Happy New Year, Bulls fans!
As we continue on in the 2025 portion of this campaign, your Chicago Bulls currently sit at 16-19 and 10th place in the Eastern Conference – one game behind the Detroit Pistons who recently lost one of their best players for the rest of the season in Jaden Ivey.
That means the Bulls are on pace to do … just about exactly what they did last year! Who’s excited for an electric atmosphere on night one of the Play-In Tournament followed by a loss to the 7 or 8 seed!? What about (at best) a first-round sweep against the Cavs or Celtics?
Sorry, I don’t mean to take away the fun of rooting for the Bulls, but that’s kind of where we’re at. This year was expected to be one step back with hopes of taking two steps forward down the road. This hasn’t been that. If anything, the Bulls have taken a step to the side.
The Bulls rightfully moved on from DeMar DeRozan in the offseason, which was great. But when trading for Alex Caruso, they opted for Josh Giddey (in a contract year) who was good enough to help them now instead of one of OKC’s several draft picks. Torrey Craig and Talen Horton-Tucker are also averaging just about as many minutes as Matas Buzelis and Julian Phillips!
Instead of making moves to try and ensure they end up with their Top-10 protected first-round pick (and maybe add another via trade) in this year’s loaded draft, they’re a lot closer to not having a pick at all. It’s not necessarily the front office’s fault that the trade markets for Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic are still developing, but at the same time, it also doesn’t feel like there’s a ton of urgency to move on from them either.
I know that no one will ever play or coach to lose. I fully understand that and I’m not suggesting that Billy Donovan or the Bulls players should be thinking about that when they take the floor night in and night out. But what’s best for the franchise is having your first-round pick this season. It’s the front office’s job to try and make sure that happens. The NBA Trade Deadline is exactly a month from today. Can any of you honestly read this and say it doesn’t seem somewhat likely that both LaVine and Vucevic will be here when that deadline passes at 1:00 PM CT on February 6th?
If they’re both here, as much as I appreciate them, that’s a huge failure on the end of the front office. They’re both having resurgent years and can help contenders. It’s doubtful you get the return you once hoped for either, but hanging on to them and hoping for lottery luck will likely just end up being a fool’s errand.
Anyway, it’s a four-game week for the Chicago Bulls and it begins tonight against an opponent who knows all about pulling off a successful rebuild and winning NBA titles.
Meet the Bulls’ Opponents
1/6 at Spurs: Wemby at the UC! 1/8 at Pacers: Hope you enjoy three-pointers! 1/10 vs Wizards: Can they lose to Washington twice in a row? 1/12 vs Kings: Welcome back, DeMar!Bulls Projected Lineup
Coby White Josh Giddey Zach LaVine Patrick Williams Nikola Vucevic © David Banks-Imagn ImagesOpponent Projected Lineup
San Antonio Spurs
Chris Paul Devin Vassell Jeremy Sochan Harrison Barnes Victor WembanyamaIndiana Pacers
Tyrese Haliburton Andrew Nembhard Bennedict Mathurin Pascal Siakam Myles TurnerWashington Wizards
Carlton Carrington Jordan Poole Bilal Coulibaly Justin Champagnie Alexandre SarrSacramento Kings
De’Aaron Fox Keon Ellis Malik Monk DeMar DeRozan Domantas SabonisUnavailable/Injured (at the start of the week)
Bulls: Ayo Dosunmu OUT (calf), Torrey Craig OUT (leg) Spurs: Riley Minix QUESTIONABLE (newly signed) Pacers: Aaron Nesmith OUT (ankle, conditioning) Wizards: Jordan Poole QUESTIONABLE (hip), Bilal Coulibaly QUESTIONABLE (illness), Malcolm Brogdon QUESTIONABLE (foot) Kings: De’Aaron Fox QUESTIONABLE (hip) Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY SportsWhat to Watch For
Bulls: As mentioned above, this season has been unfortunately all too familiar for Bulls fans. The team might be just good enough to not keep their pick, but nowhere near good enough to do anything more than lose in the Play-In Tournament. As a result, I’m not totally sure what I want to see or watch for this week. The team just kind of seems to be “existing.” The easy answer is the continued development of Coby White, Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, and company, but if they keep playing well and LaVine and Vooch remain on the roster, then this team could win more games than they should. It’s a bad spot to be in, and with the rumored interest in Vooch from a new team, Arturas Karnisovas should be working hard to get a deal done. Spurs: Tonight feels like a pretty tough matchup for the Bulls at the United Center. The Spurs certainly appear to be taking the step forward that many hoped they would in Victor Wembanyama’s second season. They also happen to thrive in an area where Chicago really struggles. The Bulls are the worst defensive team in the paint this season, and last time out against the Spurs Chicago allowed 62 points in the paint – and that was without Wembanyama in the lineup. Wemby is averaging 25 points and 10 rebounds while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field. He’s going to be a PROBLEM for a very long time.The Chicago Bulls have given up the most points in the paint per game this season (56.5).They already let the Spurs score 62 points in the paint without Victor Wembanyama this season. So, yeah, they should be very scared about tonight lol
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) January 6, 2025 Pacers: Indiana is starting to figure things out a little bit after a pretty slow start to the 2024-25 campaign. After a 9-14 stretch to start the season, they’ve fought their way back to 18-18 and are trending in the right direction. Tyrese Haliburton has gotten his season back on track after a pretty bad first couple of months, which is the main reason the team playing better basketball. We should see lots of up-and-down action in this one. Both teams sit top 10 in PACE, fastbreak points, and total points per game. Offense is what each team leans on, so I expect a high-scoring night. Wizards: Can the Bulls really drop two in a row to the league’s worst team? Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past them. They seem to almost always play up or down to the level of their competition. All I ask is, if they’re going to lose, do it by playing a bunch of the younger players instead of leaning on veterans who mean nothing toward the future of this team. Kings: Welcome back DeMar DeRozan! It was most certainly time to move on – for both parties – but I’m excited to see him back at the United Center. The team didn’t accomplish what it wanted to with DeMar here, but he was so much fun and so easy to root for. I don’t blame him for Arturas Karnisovas and the front office failing. He did his job night in and night out and was a really good player for the time he was here. I’m sure he will, but I hope he gets a pretty big ovation when his name gets announced at the UC. Read More Details
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