Apparently, today is Left-Handers Day.
I do feel left out being a privileged right-hander, so in honor of all you left-handed folks, I’m going to do everything today with my non-dominant hand!
*spills coffee all over self*
Nevermind. This is a stupid holiday.
The Bulls released their 2019-20 regular-season schedule yesterday, so, therefore, all Bulls content out in the universe right now is revolved around that. If you haven’t yet been able to take a look at the schedule, here’s our first impressions.
If you write about the Bulls, you most likely put together some kind of post about the Bulls “top” games of the season. Just a heads up, most of these lists are pretty darn similar. The reasoning might be a bit different for people, but in general it’s easy to see a common trend in what we all believe are the most enticing upcoming matchups. For most, the Lakers, Pelicans, Clippers and 76ers (only game currently scheduled to be a national broadcast) crack the list. With a lot of similar material out there, I think The Athletic’s Darnell Mayberry manages to break the mold and really hone in on specifics. He gives us an extensive look at the pre-All-Star break calendar and that’s worth checking out.
While Mayberry calls out certain games, he focuses more on the first half of the season as a whole to make a guess at where the team could stand before All-Star weekend in Chicago. He also takes into consideration the behind-the-scenes factors like back-to-back performances and the team’s rest time. Positiveresidual.com has broken down each NBA schedule to display these factors and compare them to all other NBA teams. For example, you can take a look at how the Bulls travel the third-least amount of miles throughout the season (39,299) or at how many many games the Bulls will have the rest advantage (spoiler alert, it’s 21). If you’re a basketball nerd, it’s worth a look.
Sam Smith with Bulls.com did join in the list-making fun, but it differs a bit from the rest by looking at solely the top-10 home games.
I’m happy to see the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans all on the list. While the Pelicans may be on most people’s mind thanks to Zion, I think some of the best games this season could easily be against the Hawks and Grizzles. We saw two thrilling games at the end of last season against the Hawks, one of which was the 4OT game. With both team’s having a young core on the rise, this just feels like a rivalry brewing. Throw Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. into the mix with Memphis, and we have a really intriguing battle of the up-and-coming squads.
If you ever need a good follow on Twitter, hit up NBC Chicago Sports Mark Strotman if you don’t already. He’s always ready to hit us with some interesting stats… even if it’s about left-handers.
We mentioned rest advantage earlier, but Strotman also dove a bit deeper into this and pointed out how the Bulls do, in fact, have the NBA’s best rest advantage this season. Let’s hope a well-rested Bulls team is a good Bulls team.
The Bulls apparently have the ninth-worst team record over the last 20 seasons. Ouch. Obviously, recent history has really hurt this case, but another stretch of horrible losing seasons after Jordan left really didn’t help the cause either.
Also, not having this guy defintiely hurt.
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