pain in it."
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) December 15, 2022
- @wojespn on ESPN
If Chicago decides to keep things as they are for the rest of the season, this team will finish around .500 which, as mentioned previously, is the worst position to be in the NBA and miss out on a top-heavy 2023 NBA draft class.
The best thing for the future of the franchise is to trade away their players of value. DeRozan and Vucevic, along with Alex Caruso, Goran Dragic, and Derrick Jones Jr should be made available to all teams. Heck, even young guys like Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams should be on the market.
Instead of another first-round playoff exit (at best), Chicago should start putting themselves in the best position to land one of those top draft picks. That must be their top priority.