Officially a week away from the NBA preseason, it’s another day, and another step closer to the end of the SneakerReporter NBA Top 30 Teams list. We’re nearly halfway through the lottery teams on our list, so let’s not waste any time and continue with our list.
Today’s squad at team #25: the Chicago Bulls.
The post-Derrick Rose era has not been pretty as we all have come to understand, with the Bulls undergoing coaching staff facelifts, roster overhauls and very little, if any postseason success. The six-time NBA champs haven’t really been in the conversation of the most viable threats in the Eastern Conference in the past 5 years, consistently putting up sub .500 records and finding themselves on the outside looking into the playoff picture.
Still, the Bulls show a lot of promise in the development of their young superstars in Lauri Markkanen, Zach Lavine, Wendell Carter Jr. and a bevy of other stockpiled assets to give their future a glimmer of hope.
While the Bulls may not challenge the likes of a Milwaukee, Boston or Philadelphia right now, the Bulls are still chipping away at the process of building a contender in the next couple of years with pieces that can only get better.
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25. Chicago Bulls (35-47) – Maybe Not A Contender, But Definitely Not A Pushover
Maybe, just maybe…its time for Bulls fans to remove their vice grip from the throats of GarPax (dubbed organizational tandem of VP of Player Operations Jon Paxson and GM Gar Foreman), since they’ve basically been doing it for just about an entire decade.
For the first time since Jimmy Butler’s departure, the Bulls do not have to worry about being in the basement of the Eastern Conference. There is no major coaching controversy, and fans actually have a reason to believe their team’s record will look way different than how it did in 2018 one year later.
Chicago is growing the right way. The Bulls landed their point guard Coby White out of North Carolina and it looks like the Kriss Dunn era could be reaching its end in Chitown. So, the quartet of White, Markkanen, Carter, and Lavine could be a team to circle on your favorite team’s schedule, for these formidable four could wreak havoc on the East for years to come, and who knows, maybe this year.
Aside from their first-round pick, the trio of Markkanen, Carter Jr. and Lavine project to share the court for the majority of the season (with health permitting, obviously) and each has a different skill set which could help provide balance and structure to a team that has severely lacked it recently.
Markkanen, as some describe as another unicorn adjacent to Kristaps Porzingis, fits the bill of his nickname in a lot of ways. As the seventh pick in the 2017 NBA draft, the Finnish stretch big is known for his soft touch from outside the arc, as well as his astounding agility inside the paint. Also, the 22-year-old, third-year power forward has displayed some top-tier ball IQ in his two years as a starter.
The Finland native has drawn ceiling expectations to potentially being the next Dirk Nowitzki, and though his sophomore season was put on hold by an elbow injury that caused him to miss over 30 games last year, do not be surprised if Markkanen makes some major strides in 2019. Last season, he joined All-Stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Nikola Vucevic as the only players in the league to average at least 18 points per game and 9 rebounds while drilling over 36 percent of their three balls.
He will undoubtedly be the center of the Bulls offensive nucleus, but what will be the most intriguing thing to watch this year is how, or if, Zach Lavine makes that next step to being an elite shooting guard for the Bulls to run the offense through. We know Lavine to be a natural athlete with explosive hops that even the gym of the United Center can barely contain, but though he experienced career highs in points, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage last year, he has shown that he still lacks the ability to continually make smart and efficient decisions on offense and defense.
Hence, that’s where their first-round selection in Coby White comes in. So yes, Bulls fans can make it sound like both MJ and Coby (when pronounced, sounds like “Kobe”) both played for the Chicago Bulls.
Now, is he the same kind of guard? Yes and no, realistically, considering he is a shiftier on-ball and off-dribble scorer who’s drawn pro comparisons to Gilbert Arenas, and to some, Derrick Rose with how he was able to get by defenders with a tight handle that’s low to the ground while at North Carolina. White finished the season at UNC averaging 16.1 points and 4.1 assists per game earning All-ACC 2nd Team honors. But like Kobe, expect Coby to show a high motor on both ends of the floor, play hard defense and give mismatches something to remember at his athletic frame of 6’5, 185 lbs.
