For the second year in a row, the Chicago Bulls finished the season with a below-.500 record. Considering they went all in on their new-look core in 2021, headlined by DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, and Zach LaVine, that level of mediocrity should be considered a disappointment. And according to Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report, who recently graded every team’s season, it was.
“No team screamed “average” quite like the Chicago Bulls this season,” Bailey wrote. “At times, it felt like they might threaten a .500 record or make a push to escape the play-in, but those moments always seemed to be followed by a two- or three-game losing streak. And even if the Bulls manage to win back-to-back play-in games and make the playoffs, it’s hard to imagine anything other than a squash job in the first round at the hands of the Celtics.”
Chicago can’t continue on this same path if they hope to be a relevant team in the NBA.