A Tough Start to the Year, NBA Rivalry Week, Gasol’s Jersey Retirement, and Other Bulls Bullets

Elias Schuster

Aug 18, 2022

Chicago Bulls

Wednesday turned out to be the best day of the NBA offseason.

Why is that?

Thank you for asking, reader.

THE TNT BULLS ARE OFFICIALLY BACK. THE LEAGUE SHOULD BE THROWING UP AND CRYING FEARFUL TEARS!

It’s Official: The TNT Bulls Will Make Their Return This Seasonhttps://t.co/177EBfwSvB pic.twitter.com/0JjXpRO0gY
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) August 17, 2022

While two months still stand between us and the start of the regular season, it’s nice to finally have a schedule to drool over. Unlike what we saw last season, the Bulls will get thrown into the fire from the moment the 2022-23 season tips-off. Miami, Philly, and Boston (x2) all appear on the calendar over the first 10 games of the season. Considering the Bulls struggles against the top-5 teams in the East last year, this should give us an immediate idea of whether or not this core has learned from their mistakes.

I’ll have plenty of more thoughts on the Bulls schedule as a whole later today, so look out for those posts!

Every year when watching college football, I always wonder why more sports don’t throw in some kind of rivalry week. Not only does it seem pretty darn easy to do, but it gives fans a little something extra to get excited about in the regular season. So when the NBA officially announced this week that they added a handful of rivalry games to the schedule, I was certainly intrigued.

Additional highlights for the 2022-23 season include:

▪️ No games played on Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 8)

▪️ Debut of NBA Rivals Week (Week of Jan. 23)

▪️ Historic low for average miles traveled per team pic.twitter.com/WZgb5jmr2H— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) August 17, 2022

Having said that, we’ll have to wait and see how well this is executed. I think promoting this in the right way will be just as important as the actual games themselves. But I am totally here for testing out this concept, especially after we’ve seen team-to-team rivalries become increasing rare in recent years. My attention will definitely be on Dallas-Phoenix and Memphis-Golden State. After what we saw from those teams in the playoffs last year, those matchups feel like they have the strongest potential to turn into a legitimate multi-year rivalry.

The Bulls will compete in a “rivalry” game against the Charlotte Hornets. And, yes, I know that sounds weird, but I guess the NBA really wants to make the next family dinner awkward for the Ball Brothers.

The NBA also shared that 45 games will hit primetime broadcasts in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East this season. The Chicago Bulls will be included in three of those games, including Jan. 15th against the Warriors, March 26th against the Lakers, and April 2nd against the Grizzlies.

The 2022-23 NBA regular season features 45 games that will air in primetime in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) as part of “NBA Saturdays and NBA Sundays presented by NBA 2K23.”

More information ➡️ https://t.co/YLblC0WKPp

Complete schedule ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/UH7zJcGg9g— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) August 18, 2022

Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley recently picked a “best-kept secret” for each NBA roster, and Coby White got the nod for Chicago. I think Ayo Dosunmu might be the right choice here, but I can understand why White comes to mind. There is no denying he still has real upside as a high-volume 3-point shooter and sparkplug bench scorer. And, when we consider how desperately the Bulls needed more reliable 3-point shooting last season, there is a world where White proves to be extremely valuable with more consistency.

For those still wondering why the Bulls went after Andre Drummond, I think this chart from BBall-Index can answer some questions. When Vucevic is off the floor, they’ll at least continue to have a strong screener for either DeRozan or LaVine. Not to mention, he’s a better passer than he gets credit for.

Centers who playmake are HUGE for offensive efficiency. High-Value Assists (AST resulting in open shots, layups, FTs) and Screen AST give context to which centers are playmaking on/off-ball.

High: Many HV/AST
Low: No HV/AST
Left: Meh Screener
Right: Screen King

WHAT STANDS OUT? pic.twitter.com/DUAitQS7kU— NBA University (@NBA_University) August 17, 2022

Shoutout to the former-Bull for getting his jersey in the rafters!

A Champion, legend, and forever part of the Lakers Family.

3/7/23 – We raise Pau Gasol's jersey into the rafters pic.twitter.com/F9snGrHO9o— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) August 17, 2022

Gasol doesn’t get enough love for his time in Chicago. While the signing always felt a bit odd, he might very well be the best free agent get in franchise history (although, DeMar DeRozan is hot on his trail). Let’s not forget the big man made back-to-back All-Star appearances and averaged 17.6 points with 11.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists over his two seasons with the team. He played truly great basketball while with the Bulls, and I think it gets lost because of how weird that time was for the franchise.

I got to admit, this was a really solid troll job.

HERE IT IS: YOUR 2022-23 BULLS SCHEDULE.@ATT | #BullsNation pic.twitter.com/H2ciy1EBsF
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) August 17, 2022

Re-sign him or get a deal done. Don’t let this drag out.

Roquan Smith’s Potential Trade Market is Starting to Take Shapehttps://t.co/DHa6eTZ9V1 pic.twitter.com/QnpfOP4dcp
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) August 17, 2022

BOOOOO!

#WorldJuniors Quarterfinal Wrap-Up: 🇺🇸 Suffers Shocking Upset, 🇨🇦 and 🇸🇪 Advance https://t.co/JM59A5rszv #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/PtGRnV2qUi
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) August 18, 2022

written by

Elias Schuster

Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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A Tough Start to the Year, NBA Rivalry Week, Gasol’s Jersey Retirement, and Other Bulls Bullets

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