Pippen Ain't Easy
Fansided

Grading different aspects of the Chicago Bulls’ 2018-19 season

By Luke Askew

LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 15: Otto Porter Jr. #22 of the Chicago Bulls hangs on the net before playing the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on March 15, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.(Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 15: Otto Porter Jr. #22 of the Chicago Bulls hangs on the net before playing the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on March 15, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.(Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Tanking

Some Bulls fans expected the 2018-19 season to be when the Bulls made the leap from being a rebuilding team to being a playoff team. On the other hand, some Bulls fans thought all along that the 2018-19 season should be another season of tanking.

Until the last few weeks of the season, the Bulls were definitely trying to win games. They let their starters close out games, they traded for Otto Porter Jr. (the piece that propelled them to that nice stretch in February) and LaVine, Markkanen and Porter all averaged more than 32 minutes of action per game.

There’s no question about it. They had no intention of tanking.

Luckily for fans that wanted the team to tank, the Bulls were so bad that most of their attempts at winning games didn’t work out for them anyway.

As previously mentioned, the Bulls finished the season with the fourth-worst record in the league. This season, under the new lottery format, the bottom three teams all have equal odds at landing the first overall pick. Had the Bulls managed to put up a Knicks-like level of sucking for all 82 games, they’d have as good of a chance at drafting Zion Williamson as anyone. Fortunately for fans who support winning, that didn’t happen.

Grading the Bulls’ tanking abilities is tough. In some ways, they did a horrendous job. They tried to win games (the opposite of tanking) and they were just good enough to sneak into the second tier of lottery odds. In some other ways, though, they were really good at tanking – they just did it unintentionally. There were multiple games where they let a win slip out of their hands or they played so horribly that winning was never on the table.

All in all, having the fourth-worst record is a pretty decent tanking season. But it definitely could’ve been worse (better?).

Grade: C

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