What we learned this weekend from the Chicago Bulls

This weekend we learned a lot about the Chicago Bulls and their individual players. Here are my biggest takeaways from an interesting weekend of Bulls basketball.

This weekend started off with Jimmy Butler’s much anticipated return to Chicago to face his old team. While the game was highly emotional, it was also the best win of the Bulls season by far. Granted there haven’t been many wins to choose from but still – this one was impressive and meant a lot to both the team and the fans.

After a trade that was surrounded by as much scrutiny as the Jimmy Butler trade was – a lot of individuals felt as though they had something to prove on Friday night – and boy, did they do that.

After the emotional game against the Wolves on Friday night, the Bulls had a quick turnaround and attempted to follow up that nice win with another win in their game the next night. The Bulls did not fare as well in this one as the Wizards got the best of them. But that’s okay – the Bulls still won the weekend.

So what did we learn from this weekend of Bulls basketball? Let’s take a look.

The Bulls need Kris Dunn.

Maybe we knew this before this weekend – okay, fine – we definitely knew this before this weekend. But it doesn’t hurt to mention it.

Jerian Grant is a quality guard with a future in this league. He could be a valuable asset on most teams assuming he’s given a bench role. But the difference in both offensive production and defensive production when Kris Dunn is on the court compared to Jerian Grant is not even close. Despite what numbers might say, Kris Dunn passes the eye test with flying colors.

Dunn is averaging roughly 14 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds per game to go along with a little more than 2 steals.

In fact, Dunn is third in the NBA in steals per game and second in the league in steal percentage.

The Chicago Bulls are 4-11 when Kris Dunn hasn’t played this year and two of those wins were against the Hawks – so do those ones really count? (Unfortunately for the tank, they do.)

Anyways Kris, we need you back.

The Bulls are a together group with a lot of fight in them.

One thing to be concerned with when you have a tanking team on the front side of their rebuild is team chemistry. How will they handle losing? How will they respond to adversity? Will the players grow as a team or solely as individuals?

When the Bulls got off to that not-so-good 3-20 start, and Nikola Mirotic hadn’t played yet due to taking a punch from teammate Bobby Portis, things weren’t looking so good in the team chemistry category.

But throughout the season and especially this weekend, we learned that these guys have built some solid team chemistry and are going to fight until the end of every game.

They were down double-digits at halftime against a better Minnesota team but responded in the second half behind their leader, Zach LaVine, and ended up winning an incredible game.

Coming off of the emotional game on Friday night, with their best player Zach LaVine sitting out due to rest, it would’ve been easy to roll over on Saturday and give the Wizards the win. While the Bulls didn’t play well, they definitely didn’t give up. But that’s what you get when you have lineups with Bobby Portis, David Nwaba and Ryan Arcidiacono. None of those guys are going to stop fighting.

Zach LaVine is nice… really nice. 

This is perhaps the biggest thing we learned from this weekend, as well as the most obvious.

Zach LaVine had his breakout game against the team that traded him – what a special night for Zach. He scored the final 11 points for the Chicago Bulls to bring his total to a season-high 35 points. He did this in a multitude of ways: shooting the 3, mid-range pull-up jumpers, athletic drives to the basket, and getting to the free-throw line.

Perhaps the best sign out of all of this? It looks like Zach hasn’t lost a step in terms of athleticism.

In what was only his 12th game back from his ACL injury, check out some highlights from LaVine’s career night:

That’s now four games in a row that Zach LaVine has scored 20+ points.

The best part about this weekend for Chicago Bulls fans? Any concerns about how LaVine would return from his injury were nullified by his performance Friday night on national TV.

Zach sent a message to the entire league and its fans, showing that he’s ready to be an All-Star sooner than we thought, and possibly even All-NBA.