Bulls: Early enthusiasm over team’s young core already gone

After the first couple of games this season, the Chicago Bulls looked like a team that was on track to improve after a pair of “Rebuilding” seasons. Now only about a week later, this squad looks lost again.

I wasn’t expecting a huge improvement from the Chicago Bulls going into this season. I was hoping they’d be better and at least compete for a chance to sneak into the playoffs. I really didn’t want to be negative about this team.

After the first two games of the season with the Bulls at 1-1, I wrote a glowing piece on how the Bulls may be ready to finally turn the corner this season. I focused on their newfound explosive offense and downplayed their lack of defensive talent.

Just five games later, this team looks markedly different. After a nice win against the Memphis Grizzlies in their second game of the season, the Bulls went 1-4 over their next five and looked awful on both sides of the court throughout.

In my last piece on the Bulls, I highlighted the potential of rookie point guard Coby White. He had a breakout performance against the Grizzlies, playing over 30 minutes while scoring 25 points on 62 percent shooting.

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Since that night, White has only seen 20 minutes in a game once and has had some awful shooting performances. I’m not going to place a lot of blame on White, he’s a 19-year-old rookie who’s still learning. It may just be time to curb my enthusiasm a bit.

Meanwhile, a much bigger problem exists with this team’s young core. There were some minor improvements from power forward Lauri Markkanen over his first two seasons, but this felt like his year to prove himself.

It seems as if Markkanen has taken steps back in his play this season. He’s been off with his three-point shot all year, shooting just 25 percent from beyond the arc through seven games.

His defense is still terrible, and coach Jim Boylen has even benched him in key defensive situations late in games. Fans that were looking for a breakout year from Markkanen may have to wait. He needs to get his shot back and gain confidence in his play.

It’s still early,  but it’s not encouraging to see the team’s coach lack trust in their brightest young star. Meanwhile, the team’s other star player hasn’t looked great either. Guard Zach LaVine has always been a liability on defense, but it seems to have gotten even worse.

LaVine was supposed to blossom into an offensive powerhouse in Chicago and lead this team back to prominence. His defense was always an issue, but fans like me hoped that his offense would make up for that deficiency.

It seems as if that Grizzlies game was a smokescreen because LaVine also had a great stat line that night. He was on fire, scoring 37 points and leading the team to a road victory. It’s games like that that show why the Bulls traded for LaVine.

But LaVine hasn’t shot over 45 percent from the field in any game this season except that one, and his defensive inefficiency is somehow even worse this season. Even Boylen directly called out his team’s effort when speaking to media Monday (Via NBCSN Chicago):

"I think [the players] need to take more responsibility for their preparedness. I think they need to take more ownership of their readiness to play. The head coaches in this league have never been expected to coach effort. Effort has to come from each guy."

Those are strong words from the coach of a young team. Boylen is a different type of coach for the NBA, I mean he even had his players punch in on a literal time clock this season.

The Bulls lost back-to-back road contests against beatable teams in the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers last week. Lack of effort and defense were a big part of those brutal losses. For once, I may agree with Boylen.

Things get no easier for this team as they will probably get destroyed by the Los Angeles Lakers at home on Tuesday. Hopefully, they can use facing LeBron James as extra motivation. It looks like they need it already this year.