Chicago had a busy offseason last year that gave them great results until injuries appeared. DeMar DeRozan was their big signing, but they also got Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso. Chicago managed to show good balance between offense and defense and they even had the East’s best record for a while, ending the first half of the season with a 38-21 record.
However, their second half of the season was a mess. Their best defenders got injured and with that, their defense fell apart. However, they kept a season-long trend: they couldn’t beat the top teams but did a good job at beating the lowly ones. In the playoffs, Chicago just couldn’t score against a Milwaukee team that played without Middleton most of the series. The Bucks dared them to shoot from the outside and the Bulls shot brick after brick, including an awful 15-52 3pts performance in the elimination game.
2022/23 Outlook:
Chicago returns this season with the same core of players that they had last year. The idea was to have an injury-free season from their stars, but Lonzo is already going to miss the first games with a knee injury. Ayo Dosunmu will be their PG due to his defensive prowerness and the team really needs some defensive players to play alongside LaVine and DeRozan. However, Ayo lacks Lonzo’s dynamics on offense…
The Bulls will be led again by LaVine and DeRozan. It’s incredible that DeRozan had a career season last year at 32 years old. He had an insane February (13 games) with 34.2 ppg, 55.3% FG, 40.0% 3pts & 87.7% FT. His mid range was lethal most of the season but eventually he ran out of gas. On the other hand, LaVine sacrificed some of his usage to accommodate DeRozan but had another solid season. Who never adapted to the new roster was Nikola Vucevic, whose efficiency worsened: 31.4% 3pts was his worst since 17-18.
In the offseason, the Bulls signed veterans Goran Dragic and Andre Drummond to give them more depth, but the team’s structure remains the same from last season. The Bulls had a +9.8 net rating with Caruso and Lonzo on court, but with Lonzo missing the start of the season, coach Bill Donovan will have to find the right balance between offense and defense so the team can remain competitive. Last year, he failed at that and never found the right lineups when Lonzo wasn’t available. Let’s see if he can fix that this season…