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https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/chi/chicago-bulls

Team has 11 games left. Will need to go 6-5. 5 of those games are against bottom dwellers.

Mon, Mar 25 vs Washington
Wed, Mar 27 vs Indiana
Fri, Mar 29 @Brooklyn
Sun, Mar 31 @Minnesota
Mon, Apr 1 vs Atlanta
Fri, Apr 5 vsNew York
Sun, Apr 7 @Orlando
Tue, Apr 9 vsNew York
Thu, Apr 11 @Detroit
Fri, Apr 12 @Washington
Sun, Apr 14 @New York

If they win 40, they will exactly match last year's total which justified bringing back the same group . . . which ended up doing the same thing. Continuity baby.

Interestingly, in some ways 40 wins this year is better due to all the injuries and younger players being a greater part of it, but it's still the same story in the end of no where really to go.

I think they'll hit 40 though, maybe even 41 or 42.

5 maybe 6 wins max and that's if they stay healthy

tanking
Washington 2 W
Detroit W

scrambling for the play in
BRK W
ATL

long athletic trying to win
Indiana
ORL

Knicks 3 Thibs has the Bulls number, Brunson lights it up 1 W

MINN Edwards enough said


40 wins is no reason to bring back the same group because everything changes by next opening night. Lavine is back and healthy, he starts so Ayo comes off the bench. Is billy wiling to play AC as a reserve guard and not continue to for this PF BS? Do they retain Patrick Williams and does he just come off the bench behind Caruso and Craig? Is he one bit happy with that? Where's Bitim fit in, does Terry have a role? Does Drummond resign?

The team out there now would be lucky to get the 40 wins next year but the injured players coming back are part of the mix so it's not going to be the same team that finishes this year

4 should be gimme's, Bulls just need to win 2 contested games and we've won vs Atlanta & Indy consistently.

The pessimistic view is that these wins have needed Ayo playing like a borderline all-star (23 ppg 6 apg 53% FG, 43% 3P, 1.4 spg last 5 games) and you can't have a prerequisite of a 2nd rounder being that good to win games.

You never know with this team. I don't think we'll ever reach .500 this season. Which put us at 40 win tops.

Can’t bother to be interested in the outcomes because the result doesn’t matter. Normally in this situation I’d be excited about the offseason but they’ve ruined that too.

Yeah 40 wins is a pretty random target. 38 is the magic number, at the moment, to lock up the all important play in goal that AKME and the Slumsdorfs have set for this elite franchise.

If the over/under is 39.5 I take the over if it's 40.5 I take the under. 40 seems like the number.

It doesn’t matter.

DuckIII wrote:Can’t bother to be interested in the outcomes because the result doesn’t matter. Normally in this situation I’d be excited about the offseason but they’ve ruined that too.

They havent ruined it yet. We have the draft to look forward to.

Back-to-back 40 win seasons! Do they go for a three peat? Woo hoo!

40, 41, 42 seems to be the magic number since the Hoiberg days for this team.

I put them at 38 pre-season, and in that first two months I thought I turned out being optimistic. Now I think I have a fairly good chance to be spot on.

I'll watch a few more games this year, but baseball's starting up and NBA teams that are actually objectively fun to watch will be headed in to the post-season. Whatever ignominious result the Bulls see at the end of this season, I'm far more interested to cling to some hope that the organization makes a significant pivot.

I think they hit 40 wins as the ultimate expression of karmic poetry that is continuity.

Better question. How many losses down the stretch would it take for Billy to get canned?

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Stratmaster wrote:Better question. How many losses down the stretch would it take for Billy to get canned?

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Considering he’s winning at a much higher clip than the talent dictates for a FO obsessively driven to maintain mediocrity, he’d have to lose every game by 50 and get caught on video urinating in JR’s morning coffee every day for a month.

Maybe, maybe not. Doesn't matter. They'll finish at 9, which has been obvious for a while now.

Stratmaster wrote:Better question. How many losses down the stretch would it take for Billy to get canned?

I'd be shocked to see them fire BD even if the team doesn't win another game.

yes i think we end up above 40.

I also think simplifying the past two seasons to "they won the same amount of games" misses a lot of context.

We might have similar win totals but these seasons we're drastically different. This is not the same team as the one a year ago. This team is much scrappier and competitive, and is seeing much larger contributions from young players than the team did a season ago.

HearshotKDS wrote:I think they hit 40 wins as the ultimate expression of karmic poetry that is continuity.

40 wins is actually an accomplishment considering they did it without 60 million of cap space.

Andi Obst wrote:

Stratmaster wrote:Better question. How many losses down the stretch would it take for Billy to get canned?

I'd be shocked to see them fire BD even if the team doesn't win another game.

Billy getting tired of the mediocrity and quitting seems a lot more likely than him being fired.