Would an eighth seed be good for the Chicago Bulls?

With an improved roster, many speculate the Chicago Bulls could compete for a playoff spot. As a rebuilding team, would it be OK to re-enter basketball purgatory?

After a quiet start to the offseason, the Chicago Bulls have made a couple booms. In addition to re-signing Zach LaVine to a 4-year, $80M deal, the Bulls brought Simeon graduate Jabari Parker home. Couple them with Wendell Carter Jr, and Lauri Markkanen, the Bulls suddenly have one of the league’s more intriguing young cores. If all healthy, there is no reason Chicago shouldn’t compete for a playoff spot in a depleted Eastern Conference.

Even with the recent additions, the Bulls still are not at a competing stage. They still have Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Indiana, Washington, and maybe a couple others ahead of them. This leaves only a few coveted playoff births for the rest of the conference to battle for. At this stage in the rebuild, it’s a fair question to ask if we should want the Bulls to be an 8th seed? In being that 7th/8th seed, you almost assuredly go home after the first round. With that, you do not have a lottery pick, and are stuck with a mid-round selection.

Of course, there are still ways to make it work. There are a lot of quality prospects selected in the middle of the first-round. The Bulls also have plenty of assets now, and could easily swap a few to move up in the draft. But all things considered, making the playoffs, regardless of seed, would be fantastic.

Bulls fans were furious when Chicago traded away Jimmy Butler

It’s safe to now say many of those fans have changed their minds. With that, they expected at least 1-2 more years of losing. With the strides made this off-season though, making the playoffs should only encourage Bulls fans. Such a drastic shift in performance would tell fans that this strategy of rebuilding is indeed working. It would show that the young core has the right pieces in place. If anything, they would all gain invaluable playoff experience for the future.

Not only would the core being gaining playoff exposure, but they’d also be priming themselves for a run at a marquee free-agent. Before you say “Sure, the Bulls will TOTALLY sign a big name with their luck,” hear me out. Any future free-agent in his prime would be out of his mind if he looked at this Bulls team and didn’t see potential as it stands now. If this team were to make a leap into the playoffs, that shows said free-agent that Chicago is serious about winning.

There’s not one big free-agent in 2019 or 2020 that would come to a rebuilding team. Accelerating the rebuild and making the playoffs should be something Bulls fans cheer for this season. With the newly formatted lottery, a team that loses more doesn’t gain much of an advantage in obtaining a top-3 selection. The upcoming free-agent class is worth making an effort to impress, just check out the names:

The Bulls are showing this offseason that it is indeed possible to rebuild without tanking for a half decade. I wholeheartedly believe the Bulls will be competing for a playoff spot in 2019, and you should too.

Next: Chicago Bulls fans getting their questions answered

Last year, many fans didn’t mind seeing the Bulls drop a few close games. That mindset should not apply this season. With a healthy core of Parker, LaVine, Dunn, and Markkanen, along with Carter Jr, the sky is truly the limit for these young Bulls over the next 5-7 years.