Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Chicago Bulls

[Jadoogar]

They strike me as the Knicks of this season. Career best season from their star (Demar/Randle). Overperformance from role players. Maybe caught the league by surprise a little bit. Flame out in the playoffs. Although Bulls had a much harder matchup and some injuries to deal with than the Knicks did last year. I think they will fall back to earth next year.

[ConSarnit]

They really sort of screwed themselves with the Vuc trade. How much better is Vuc than WCJ? Probably not a lot and the gap is closing real fast.

Vuc vs WCJ, Wagner, 2023 1st. No team in the league would take Vuc over that package. What do you do with Vuc next year when he expires? Of course a lot of this is hindsight but there were a lot of people (myself included) who were very critical of the Vuc deal.

You could argue maybe DDR doesn't come without Vuc but who else was offering him close to $27m?

This team feels like multiple first round playoff exits before they have to blow it up again. They already owe their 2023 (top 4 protected) and 2025 (top 10 protected) 1st's to ORL and SAS.

The future looks very mediocre barring a significant Patrick Williams jump (not impossible but he's definitely on the 3&D path given his lack of playmaking).

I have no idea how to fix this team given 2 of their top 3 guys can't be relied on in the playoffs and their other top guy is going to get a huge contract that is probably going to be questionable the second he signs it.

[Ballerhogger]

Lack of sf-pf size to guard the giannis of the world. Need lonzo be healthy. Now the question is can you trust DeMar to run it back and have good year. I think they should look to trade vuveic for decent stretch 4-5.....

[Parataxis]

Honestly, at this point, grow organically. Get your team playing together and comfortable with each other. Add minor pieces where you have to. But avoid any win-now trades and just grow.

[Ugly Duckling]

we need rudy gobert, plain and simple. the sad thing is we drafted tony snell over him. but at least those fools are gone. make it happen akme

[Gimli]

From what I've seen in a limited number of their games (like 10), it seems to me that Derozan, Lavine and Vucevic all like to shoot (midrange) jumpers. Apart from Derozan, no one is particularly good at it, but he also just crumbles under pressure anyway... They should get someone that can attack the paint or is a post up player. Or a picknroll threat. There's no versatility in this team, it's a jumper everytime. Well, when they meet a good defense that is... I'm sure Lavine can make a few dunks against a bad defense.

[slicedbread2]

1) Keep the GM and Coach
2) They performed above expectations
3) Rising team

This team just wasn't able to develop much cohesion or chemistry due to the fact that they were injury prone and simply unable to develop a sense of consistency nor develop a good rotation because of the injury bug. It's a shame Pat Williams got injured in the 5th game of his 2nd year as honestly I think he's a good piece going forward and will be good for the Bulls.

Best thing to do is not to make any crazy win-now moves as they don't have a 1st to trade till 27 due to owing their 23+25 1sts to Orlando and San Antonio respectively. Just continue drafting and developing cheap in house replacements, hopefully get healthy and they should be ok. Winning is a byproduct of learning to play together and the Bucks showed that while missing Middleton and losing Giannis in the Atlanta series and won it when everybody wrote them off.

I like Karnisovas and he has them on the road to recovery and will hopefully guide them to the path to prosperity. Hopefully they resign Lavine at a good contract(will most likely pay him the 5 year max or close to it as the Bulls don't exactly have much if any leverage and he's 27).

[JXL]

1. Keep the GM: Karnisovas/Eversley did a good job fielding a roster without a true big man rotation and 0 true PFs (I don't call Pat Williams nor Javonte Green a PF), but its obvious their defense fell after teams figured out how to attack them. I think they will address that in the offseason. Karni also got a really good find in Dosunmu, but I think moving Coby White will open more minutes for Ayo.

2. Keep the coach: Regardless what anyone says, Billy Donovan did a hell of a job with this roster. I believe with a better big man rotation, that will help improve the defense, along with a healthy Pat Williams.

3. Performed better than expected: I had this team at around 42 wins and a play-in team. Only the screwups done in by the Knicks and Hawks had the Bulls be better, but again, once their defense fell apart after teams figured them out, they had a mediocre record after the All-Star break.

4. Rising team: Despite trading their picks in for Vuc and the DeRozan sign-and-trade, the Bulls still have a good core, and re-signing Zach LaVine will be crucial for the roster and their future.

