LOSER: People who enjoyed last season’s primordial offense
Once upon a time, the Bulls formed a leadership committee because Jim Boylen made them do push-ups and run wind sprints like they were in high school. In what were a rocky few weeks to start his tenure as the Bulls head coach, there was plenty of terrible basketball in the wake. I don’t blame you if you missed it.
However, as the season raged on, the Bulls started to find some firepower in part due to the arrival of Otto Porter Jr., but mainly between Markkanen and LaVine. Once Boylen sped up the offense, the two suddenly had a lot more space to create their own shots, making the Bulls fun to watch for the first time in a while.
Last night, the Bulls upgraded their ability to whip the ball around the court adding Coby White as their ballhandler. White is overwhelming in transition and there’s no way Boylen would neglect that feature in the rookie’s game. Paxson gave Boylen all the tools needed to set up a modern NBA offense.
Given a group of big, explosive players, many of whom are effective passers, Boylen now has to play with a quicker pace and allow his players to take a lot more looks from three. Expect this team to look a lot more like they did around February and March of last season; when they played their most efficient basketball.
Welcome to the modern NBA Bulls Fans, whether you like it or not, the up-tempo, three-point shooting era has finally arrived in Chicago!