NEWSLETTER
If the cards land where they’re supposed to, the Chicago Bulls are in line to play at least 12 more games. Eleven of those contests will come within the confines of the regular season, while the one left over will likely be a Play-In Tournament matchup against the Atlanta Hawks.
Of course, a loss in that postseason game would mean the end of the road. A victory, however, would send the Bulls to an additional Play-In game where they’d have a chance to steal the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Win that one, and the Bulls add at least four more games to the calendar. For those keeping track at home, that would bring us to 18 games left in the 2023-24 season.
Regardless, whether the Bulls lose 11 straight and drop out of the Play-In or surprisingly clinch a first-round series, nothing should change. The front office has seen enough to understand that this pre-existing core and roster isn’t built to compete with the East’s best.
This is a results-based industry. And the results say it all.
The Bulls Against Top Competition
First things first, I want to shout out Drew Stevens from The Bigs for turning us onto this depressing stat. He took a closer look at how the Bulls’ have performed against the current top 6 teams in both conferences, and the overall record is far from inspiring.
Chicago sits at 7-22 against current playoff teams this year. More specifically, they are just 4-14 against the first six squads in the Eastern Conference and 3-8 against such teams in the Western Conference.
Here’s Drew’s team-by-team breakdown, if you’re curious:
This also encouraged me to filter things further and take a closer look at separate key stat. Few things underscore who is a true force to be reckoned with in this league better than point differential. Chicago sits a lackluster 21st in this department at -2.3. If we then take a peek at how they’ve performed against those squads that have a top-10 point differential, the picture becomes even more grim.
First and foremost, here are the teams that rank in the top 10 in point differential right now:
- Boston (+11.8)
- OKC (+7.8)
- Minnesota (+7.6)
- New Orleans (+5.3)
- Denver (5.3)
- Los Angeles Clippers (+4.9)
- New York (+4.4)
- Phoenix (+3.8)
- Milwaukee (+3.7)
- Cleveland (+3.1)
So … do you want to guess how they’ve fared against that competition? I’ll wait and grab some Tums.
The Chicago Bulls are a gross 5-18 against teams with a top 10 point differential this season. Conversely, they are 17-6 against those who currently rank in the bottom 10 of that department.
This also isn’t the first time the Bulls have proven to be complete non-factors against the league’s top third. They finished 10-19 against teams with a top 10-point differential in 2022-23 (10th-worst WIN%) and 5-22 in 2021-22 (5th-worst WIN%).
We’re talking about three straight seasons of proof that the Bulls do not have what it takes to compete with the upper echelon. Yet, despite that, roster changes have been a complete afterthought. The Bulls have continued to go full steam ahead with the core of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic.
The only real meaningful changes made to the roster since the 2021 offseason have been adding names like Jevon Carter, Torrey Craig, and Andre Drummond. While they each provide their own special set of skills, we can’t declare any of them to be needle-movers.
The good news is that the Chicago Bulls will have no choice but to address the roster construction in the coming months. DeMar DeRozan is headed for unrestricted free agency this offseason, while Patrick Williams is on the brink of restricted free agency. Not to mention, the Zach LaVine drama is bound to pick back up in the offseason. One more year will be off his contract, and all signs still point toward these two wanting some kind of divorce.
The bad news is the Bulls can still opt for the status quo. Karnisovas could re-sign both DeMar DeRozan and Patrick Williams to multi-year deals and decided to hold onto LaVine. The option to run things back and ignore the consistently poor results is on the table. Would anyone be shocked if he took it?
