Skip to content

Chicago Bulls' road back to respectability depends on development of young stars

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine rams home a dunk
Image: Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine rams home a dunk

Zach LaVine and his young team-mates give the Chicago Bulls a number of intriguing pieces to lead the team back to NBA respectability.

Chicago Bulls

2018-19 record: 22-60, did not qualify for the playoffs

Key additions: Coby White (Draft), Tomas Satoransky (trade), Thaddeus Young (free agency)

Key departures: Robin Lopez

The lowdown

The second year of the Bulls' rebuild was disappointing because it failed to show significant progress on the court and in the standings. The 60 losses marked the most since 2001-02 and the overall record was fifth-worst in club history. The Bulls couldn't score (ranking 27 out of 30 offensively) or stop anyone (20 out of 30 in points allowed). By almost every metric, the season was a wash and one of the NBA's largest markets became a blip on the basketball radar.

Sync NBA fixtures to your phone
Sync NBA fixtures to your phone

Sync your team's 2019-20 NBA schedule, plus NBA Saturdays and NBA Sundays, to your phone's calendar

There were reasons, of course; injuries caused players to miss 290 games and two of the future hopefuls, rookie Wendell Carter and second-year man Lauri Markkanen, played 44 and 52 games, respectively, with Kris Dunn held to 46.

Lauri Markkanen fires from three-point range
Image: Lauri Markkanen fires from three-point range

In order to shake up the roster and add to the asset pool, the Bulls swung a deal for Otto Porter, the richly compensated forward who brought shooting range. In their handful of games together, Porter and Zach LaVine gave the Bulls a pair of scoring swingmen who might cause problems for defenses starting next season.

LaVine (23.7 points per game) had a solid and mainly injury-free season where he improved his shooting and rediscovered his explosiveness while playing out of position at times at point guard. He was the centre piece of the club and the reason to buy tickets.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Zach LaVine erupted for 39 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to victory over the Philadelphia 76ers

But for the most part, the Bulls slogged along, sifting through different line-ups and players, searching for signs of stability and hope and mainly coming up short.

Summer summary

With room under the salary cap to use and the No 7 pick in the Draft, the Bulls made moves designed to fortify their rotation and add to their young core. Which meant drafting a much-needed point guard, signing a veteran and also trading for a developing swingman.

Also See:

Follow Sky Sports NBA on Twitter
Follow Sky Sports NBA on Twitter

See the NBA's best plays and stay up to date with the latest news

Ever since Derrick Rose, a former league MVP, suffered a knee injury seven years ago, the Bulls have hunted for a point guard with sharp instincts, leadership and playmaking ability. They've mainly struck out since, which is unusual, given the abundance of point guards in today's NBA, where nearly every team has reasonably decent talent at the position. The Bulls turned to Dunn three years ago and figured the search was over, but shooting issues haunted him almost from the start.

Coby White is drafted at No 7 by the Chicago Bulls
Image: Coby White is drafted at No 7 by the Chicago Bulls

And so the Bulls found themselves with another lottery pick this summer and persistent questions about the position, which is why they took Coby White, one of the more promising point guards in this class. The curiously-coiffed White was applauded for his size (6ft 3in), shooting range (he set a North Carolina freshman record for three-pointers) and ability to play off the ball should the Bulls choose to use him more at the two-spot.

Chicago's summer wasn't confined to White and the Draft. The Bulls managed to pull off a sign-and-trade for Tomas Satoransky, a natural swingman with point guard skills, which he put to use in Washington last season after being pressed into that duty when the Wizards lost John Wall to long-term injury.

Zach LaVine powers home a dunk against Atlanta
Image: LaVine powers home a dunk against Atlanta

It'll be interesting, though, to see how the Bulls juggle LaVine, Satoransky and Porter, all of whom are similarly sized and skilled. It's a good problem to have and the minutes can be sorted out to everyone's satisfaction. In a perfect scenario, the Bulls will always have two and three scorers on the floor at all times with the players mentioned above and Markkanen in that mix. In a worst-case scenario, someone will be unhappy with their role or minutes.

The Bulls also signed Thaddeus Young in free agency; he's a fairly underrated power forward who had decent years in Philly and Indiana. Young is a smart and drama-free veteran who'll also be a good locker room fit for a developing team while complimenting Markkanen well, or at least that's the hope, anyway.

LaVine (right) takes in a Summer League game with Bulls team-mates Thaddeus Young and Otto Porter Jr
Image: LaVine (right) takes in a Summer League game with Bulls team-mates Thaddeus Young and Otto Porter Jr

They didn't re-sign Robin Lopez, and with Carter healed and ready to resume his NBA career, Lopez wasn't in the plans at center anyway. Yet the Bulls perhaps could have received something for him prior to the trade deadline before he walked; you wonder how hard they tried.

The other order of business was the head coach. One of the stranger team-coach relationships is Jim Boylen and the Bulls. He isn't especially popular among the fans, had to squelch the threat of a player uprising early last season and the Bulls went nowhere on his watch. Yet, he goes into next season with a three-year extension awarded to him this summer.

Join our NBA group on Facebook
Join our NBA group on Facebook

Sign up and join the NBA conversation in our Facebook group

Maybe the Bulls' management didn't have much choice. Had they whacked Boylen, it would've been yet another blow to the Bulls' ability to choose their coaches wisely, having given up on Fred Hoiberg just a year earlier.

Boylen certainly has paid his dues, with assistant stints with the Warriors, Bucks, Rockets, Pacers and next to Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. Of course, there's the question if he's better suited as an assistant. Anyway, the Bulls pledged their faith in Boylen and his job status for now is a non-issue.

Get NBA news on your phone
Get NBA news on your phone

Want the latest NBA news, features and highlights on your phone? Find out more

So Chicago move forward with the ongoing rebuilding process, hoping that healthy bodies, potential star power with LaVine and improved production from young players will quicken the road to respectability. It's really their only choice, and it'll require patience from everyone involved.

Want to watch the NBA and WNBA but don't have Sky Sports? Get the Sky Sports Action and Arena pack, click here.

Veteran NBA writer Shaun Powell has worked for newspapers and other publications for more than 25 years. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Powell2daPeople

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.

Around Sky