[jbk1234]

First off, if Ball and LaVine are injured then I'm not sure you can draw any hard conclusions based on them losing to the defending champs in the first round. The problem is that there's a bit of a co-dependence between Vuc and DeRozan. If Vuc goes, so should DeRozan due to spacing issues. They also have a pretty big decision to make on LaVine. He'll definitely get a 4-year max from another team so they're stuck there IMO.

I'd try like crazy to get a Grant like PF in a Derozan trade (3rd team is obviously needed) and move P. Williams to SF. I think that gets you closer to the right offense/defense balance.

[CoachD]

Okay, but the Bulls made the playoffs for the first time since 2018, and for a time had the best record in the East. This year was like our version of 2014 for the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors THIS year had

VanVleet missed 17 games
Siakam missed 14 games
Anunoby missed 34 games
Barnes missed 8 games
Trent missed 12 games
Achiuwa missed 9 games
Birch missed 27 games

Many of those were clustered / overlapping - and they still finished 5th.

All of those guys bar Precious and Scottie Barnes were on the team last year. The number of Bulls players who have been on the team for more than 13 months is 3, and one of them missed 90% of the season and another missed training camp and the first month of games. The level of continuity can't be compared.

"On the team"
Birch played 19 games
Trent had 17

that's not nearly enough to understand Nurse's systems. They were just out there, playin out the string. This year is their first year running the schemes and actually being part of what the team does.

[CP War Hawks]

They need a really good defensive big. That's all I got really. I don't like the three of Lonzo, DD, and ZL w/o one of them being a traditionally explosive point that can get where he wants type.

[_qubik]

Bulls need Ricky Rubio .
Maybe quinn Snyder.

Bulls aren't signing a PG when they have Lonzo starting and Ayo as a perfectly fine backup. They paid Lonzo 20m per year. They need to hope he stays healthy.

Just LOL at thinking PG was the problem. PF, lack of shooters, lack of size are wayyyy higher on the list.

No way I would pencil a 2nd round rookie as the backup pointguard . Even Caruso would take that spot and AC is no pointguard .
If they keep Donovan the guards play SF too so there is still minutes for guards in the rotation .

The maintained the top seed started javonte green at pf.
The wheels fell off when the pointguard play went from average to below average

They dont need a PG, this teams has serious passing from all positions but the 4.
Also Lonzo is a good starter PG, Caruso, Ayo and staggerring the starters minutes looks fine for me. Adding another PG might be fine, someone like Dragic would help a lot, but I dont think they need it a lot

[bearadonisdna]

Bulls aren't signing a PG when they have Lonzo starting and Ayo as a perfectly fine backup. They paid Lonzo 20m per year. They need to hope he stays healthy.

Just LOL at thinking PG was the problem. PF, lack of shooters, lack of size are wayyyy higher on the list.

No way I would pencil a 2nd round rookie as the backup pointguard . Even Caruso would take that spot and AC is no pointguard .
If they keep Donovan the guards play SF too so there is still minutes for guards in the rotation .

The maintained the top seed started javonte green at pf.
The wheels fell off when the pointguard play went from average to below average

They dont need a PG, this teams has serious passing from all positions but the 4.
Also Lonzo is a good starter PG, Caruso, Ayo and staggerring the starters minutes looks fine for me. Adding another PG might be fine, someone like Dragic would help a lot, but I dont think they need it a lot

As much as I like Lonzo and realize he is the pg of the future etc.
The bulls could use a guy who plays the position at a high Effucyebcy rate. PER Over 14.
Or who is at least better offensively than defensively just to get the damn offense going .

[bearadonisdna]

If the the bulls could pull it Jalen Brunson would be great .

[Dan Z]

From what I've seen in a limited number of their games (like 10), it seems to me that Derozan, Lavine and Vucevic all like to shoot (midrange) jumpers. Apart from Derozan, no one is particularly good at it, but he also just crumbles under pressure anyway... They should get someone that can attack the paint or is a post up player. Or a picknroll threat. There's no versatility in this team, it's a jumper everytime. Well, when they meet a good defense that is... I'm sure Lavine can make a few dunks against a bad defense.

This season Zach LaVine shot 7.1 threes a game at .389, so he's not just a mid-range shooter.

Lonzo also shoots threes (this season at 7.4 attempts with a .423 percentage), but he was hurt for most of the season (only played in 35 games).

Having said that they do need changes and getting players who are better shooters should be on their "to do" list.

