The Bulls had the goal of securing one of the last playoff seeds in the East last season but they were very far from achieving that, as they didn’t even play in the bubble. They had some important injuries during the season as Porter only played 14 games and Carter Jr was only on court for 43 games.
Jim Boylen created an unique defensive system in which they were extremely aggressive by blitzing the opposing ball handlers (which forced them to spend a lot of energy) and even though this system was heavily criticized, the truth is that Chicago ended the regular season by being #13 in the league in terms of defensive efficiency.
What really screwed Chicago last season was their subpar offense as they were only #27 in the league in terms of offensive efficiency, with only the Knicks, Hornets and Warriors being worse than them.
The Bulls were also subpar in TO/rate and FT/rate, while they were very aggressive at attacking the rim (#1 ranked in the league in vol% shots between 0-3 feet), but they were the worst team in the league at converting these shots with just 62.7% FG.
Jim Boylen was fired in this offseason and former OKC coach Billy Donovan is the new head coach. His main task this season will be to turn the Bulls into a respectable offensive team. Zach LaVine and Coby White will likely be the main players in the backcourt and even though we think about these two players as offensive minded, the truth is that this didn’t happen last season.
These two players were on court together for 363 minutes last season and while the Bulls couldn’t defend with a poor 112.3 defensive rating, they also couldn’t score with a lowly 105.4 offensive rating. Both players aren’t also good playmakers, as they combined an average of 6.9 assists per game vs 4.2 turnovers per game, so Donovan’s challenge will be tough.
The Bulls’ frontcourt will be formed by Carter Jr, Markannen and Porter, three players who are coming from banged up seasons. So, health will be an important factor for this unit. The Bulls don’t seem to have a lot of trust in them as they drafted Patrick Williams. Therefore, Chicago will now have three Power Forwards looking for minutes: the rookie Williams, Markannen and the veteran Thad Young.
Chicago might even become a contender to sneak the 8th seed in the East this season, but in order to do that they’ll need LaVine and White to play well together on both ends of the floor, while their entire frontcourt will need to have an injury free season.