It’s beginning to look a lot like the NBA regular season is effectively over. Rather than sit around and wait for basketball to come back into our lives, let’s reflect on what the season has dished up to this point.
We’ll take a look at each and every NBA team over the coming weeks, assessing what went right, what didn’t go to plan, and where their journey took them as well as where the team hoped it would take them.
Today, we’ll examine three teams that all finished next to each other in the Eastern Conference, despite vastly different pre-season expectations: the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards.
Chicago Bulls
Record: 22-43 (11th in the Eastern Conference)
82 game pace: 28-54
Expectations
Despite closing the 2019 season with a 3-13 stretch, the Bulls decided to invest over the off-season, adding veterans in Tomas Satoransky and Thad Young to their developing core of Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr and Otto Porter. They drafted a player with the ability to produce in spurts right away in Coby White. Whilst finishing in the top 4 of the conference was never the goal, Chicago had very real expectations of a first playoff berth since the Jimmy Butler era.
What went right
Not a lot, I’m afraid.
LaVine continued his ascension to stardom, averaging 25.5 points, 4.8 board, 4.2 assists, 1.5 steals and 3.1 three pointers at 38% – most of those numbers were career highs. Long considered an inefficient gunner, LaVine’s efficiency and decision making continued to improve. His true shooting % hovered around last season’s career high mark despite increased usage and his +2.5 Box +/- was miles ahead last years +0.8, his former career high. He also proved clutch – if it wasn’t for LaVine, this season could have been truly catastrophic.
White had some significant offensive explosions, as well. Notably back to back to back thirty point games in late February.
What went wrong
Chicago had a vision: start Sato, LaVine, Porter, Lauri and Carter, with White firing off the bench, Young and Kris Dunn playing lockdown defense. That’s a really solid eight man rotation. The prole for the Bulls is that they never got to deploy those eight men at the same time. Frankly, they struggled to get five of those men on the floor together. Take a look at this:
- Markkanen – missed 15 games
- Carter – missed 22 games
- Dunn – missed 14 games
- Porter – missed 51 games
LaVine even missed a handful of games. Confounding that was the fact that deeper rotation pieces like Chandler Hutchison, Luke Kornet, Daniel Gafford and Denzel Valentine all missed at least thirty games apiece.
Given the struggles of Brooklyn and Orlando, there is a very real chance that Chicago could have earned a playoff spot this season, if only they had some semblance of health.
The outcome
Another disappointing season in the Windy City, although there are definitely signs that the team is headed in the right direction. Porter is still just 26 years old and LaVine only turned 24 this month. The rest of the core are still babies by NBA standards. This is a team that is trending in the right direction, on the proviso that they can get all of their players fit at once. Chicago remains a free agency destination, so some modicum of success could result in the team being able to attract the parts it needs to finish off this team.
IF the Bulls get healthy first.
