Chicago Bulls: These 3 are now under pressure after Mitchell trade

The Chicago Bulls already made a risky move this offseason by choosing to stand pat and run it back with their core that cruised to the 1 seed in the East before injuries derailed their season.

Hidden within their bounce-back season was a disastrous record against the top teams in the NBA as the Chicago Bulls went 2-20 against playoff teams.

This paved the way for what much of Bulls Nation thought would be an exciting offseason but while the competition above and below them in the East made moves to get better, the Bulls stayed quiet.

Now, going into this season, and in light of the Cavaliers’ acquisition of Donovan Mitchell, the Chicago Bulls objectively have the 7th best roster in the East, slightly ahead of Toronto and Atlanta in my estimation.

However, the 7th best team in the East suggests they’ll have to rely on the play-in tournament to find their way into the postseason for the second consecutive year.

On top of that, the Chicago Bulls have to reckon with the fact that within their own division, neither their short-term nor long-term outlook compares with that of Milwaukee or Cleveland.

The Chicago Bulls will have to rely on player development to keep up in 2022-23.

What follows here are the three Chicago Bulls under the most pressure in light of the new Eastern Conference power rankings. I break down why they are under pressure, what the expectations are, and what stands to happen in both the best and worst-case scenarios: