Chicago Bulls: 3 possible outcomes for the upcoming season
Scenario Two:
The Chicago Bulls would be a letdown if they miss the playoffs altogether.
To invest this much into a roster, between the trade for Vucevic and DeRozan, and key free agent additions in Ball and Caruso, to only make the playoffs the first year while completely missing the play-in tournament in year two would be an utter failure.
FiveThirtyEight has the Chicago Bulls as the 11 seed anyway so perhaps the regression is already being anticipated. However, to be the 11th seed and miss out on any opportunity for postseason play would require the Chicago Bulls to win less than 40 games.
Winning less than 40 games in a season where the Chicago Bulls just barely hit the luxury cap threshold and just handed their star player a whopping 5-year/200+ million dollar contract would be an astonishingly awful outcome.
For this to be the case a number of things would have to go wrong. First off, Lonzo Ball doesn’t come back this season. DeMar regresses even further than people expect. Vucevic continues showing his age and his three-point shot continues suffering.
Patrick Williams would have to prove he was a bust of a draft pick, Coby White would show no improvement, and most likely of all – the Bulls continue their trend of being snakebit by injuries which prevent any continuity from being established all season.
The interesting thing about this scenario though, is how it would affect the Bulls’ decisions at the All-Star break. With things spiraling this far out of control, would they trade Vucevic?
Do they sell high on DeMar? Would they want to recoup draft picks and other young assets to accelerate another rebuild around the core they’ve begun building?
Maybe Patrick Williams does struggle this year but most of his issues are because he feels the need to defer to his veteran All-Stars. What if a new team that he was the face of would be just the thing to bring out his true game?
A struggling Bulls team would be a very fascinating story to watch around the trade deadline and in the overall race for Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson.