Hot Takes on Bulls' Roster and 2024 Title Hopes Ahead of NBA Season
The 2023-24 NBA season looms as judgment day—or maybe 82 judgment days—for the Chicago Bulls.
There is a chance they'll be rewarded for sticking with this core and showing that the slow-and-steady tortoise sometimes wins the race. Of course, there's also the possibility that Chicago's ongoing commitment will crystallize more as stubbornness and the refusal to accept all the less than kind things the standings and stat sheet have been saying about this team.
Are these Bulls rampaging toward a brick wall, or does this group actually have the upside this front office seemingly believes in wholeheartedly? We'll break down that question and more with a round of Windy City-based hot takes.
This Will Be a Top-10 Offense
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Chicago's 2022-23 season was confusing for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was the way this team found the small success it achieved.
You'd think a roster led by DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević would be attempting to overwhelm opponents with so much offense that it compensated and then some for a perpetually leaky defense. Instead, it was Chicago's 24th-ranked attack, per NBA.com, dragging down the team's fifth-ranked defense.
If the Bulls hope to change their fortunes, they must embrace what this roster was built to do best: get buckets. When your three best players all possess score-first skill sets, you shouldn't be searching for points as often as this squad was.
That shouldn't happen again. The Bulls can find more touches for Vučević, more attacking chances for DeRozan and more open-floor opportunities for LaVine and their young athletes like Coby White and Patrick Williams. Chicago needs to lean into an offense-first identity, and if it does, this club could easily wind up fielding one of the league's 10 most-efficient attacks.
Jevon Carter Can Solve the Point Guard Problem
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The point guard position has been a sore spot (literally and figuratively) since Lonzo Ball first went down with a knee injury in January 2022.
Chicago could potentially bury that problem once and for all after smartly snatching up Jevon Carter.
He may not have as many tools in his arsenal, but he can recreate a lot of what a healthy Ball did by moving the ball quickly, making good decisions, canning catch-and-shoot shots and digging in defensively. Carter has never logged enough minutes to make a major dent on the stat sheet, but the markings of a solid floor general are all present.
He has made his perimeter shot a real asset, hitting a career-high 1.8 long-range makes per night at a 42.1 percent clip last season. He's always kept a good gap between his assists (career 1.7 per game) and turnovers (0.6), and his defense is as tenacious as you'll find at the position.
His impact probably won't be as dramatic as a healthy Ball's was, but it should be greater than any Bulls point guard has made since Ball went down.
Chicago Will Push for a Play-in Spot—Then Blow It Up Next Offseason
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The Bulls' ceiling might stretch as high as a No. 5 or No. 6 seed, but obviously we don't see them climbing that high.
There are myriad factors driving that doubt but the simplest is the sheer depth of the Eastern Conference. The Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers could easily claim the top-four seeds, leaving the Bulls to contend with the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks—at the very least—for one of those two seeds.
And, of course, the Bulls could easily face more roadblocks if teams like the Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors exceed external expectations.
This numbers game could get the better of Chicago—a losing team since Ball's injury—and force it into a second consecutive play-in tournament appearance. At that point, how could this front office keep thinking this team is on the right track? Bow out of the play-in or even escape it and promptly get steamrolled in the first round, and Chicago could finally be ready for the reset so many already see as inevitable.
