Why Should We Watch The Bulls This Year?
The Bears are finally competitive again, the Blackhawks seem like they’ve somewhat risen from the dead, and the Bulls are…entering year two of the rebuild.
I feel like more than any team in this city, they’re the squad that people like to latch onto when they’re good and then break away from when they’re bad. That’s not a diss as I really don’t care, but it’s an observation that I think is true. So what I’m going to do in this blog is give you 5 reasons why I think you should watch the Bulls this year, or at the very least, check in once in a while to stay topical with the die-hards in the office.
If you completely checked out during the offseason…here is a refresher of basically everything important that happened (minus Lauri’s injury):
Let’s get into the question marks/interesting storylines of why you should follow along now.
5. Bobby Portis is a restricted free agent next year
Bobby and the Bulls couldn’t agree on an extension before Monday’s deadline, so it should be an interesting season for him as he looks to secure the bag this offseason. He’s coming off a career year, and Lauri missing a couple months was a big come-up for Portis as he’s going to see a lot more minutes in a contract year. If he plays well, how strong of a trade chip could he be? Does he fit in with the future? He’s already said he wants to stay in Chicago, so it’s make-or-break for Bobby in red this year. Let’s hope that the Kings don’t screw us over again and make us match a dumb offer sheet.
4. The Jabari Experiment
It’s already kinda been a tumultuous situation and the season hasn’t even begun. Jabari’s reportedly upset that he’s not going to start…Hoiberg doesn’t want him to play the 3. Not like we could have seen any of these problems coming, right Gar and John? I say that jokingly, actually. There’s really no reason why we shouldn’t have given Parker a shot on a 1 year guaranteed (second year is a team option) deal to see if he can even come close to reaching his original ceiling. Throughout the preseason, he just hasn’t looked like he’s meshed well, but the guy deserves a little bit of time as there’s really no rush.
3. Do the Bulls have the most overpaid athlete in Chicago behind Jason Heyward
I hear you Blackhawks guys yelling Seabrook from the rafters, but sorry, he doesn’t make the cut here. An unproven shooting guard who has torn his ACL and doesn’t like to play defense does though. Needless to say, year one into a 4-year, $80 million dollar deal should give you more than enough reasons to check in on how #8 is progressing this season. It’ll be his 5th season total (3rd full one, hopefully), and if his preseason is any indication of how it’s going to be, then we’re going to very excited for Zach. Hopefully everybody talking shit about his defense makes him amp it way up this year.
2. Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory?
The Eastern Conference is so dumb.
The Bulls failed miserably at tanking last year even with being way overly cautious with injuries and openly sitting guys like RoLo & Holiday when they didn’t need to. Looking at the roster this year, I genuinely don’t see how we’re going to be bad enough in this Conference to grab another lottery pick or at least one that matters. Markkanen being hurt is going to help, but we have pick #12 or the 8th seed written all over us.
Purgatory = the #8 seed
Hell = a lottery pick (which really should be heaven given that we want this, but you get what i’m trying to say)
1. The Frontcourt of the Future
We’re going to have to wait a bit to see them play side-by-side due to Markkanen’s elbow injury, but man is it going to be awesome to see these two on the court together. The promise is definitely there too after Lauri’s rookie year and Carter’s showing in Summer League. Possibly looking at two cornerstones who are only 19 & 21 years old gives me full wood.
See Red, Baby.