The Chicago Bulls are demanding the NBA's respect with their recent play

When the NBA season began in October, expectations were set pretty low for the Chicago Bulls. They entered the year with basically the same roster as the year before and the same questions about the future. Should they give it one more chance with the guys they have? Is it time to move on from Zach Lavine and DeMar DeRozan? Can one or two more pieces be added to get things rolling?

Then the season started, and it was rough. The Bulls were down at the bottom of the league as fans and media were clamoring for a teardown and restart. But then, the most unlikely turn of events took place that led to this stretch of... good basketball.

The Bulls have become a good basketball team before our very eyes.

Both Lavine and DeRozan went down with injuries at the end of November, but the Bulls beat one of the league's best, the Milwaukee Bucks, in a resilient display of ball movement and have yet to look back. Everything head coach Billy Donovan has been preaching and waiting for came to light, and it's been on for them ever since.

The Bulls have now won 7 of their last 10 games, including a win in Philadelphia against the 76ers and a dismantling of the Los Angeles Lakers. They have done this all without Lavine, who has not played since November 26. His future is still unknown. Seeing how well the Bulls are playing right now, the argument can be made that he is unneeded, but he could also come in and help the cause.

The success can be attributed to the contributions of Alex Caruso, the ball movement of Nikola Vucevic, and the arrival of Coby White and Patrick Williams. White, in particular, has been playing out of his mind as the facilitator for the team - especially from three. He and the rest of the Bulls have been fun to watch, and it's about time.

The United Center is finally buzzing again with fans enjoying a scrappy Bulls team that is hungry to win and seeing so much red.

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