2. Chicago Bulls finish second from the bottom in the East
Entering the All-Star Break, the Chicago Bulls sat in 13th place in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 14-44. A handful of wins within the past few weeks brought the Bulls a few games ahead of the drowning New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers at the bottom of the standings in the East.
But, there’s always the looming movement at the bottom of the standings in the East if the Cavs or Knicks do start to find the right recipe for success. The Knicks did get a bit better immediately by acquiring star center DeAndre Jordan from the Dallas Mavericks at the deadline. The Cavs also just got forward Kevin Love back from injury.
The issue is for the three bottom-feeders in the East is that no one really wants to win at this point. This is a very fruitful draft class, especially from what’s coming out of the Duke Blue Devils basketball program this year. Whoever wins the sweepstakes for Duke star forward Zion Williamson in the 2019 NBA Draft lottery can have the opportunity to contend immediately.
If the Bulls cool down anytime soon and go back to the losing ways before acquiring Porter Jr., a second to last place finish in the East is easily foreseeable. The Bulls should want to position themselves as good as possible for the upcoming draft lottery. That is overshadowed by figuring out the direction of this franchise and helping develop some of the younger promising players.