The Chicago Bulls are in basketball purgatory

The Chicago Bulls have found themselves in a familiar but unenviable position.

Let’s be blunt — the Jim Boylen era got off to a terrible start for the Chicago Bulls. Management can attempt to spin it however they want, but the players were clearly unhappy with his tough-love style and nearly revolted.

Candidly, the morale around the team remained pretty low for quite a while, as the results on the court did not reflect the apparent ‘great practices’ the team was having according to Boylen. The offense sputtered, the defense remained absent, and the players’ demeanor on the court was uninspiring.

Then, just before the trade deadline, the team decided to part ways with Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis, sending them to the Washington Wizards for Otto Porter Jr. Since the deal went down on February 6th, the Bulls are 7-6 and are playing with much more energy. Even their offensive efficiency has picked up and they have averaged 118 points per game over that same stretch.

While the play has improved, the Bulls chances of landing Zion Williamson, or even a top three pick for that matter, are shrinking by the day. With this improved play, the Bulls have found themselves in a somewhat familiar situation — NBA Draft purgatory. Once again, they could finish the season bad enough to not even be in contention for a playoff spot, but just good enough to miss out on the elite prospects in this year’s draft.

It wasn’t that long ago the Bulls held the worst record in the NBA and were in the best position to secure the No. 1 overall pick. However, at 19-47, they own the fourth-worst record in the league and are only a few games from the 22-44 Atlanta Hawks who own the fifth-worst record.

Hovering around this territory could have a significant impact on their draft chances. That’s because beginning this season, the league has altered the lottery odds slightly. The three teams with the worst records will each have a 14 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick. The fourth-worst team (currently the Bulls) will see their chances drop to 12.5 percent, while the fifth-worst team will have just a 10.5 percent chance.

By most accounts, there are three impact players in this year’s draft — the aforementioned Williamson, R.J. Barrett, and Ja Morant. If the season were to end today, the Bulls could very likely miss out on all three.

So while the idea of them playing better and winning games is nice to an extent, it could also mean another year of missing out on an elite prospect — and another year of Jim Boylen.