The Chicago Bulls are one of the worst teams in the NBA, but the last 365 days have still had some bright spots. Here are the 3 top moments of 2018.
Since the start of 2018, the Chicago Bulls have had a lot going on. They (somewhat) successfully tanked the end of the 2017-18 season, drafted Wendell Carter Jr. and Chandler Hutchison, signed Zach LaVine to a 4-year, $78 million contract, brought in Chicago native Jabari Parker and fired their head coach. Some of these things have gone well, some haven’t gone well.
Despite winning a string of games early in the 2017-18 season, the Bulls’ tanking efforts were relatively successful. They made the right call when they decided to trade Nikola Mirotic to the New Orleans Pelicans on February 1. Mirotic was helping the Bulls win too many games, and the Bulls got another first-round pick out of the deal. Despite doing all they could to lose as many games as possible, the Bulls still found themselves in a slightly disappointing position with the No. 7 overall pick. Having the No. 7 pick would mean that they’d miss out on guys like Luka Doncic, Marvin Bagley III and Deandre Ayton. While this was initially extremely disappointing, the Bulls ended up getting a fantastic player in Wendell Carter Jr. with their pick. In hindsight, getting the No. 7 pick was pretty good.
Lots of people questioned the decision to sign Zach LaVine to a long-term deal after he had a rough start to 2018 when he returned from injury last season. He was really inefficient and looked out of rhythm. That, of course, has changed after a productive offseason. Now, LaVine has cemented himself as the Bulls’ most consistent offensive weapon and possibly their best player.
Firing Fred Hoiberg was one of the most questionable things the Bulls did in 2018. The timing didn’t make sense and neither did the decision to hire Jim Boylen as the next head coach. Boylen has done a lot of questionable things in his short tenure as the Chicago Bulls’ head coach, but the results are there. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, the Bulls are actually winning more games under Boylen than they were under Hoiberg.
2018 was a year that had more negatives than positives for the Chicago Bulls, but there were still some pretty incredible moments. With that being said, let’s go through the Bulls’ top 3 moments of 2018.