[TheGOATRises007]

Hate to say it because he had such an amazing year, and the bulls dealt with injuries, but a team can't really win a championship with DeMar their best player.

I mean everyone knows that.

Don't think any Bulls fan had title aspirations.

It was a good year marred by a disappointing end considering how well they looked at 1 point.

Injuries hurt us, but it was a positive season all in all.

[Michael Jackson]

Hate to say it because he had such an amazing year, and the bulls dealt with injuries, but a team can't really win a championship with DeMar their best player.

In fairness as designed... DDR was supposed to be the best player really it was supposed to be Zach. He hurt his hand early, then Covid then the Knee. DDR stepped up because the team as playing better than they had any right to honestly, and then Ball AC go down etc... As built though DDR really was never supposed to be the best player, circumstance and him having a career year made him that but the first round loss was appropriate if DDR is your only real player IMHO. Now I am not saying Zach is a best player either he isn't he is much like DDR in that sense. This team was great if they had perfect health, which no team has. Bulls had to improve the team though from a bottom feeder into something respectable so mission accomplished, but no way you plan on perfect health from here on out. Changes have to be made, but that doesn't mean DDR has to go, just that they need a bit more health and some 3pt shooters plus interior defense to be a outside contender. This team will never ever be a favored contender

[Michael Jackson]

They really sort of screwed themselves with the Vuc trade. How much better is Vuc than WCJ? Probably not a lot and the gap is closing real fast.

Vuc vs WCJ, Wagner, 2023 1st. No team in the league would take Vuc over that package. What do you do with Vuc next year when he expires? Of course a lot of this is hindsight but there were a lot of people (myself included) who were very critical of the Vuc deal.

You could argue maybe DDR doesn't come without Vuc but who else was offering him close to $27m?

This team feels like multiple first round playoff exits before they have to blow it up again. They already owe their 2023 (top 4 protected) and 2025 (top 10 protected) 1st's to ORL and SAS.

The future looks very mediocre barring a significant Patrick Williams jump (not impossible but he's definitely on the 3&D path given his lack of playmaking).

I have no idea how to fix this team given 2 of their top 3 guys can't be relied on in the playoffs and their other top guy is going to get a huge contract that is probably going to be questionable the second he signs it.

No doubt Vuc was "poor value" he is, but his value is more to the point that they traded him to make a playoff push last year and Zach went out. They are not planning on a #8 pick at all. All that being said and I have watched a lot of WCJ, and maybe he looked tolerable on the Orlando Magic but I would trade more FRP's just to not have him on the team. Franz looked good this year and totally impressed me, but in hindsight the bulls weren't planning on being in the lottery. I have a ton of bias I will be the first to admit, but I loathe WCJ. He just is not a guy I want on my team. I would take Bamba over him and that's not because I love Bamba. I am not saying he is talentless at all I just don't like his attitude and he is the ultimate disappear type guy. I would take Franz over WCJ, Bamba or Vuc though and he was a great find IMHO, better than Suggs and I loved Suggs going into the draft, I loved Suggs and still have faith but still, I was wrong on him coming into this year (injury aside, I just thought his skills were more NBA ready)

Future is not great for the Bulls exactly but it is much better than it was for the past 5 years where the Bulls kept making Magic type moves (yeah gove up Butler for draft picks he is no good etc...)

[Michael Jackson]

They strike me as the Knicks of this season. Career best season from their star (Demar/Randle). Overperformance from role players. Maybe caught the league by surprise a little bit. Flame out in the playoffs. Although Bulls had a much harder matchup and some injuries to deal with than the Knicks did last year. I think they will fall back to earth next year.

DDR did have a career year but as a raptors fan you know DDR career wise this was less of an outlier than Randle was. He won't be as good next year but he also won't disappear. He isn't a top 10 guy you build around though either and I think everyone knows that. He wasn't supposed to be when they signed him.

[jc23]

Almost every playoff team has had to endure this level of roster volatility

Okay, but the Bulls made the playoffs for the first time since 2018, and for a time had the best record in the East. This year was like our version of 2014 for the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors THIS year had

VanVleet missed 17 games
Siakam missed 14 games
Anunoby missed 34 games
Barnes missed 8 games
Trent missed 12 games
Achiuwa missed 9 games
Birch missed 27 games

Many of those were clustered / overlapping - and they still finished 5th.

and now you can mention it in your post-mortem, condolences btw.