With an altered backcourt that will prioritize speed, change your expectations of the Bulls being 23rd in the league again in terms of the total pace of play as they were in 2018. The Bulls should be making some nice highlights in transition that will more than likely be posted on social media a lot this season, as they are now a team that can equally make you pay in the open court and halfcourt with the duo of Markkanen and Carter making their effect known down low.
Though the Bulls have their work cut out for them on the defensive end, their front office has made some good moves in free agency to bring in veteran enforcers to cover for their young core’s growing pains. The Bulls went and picked up Thaddeus Young in the offseason, which is good for the youthful Bulls considering he provides advice on what it takes to contend in the postseason. Young has been a part of some good Indiana Pacers rosters that have reached the conference finals when his former cohort Paul George burst onto the national scene.
He is capable of guarding small forwards and power forwards evenly, meaning he could be a necessary adversary for a team that has had trouble guarding anyone over the last couple of years. Young also has an eye for disrupting passing lanes, too. With fast hands and an even faster eye for picking the quintessential moment to jump the pass, only six players (Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Trevor Ariza, Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, and Paul George) have more steals between 2015 to 2019 than Young.
Wendell Carter Jr. may not make headlines for his ability to put the ball in the basket, but what he makes up for in his offensive insufficiency, he makes up for in his potential as a talented defender that can stick with just about anyone, anywhere, on the court.
In his rookie season, Carter was on a pedestal that not a single other rookie big man was able to reach. He finished 21st in overall true plus/minus among all of the league’s starting centers, a list that included the likes of Rudy Gobert, Joel Embiid, Al Horford and DeMarcus Cousins. There’s no doubt that the path he is on now can make him one of the league’s most intimidating defenders and his ability to move laterally off the switch, while still timing up blocks at the rim makes for a picture-perfect fit for the modern NBA that forces hybrid power forwards and centers to cover all positions.
Aside from their acquisitions in the offseason, the Bulls let some players walk in free agency like guards Antonio Blakeney, Wayne Selden, Bobby Portis (to the Knicks) and Timote Luwawu-Cabbarot (who just signed a training camp deal with the Cavs yesterday). Some names that will stay for the Bulls 2019-20 campaign are guard Ryan Archidiacono, Otto Porter, Denzel Valentine, Walter Lemon Jr., Shaquille Harrison, 2018 lottery pick Chandler Hutchinson and big man Christian Felicio.
Also, the Bulls picked up some beneficial parts to their team that could help them out in a variety of ways, more so on the offensive end. Chicago finished last season with the third-lowest team 3 point percentage in the league and 19th in the league when measuring threes made in a single season. But, that should change a little with the addition of former Washington Wizards guard Tomas Satoransky. Averaging 8.9 points per game while nearly shooting 40 percent from deep, Satoransky has shown flashes of being a starter, even on such a guard-saturated roster.
Along with his capacity to score and pass at a high level for a reserve, Satoransky’s 6-foot-7 size and ability to play the point guard position give him an advantage over most guards defensively.
Head coach Jim Boylen can only see up when theorizing how good these young Bulls can be this year, and the Bulls certainly have the talent to challenge for one of the final spots in the depleted bottom-half of the east, but the question remains: is it smart to do so now and waste the opportunity to get another lottery pick?
Tanking for another high draft pick is a good choice, but the Bulls do want to establish some competitive spirit, and it certainly looks like they can right now. Looking ahead, it looks like their next best chance to add a superstar is during the 2021 offseason, where the free agency class is already looking like one of the best we’ve ever seen, and probably better than this past offseason with all-stars, like that of Chicago’s very own Anthony Davis, having his one-year deal with the Lakers end.
In order to be a real contender for one of the top guys, they should look at how the Clippers and Nets were able to attract big market stars to small-market clubs this summer. as even though those two franchises are considered little brothers to the big city Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. The Chicago Bulls are a big and legendary name and if they put out a good product in 2019-20 while showing organizational stability, the plan to compete right away could make the Windy City a potential free-agent draw.
If Chicago can position themselves to make a run at the playoffs the next two seasons to show that they are trending in the right direction, that right there can be the ultimate difference as to whether they can get a star in the future.
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