How Bulls Can Solve Their Biggest Questions as Playoffs Approach
The Chicago Bulls once again resisted external calls to demolish this roster ahead of the Feb. 8 NBA trade deadline and remain committed to this core.
Now, it falls on the players to prove that the front office made the right decision.
Securing a spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament isn't enough. If that's all this group can do, then the franchise made the wrong move staying idle at the trade deadline.
External expectations won't call for anything more—this is a sub-.500 team after all—but Chicago needs to show it's capable of more than anyone else thinks. To do that, the Bulls have some tall tasks ahead of them.
Coby White Improving Consistency
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The most important to thing to happen in the Windy City this season is Coby White making a leap. He looks like the leading figure of their next chapter and a primary piece of this one.
The spotlight has never shined so bright on the No. 7 pick of the 2019 draft, and that's always a tough task for young players to handle. White has handled it better than most, but he isn't yet at a place where he is bringing his best every night.
Granted, that's a huge ask of someone who averaged fewer than 24 minutes per game and made just two starts last season, but that's his new reality. DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vučević and Alex Caruso can help with some of the heavy lifting, but White is perhaps most responsible for setting this club's ceiling.
This roster wasn't loaded to begin with, and it has since lost a pair of starters (Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams) to season-ending injuries. So, the Bulls need their healthy players to outperform expectations.
White has been doing that all season, but Chicago may need another gear out of him yet.
Finding Reliability from Reserves
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The Bulls don't have enough high-end talent to overwhelm opponents with their starting lineup.
Their original opening quintet of White, LaVine, DeRozan, Williams and Vučević was outscored by 5.5 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com. Their latest starting five—with Caruso and Ayo Dosunmu in place of LaVine and Williams—has a minus-2.0 net rating across 259 minutes.
The Bulls are often at a deficit when they start working their second-teamers into the mix. They need these reserves to provide a consistent spark, and that isn't happening enough. On the season, Chicago's reserves are slightly in the red (minus-0.3 net rating).
Beyond Andre Drummond dominating the glass and Torrey Craig (when healthy) doing his three-and-D thing, there just hasn't been much that head coach Billy Donovan can count on with this group. Getting what they expected out of Jevon Carter as opposed to what they've received (4.9 points on 37.1/33.0/60.0 shooting) would go a long way toward stabilizing this unit.
Collecting Some Signature Wins
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Credit the Bulls for one thing: They don't give away many games that they should win.
They've played 24 games against opponents with losing records. They won all but six of them.
That's helpful for solidifying their place in the standings, but it won't do much for their postseason plans. They won't have bottom-feeders to bury anymore, so they'll have to find ways of beating this league's good-to-great teams.
That rarely happens for Chicago, which has gone an anemic 12-26 (.316 winning percentage) against .500-or-better opponents.
The reason why folks keep calling for the destruction of this roster is that they don't see a high enough ceiling to justify running this core back. The Bulls' inability to hang with the NBA's best only feeds into that skepticism.
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