CHICAGO (WGN) — A new season starts for the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, and with it comes a younger team with a different set of expectations from years past.
The Athletic’s Darnell Mayberry sat down with GN Sports’ Jarrett Payton to discuss what to expect this season from the Bulls, who begin their 2024-25 campaign in New Orleans at 7 p.m. Wednesday against the Pelicans.
In Mayberry’s eyes, there will be five different plot points to pay attention to — the youth movement, playing fast, improving team defense, how Nikola Vucevic fits into the new group, and the Lonzo Ball paradox.
Here’s what Mayberry had to say:
The youth movement
“I like the youth movement they’ve brought here to Chicago with Josh Giddey. They’ve given Coby White a lot more responsibility, Patrick Williams coming off that five-year, $90 million extension that they gave him this summer. They’ve got a lot of young guys they’re going to plug into this roster now and give significant minutes. We’re going to see how it goes this season, but they want to play fast. They want to get up a lot of 3-point shots, and they want to rely on their youth and athleticism to go out there and compete with some of the best of the best in the league, and we’re going to see how it goes.”
Shoot the 3 and play some defense
“I think the addition of Lonzo Ball certainly helps. They got Chris Duarte back in the trade with Sacramento with the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade. They’ve got some additional shooters that they’ve brought in. I like Julian Phillips and what he’s shown in the preseason, shooting about 41, 42% from 3-point range this preseason. So, they’ve got guys they can rely on to be a better 3-point shooting team. But it’s not just shooting them. They’ve also got to be able to defend it, and they’ve struggled with that the last two seasons. They’ve brought in Wes Unseld Jr. as an assistant coach, who’s going to focus on the defense and try to get them to really button up their perimeter defense, so they don’t have to give up so many 3-point shots and really be at a disadvantage night in and night out, just because of the 3-point discrepancy.”
Jarrett Payton: “Can they get (better) from bottom-five in defense in the league? Is it more ‘want-to,’ or scheme, when you go about teaching this?”
“I think it’s a mixture of both, because they’re talking about changing some things strategically, philosophically, conceptually with what they’re doing defensively, guarding the 3-point line a lot more and trying to force teams to take contested mid-range jumpers, long twos, and shut off the paint and the 3-point line. If they can do that effectively, they’ll be a lot better this season. But they’ve also got to be able to do it on both ends. They’ve got to shoot them and make them, as well as defend it.”
Where does Nikola Vucevic fit on this team?
Jarrett Payton: “How do you incorporate (Vucevic) in this up-tempo offense? Because if you do, it feels like it’s going to slow down to fit him.”
“(Bulls head coach) Billy Donovan just said at practice on Monday, there’s going to be times when the Bulls have to slow it down and play in a halfcourt set. Those are the times I think you’re going to see them rely on Nikola Vucevic, dump it down there to him and try to get some easy offense, some high-percentage shots from in close. But there are going to be times when (Vucevic) is going to have to run with the young guys. There’s going to be times when he goes to the bench, and they’re going to bring in Jalen Smith, or even play smaller with Patrick Williams at (center). Then they can get out and run with Lonzo Ball and Josh Giddey, Zach Lavine and Coby White leading the break. Then you have some shooters spacing out on the wing who can give you outlets if you do get in transition and have a numbers advantage. So I think there’s going to be times when they rely on (Vucevic) in the halfcourt, but then also, there are going to be times when he’s going to have to run, and also when he sits that they’re going to have to pick up the pace.”
Lonzo Ball looks better than expected
“A couple of us reporters were talking about it at practice. (We’re) just impressed with how good he looks so far. We didn’t expect him to come out and look this good so soon after 33 months off, away from basketball. He looks like he hasn’t missed a beat. The defensive smarts and savvy (are) still there. The 3-point shooting is still there. The court vision, the passing, the awareness — all of that is still there. He even tried to jump up and catch an alley-oop pass during one of the preseason games, so he’s still got it. The 16-minute restriction is still in place and will be for the foreseeable future, but the way he’s contributing, the Bulls actually can perhaps rely on him to make a positive impact this season, when no one expected anything coming into this season from Lonzo Ball. He’s quickly changed a lot of impressions on what he’s capable of.”
Crystal ball prediction
“I think they finish between 30 and 35 wins. I think they scratch and claw to fight around the play-in tournament, but ultimately, I think they fall short of the postseason — the playoffs, that is. To me, success for this young Bulls team is implementing some sort of culture, creating some good habits, establishing some consistency with some of the younger players — Coby White, Patrick Williams, Josh Giddey, Jalen Smith, who they just got from Indiana this summer. If they can get development from those young guys and implement some good habits along the way — whether it’s playing at a faster pace, whether it’s implementing some defensive principles, or just learning how to win at home and protect your homecourt inside the United Center — I think those are all positive strides this team can take this season, regardless of the win-loss record.”