Last year was a somewhat disappointing season for the Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls went 27-55, finishing in last place in the NBA Central Division and thirteenth place in the NBA Eastern Conference.
They were in a rebuilding mode last year, which means that they were not really focused on making the playoffs, but were more focused on developing their young talent for future success.
Chicago went into the offseason with the idea of adding more young talent to their roster. They started the offseason on June 21st with the 2018 NBA Draft.
In the draft, the Bulls picked two players: Wendell Carter Jr., a center from Duke with the 7th overall pick and Chandler Hutchinson, a shooting guard from Boise State with the 22nd overall pick.
The Bulls continued their rebuilding phase by re-signing star shooting guard Zach LaVine to a 4 year, $80 million deal.
One week later, the Bulls signed small forward Jabari Parker to a 2 year $40 mil- lion deal.
With Chicago revamping their roster and gearing towards a younger slant, the Bulls look poised to improve this year.
At point guard, the Bulls have Kris Dunn and Cameron Payne, who are both only twenty-four years old. At shooting guard, the Bulls have Zach LaVine and Chandler Hutchinson, who are both in their early twenties. At small forward, Chicago has Jabari Parker and Denzel Valentine. At power forward, the Bulls have Lauri Markkanen, who was one of the best rookies last year.
At center, the Bulls are starting Wendell Carter Jr., who was one of the top ten players in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Chicago also has Justin Holiday, Bobby Portis, and Robin Lopez on the bench as role players.
Chicago was very optimistic going into this year, but some bad news derailed some of their plans before the preseason even started.
On September 29th, news emerged that Lauri Markkanen suffered an elbow sprain and would be out for 6 to 8 weeks.
With the Bulls having to regroup from the serious injury, the Bulls now must prepare for their regular season games.
The regular season starts on October 18th when the Bulls play the Philadelphia 76ers in Philadelphia.
Chicago’s first regular season home game comes two days later when they play the Detroit Pistons at the United Center. They should be back at full strength
by November 10th at the earliest and by November 24th at the latest, because that is when Lauri Markkanen is due back from his injury, barring complications.
The Bulls have a promising young core that can really make some noise this year, so the playoffs are not out of the question.
This team has a very real possibility of going far in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Even if they get eliminated, fans should keep their heads up knowing that this team is still far from reaching their full potential.
After last year’s rebuilding season, a sense of hope and optimism is in the air for the Chicago Bulls.
Chris Leonchik
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