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It’s that time of the year prior to the NBA regular season kicking off where predictions and rankings are being released out the wazoo.
On Thursday, Zach Lowe of ESPN released his annual NBA tier rankings, in which the Chicago Bulls landed in the oh-so inspiring ‘GRASPING AT PLAY-IN HOME-COURT DISADVANTAGE’ tier.
*sigh*
Lowe explains:
Bulls pessimism is already passe in the wake of the sad Lonzo Ball news. Opponents outscored Chicago when all three of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic shared the floor. The Bulls need maximum defense around those three, and until Ball returns, it’s hard for them to supply that without knee-capping their offense.
Lowe adds that the Bulls best chance this season is a healthy Alex Caruso plus ‘immediate development’ from both Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Williams, whom Billy Donovan is banking on playing bigger roles this season.
With depth that is not ‘super-inspiring’ as Lowe puts it, a heavy burden may be placed on DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine again this season, and as we saw last year, that will only get the Bulls so far — which is not far enough.
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