Five months ago I wrote an article called The Bulls Are Back after they started the season 6-1. After that, they were below .500 at the end of November, traded half the team at the trade deadline, and were eliminated from playoff contention before April with an astounding final record of 31-51, finishing 12th in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s one of the worst aged articles of all time,” said junior Nicolas Bertholini.
The Bulls were being led to a prolific start by point guard Josh Giddey, and he ended up missing most of the season due to a series of injuries.
Speaking of injuries, the Bulls were undefeated without star shooting guard Coby White. He came back and didn’t play well and the Bulls got worse.
However, White was then traded to the Hornets and played much better in that role, so maybe it was just a Bulls issue. The Bulls are historically seen as an awful franchise after the 90’s, so this wasn’t really a surprise to anyone.
“They’re pretty bad as an organization. They haven’t done anything since Michael Jordan. I’d say the one bright spot was drafting Derrick Rose, but then he got hurt. They’re really insignificant, unremarkable, and forgettable,” said math teacher Zach Phillips.
The Bulls’ offense was electric at the start of the year and it seemed like Giddey and Buzelis could lead the team to the playoffs in a “weaker” Eastern Conference due to injuries to star players such as Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton.
The offense then just became average and the defense was abysmal. After center Nikola Vučević was traded to the Celtics, the Bulls only had one player over 6 ’10, which was backup center Nick Richards.
The starting center after the trade deadline was Guerschon Yabusele who is 6 ‘7 and backup center Jalen Smith who was also 6’ 8. This was a recipe for disaster.
The Bulls did find another potential superstar with Matas Buzelis who according to Basketball Reference averaged 16.3 points per game this year which almost doubled his average from his rookie season a year ago.
Another pleasant surprise was forward Leonard Miller who was traded to the Bulls in the trade for Ayo Dosunmu which caused an uproar amongst fans because they were trading a fan favorite from Chicago. However, Dosunmu is in a better place now that he can contend for a championship.
According to Basketball Reference, Miller averaged 11.7 points per game in only 23.1 minutes per game.
Another player who was involved in that trade with the Timberwolves was former first round point guard Rob Dillingham.
Many expected Dillingham to play well with the Bulls, since he’d finally get playing time, but he was very lackluster.
“He’s too small and it’s harder for him to score because of that. He can be a role player, but if he can’t score, he’s no good to the NBA, especially because he can’t play defense,” said junior Yianni Apostolopoulos.
This season also had controversy involved as point guard Jaden Ivey only played four games for the Bulls after getting traded and was then released due to comments that were seen as “detrimental to the team.”
The upcoming offseason will leave ownership with lots of questions. They just fired General Manager Marc Eversley and executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas. Many wonder if head coach Billy Donovan will be next to lose his job in Chicago.
This season was one most people will forget as a casual fan, but to Bulls fans, they’ll remember this disaster of a season for a long time.