Why the Chicago Bulls could be the surprise team in the NBA.
How do the numbers 37.5 and 9.5. tie to the Chicago Bulls?
37.5 is the projected regular season win total that both DraftKings Sportsbook and ESPN have the Chicago Bulls finishing with for the 2023-24 NBA season. 9.5 is the projected seed that DraftKings has the Bulls finishing within the Eastern Conference.
Most have the Bulls winning 37 to 38 games. ESPN has the Bulls outside the East’s top-10 altogether. As a long-time, die-hard Chicago Bulls fan I will put this lightly…
I disagree.
Will the Bulls be better than the Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, or Philadelphia 76ers? Of course not. Do I believe that these Bulls are better than the Cleveland Cavaliers? Nope.
I do believe that the Bulls can compete with the other teams in the East. ESPN projects the remaining Eastern Conference playoff and/or Play-In teams to be the following, in order:
- New York Knicks
- Atlanta Hawks
- Miami Heat
- Toronto Raptors
- Brooklyn Nets
- Indiana Pacers
The Chicago Bulls were atop the Eastern Conference standings halfway through the 2021-22 season with basically the same roster. That didn’t happen by accident. Of course, that’s also when point guard Lonzo Ball went down with a knee injury. Ball hasn’t played since.
The Bulls are still trying to identify his replacement.
This is a Bulls team that also should have been the East’s #8 seed a year ago, despite an underwhelming 2022-23 season. Chicago defeated the Raptors in their first Play-In game. They even held a lead against the Heat in Miami late in the 4th quarter. The Heat ended the game with a 15-1 run to send the Bulls home.
Imagine how much different last season’s Playoffs could have been if the Bulls held on.
The Bucks traded for Damian Lillard. The Celtics acquired Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. The Sixers added Kelly Oubre, Jr., and Patrick Beverley, and got James Harden to show up to training camp. The Bulls added…
Jevon Carter, Torrey Craig, and a Turkish player named Onuralp Bitim.
And yet, here I am standing on my soapbox telling you that the Bulls are being slept on. I’m not telling you that Chicago will come out of the East. Even the most optimistic Bulls fan couldn’t say that with a straight face.
This team IS better than 37 wins and a 10th seed in the East though. In fact, the 2023-24 Chicago Bulls could be better than most people think. Let’s explore a few reasons why.
The Chicago Bulls have depth on the roster
Bulls President of Basketball Operations Artūras Karnišovas and General Manager Marc Eversley decided to bring back essentially the same roster for the third season in a row. They may not be the sexiest team on paper, but the Bulls possess a deeper and more versatile roster this year.
“AKME” re-signed starting center Nikola Vučević to a three-year deal. Vučević was third in the NBA in double-doubles and was the team’s third-leading scorer last season. He once again reunites with one of the league’s top-scoring tandems in DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine.
Head coach Billy Donovan will once again rely heavily on his three All-Star caliber players this season. He will need to decide on a starting point guard with Lonzo Ball still out due to injury. Luckily for him, he has three solid options.
The Bulls re-signed guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu to three-year contracts. Both youngsters will compete for the starting job along with free-agent signing and Chicago-area native Jevon Carter. All three are capable of winning the starting job. Regardless, point guard depth looks to be a strength for the Bulls.
This will allow fan-favorite Alex Caruso to come off the bench after starting 36 games last year. Former All-Star big man Andre Drummond also returns to the Bulls’ “bench-mob.” He’s one of the better backup centers in the NBA and provides energy on the boards.
The front office also signed veteran forward Torrey Craig. He could battle fourth-year forward Patrick Williams for minutes. More importantly, Craig is a 3-and-D player which is something the Bulls lacked depth in last season.
Don’t look now, but Billy Donovan has a solid nine-man rotation that he could mix and match lineups with…
PG: White, Carter, Dosunmu
SG: LaVine, Caruso, Terry
SF: DeRozan, Craig, Bitum, Taylor
PF: Williams, Sanogo, Phillips
C: Vučević, Drummond
The Chicago Bulls will be a defense-first team
The Bulls narrowly missed out on the NBA Playoffs last season, but not due to lack of effort- especially on the defensive end. Believe it or not, Chicago was fifth in the NBA in team defensive rating, seventh in points allowed, and in the top 10 in many other defensive categories.
A lot of that may have been driven by what I like to call “The Pat Bev Effect.” Patrick Beverley joined the Bulls for the final 23 games last season. His defensive presence and energy helped Chicago to a 14-9 record the rest of the way, almost sneaking the Bulls into the playoffs.
Beverley may have provided a late-season spark, but he wasn’t the only one providing energy and effort on the defensive end. Bulls fans have been waiting for Patrick Williams to break out, but he has excelled defensively in his young career so far.
Alex Caruso is the team’s best all-around defender. The league took notice of that last season. Caruso was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team.
Shooting is contagious. So is defensive effort. Bringing in Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig will help the Bulls in both departments but more so on defense. Both newcomers have played in the NBA Finals. Carter has a ring with the Bucks. They know what it takes to win.
It starts with defense.
The Chicago Bulls have continuity and last year may have been an aberration
The Bulls basically played .500-ball in 2022 after Ball went down with a knee injury. Then, most experts had the Bulls winning 38-42 games last season. Chicago ended up winning 40 games. Still, many (including myself) believe the Bulls underachieved last year,
Karnišovas has stressed the importance of roster continuity and chemistry during his time in Chicago. He decided to bring back his “big three” (DeRozan, LaVine, Vučević) for one more run. We have seen continuity work on the FIBA level with various National teams that grew up playing together. The chemistry of the Spanish National Team is a good example.
Continuity is not something that typically describes today’s NBA with the amount of player movement that occurs. Does it mean something historically? Sure. You do need chemistry to win in the NBA.
The Bulls’ brass is also banking on last season being a down year for the team. Zach LaVine got off to a slow start coming off a knee procedure. Coby White too started slowly and posted the lowest scoring average of his four-year career. Patrick Williams deferred too much to DeRozan and LaVine – who often played too much hero-ball throughout the year.
This is a Bulls team that seems to genuinely like each other. Most of the roster has been together for two or three years now. It may not mean much in terms of wins, but it must count for something.
Artūras Karnišovas and Marc Eversley are banking on it.
Keys to success for the Chicago Bulls
Head coach Billy Donovan needs to make adjustments to the team’s style of play for the Bulls to be a top-six Playoff team this season.
The Bulls may have been a top defensive team last year, but they missed the Playoffs because they were a bottom-tier offensive team. Donovan has stressed changing the team’s style of play during the preseason so far.
The Bulls were a top-ten team in terms of field-goal percentage and turnovers. The Bulls ranked 21st in points per game despite all that. One adjustment Donovan mentioned is getting into the paint more. The Bulls were fifth in free throw shooting percentage but shot the fifth-least times from the charity stripe.
Last year’s Bulls shot a decent percentage from three-point range (36.1% – 15th in the NBA). However, they were ranked dead-last in the league in both three-point makes and attempts.
The Bulls have capable shooters which include LaVine, Williams, and White. Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig will also help in that department. The Bulls need to shoot more threes, especially DeRozan.
How do they change in both areas? Pace of play.
Donovan wants the Bulls to play faster and move away from hero-ball. If they push the tempo and move the ball they will get cleaner looks from the arc. It will also create opportunities in transition and could open driving lanes in offensive sets.
DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vučević are proven players. They are multi-time NBA All-Stars. You know what you will get from them. The Bulls need their young players to take a step up – primarily Coby White and Patrick Williams.
Coby White can score the basketball. He should win the starting point guard job. Donovan and the Bulls expect big things out of their fifth-year guard. That includes taking some pressure off the Bulls’ “Big Three” as another scoring threat on the floor.
The biggest knock on Williams is that he isn’t aggressive enough on the offensive end of the floor. He’s the team’s X-Factor. Patrick Williams must emerge as an offensive threat for the Bulls to be successful. He has the physical tools and is a career 41% three-point shooter.
This Chicago Bulls team has the talent, the depth, and a blueprint for how to be better this season. If they can get away from hero-ball, speed up their pace offensively, and their young players step up there is no way this Bulls squad isn’t a top-six Playoff team in the East.
Personally, I believe all the above will happen and we will see the Bulls in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. I wouldn’t trust ESPN’s projections if I were a betting man. They have the Cavaliers finishing with a higher win total than the Milwaukee Bucks. And the Philadelphia 76ers.