There’s a lot to takeaway from Chicago Bulls Media Day, but it’s striking the way the organization formed a united front for hopes of making a playoff run.
In a Sept. 30 livestream, members of the media met with the Chicago Bulls to discuss changes made in the offseason and future aspirations.
Among those featured during Chicago Bulls Media Day were Jim Boylen, John Paxson, Gar Forman, Otto Porter Jr., Wendell Carter Jr., Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen, Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky.
"“Our goals for the season are to make the playoffs,” Boylen said. “That’s our goal for the season: to make the playoffs, and every day to prepare like we’re a playoff team, and every day to work like we’re a playoff-bound team. I’m excited for that, and I think that’s the only way to do it. There’s no way that we were going to stand up here and say, ‘Hey, we hope we can win 10 more games’ or ‘hope we can be better.’ We want to get to the mountaintop.”"
The Bulls have made a number of changes to the roster in the last two years. Since then, Denzel Valentine and Cristiano Felicio have become the longest-tenured Bulls.
Among the areas the Bulls are looking to improve heading into the 2019-2020 season include defense and scoring.
The Bulls did not set playoff expectations a year ago.
What’s changed?
This season marks what will be Boylen’s first full year as the Bulls head coach. The organization has also added Chris Fleming and Roy Rogers to the coaching staff.
The Bulls had full attendance going into training camp, which is different from the past few years.
Boylen credited members of the team for coming together during the month of September demonstrating a hunger to have a good season.
Last season, the Bulls finished the year with 22 wins. The team is currently in year No. 3 of its rebuild.
A lot about the Bulls organization has changed going into the 2019-2020 season.
"“I think the mentality of this organization changed,” Porter said. “Since I’ve come here, what we want to do here has changed. With that being said, I think everybody’s on the right page. I think with all the talent that we have, we’ve come early to put in the extra work to get to know everybody. Every new piece is here, even in the front office, because we want to do something special here.”"
Forman negated the idea of outside pressure pushing the Bulls to aim for the playoffs.
"“We put that pressure on ourselves,” Forman said. “I know when we started into this rebuild period, we knew it was going to take time. We knew it was going to take a lot of effort; we knew that the decisions we made would be critical.”"
When asked how the Bulls organization formulated a desire to make a playoff run stems, Carter had this to say.
"“The whole league has changed,” Carter said. “A lot of the stars have shifted all around the league. I feel like it gives us a really, really good opportunity as long as everybody stays healthy and stays the same accord to make it to the playoffs.”"
Paxson believes the Bulls have something special and that playoff aspirations make sense on many levels.
"“We feel the young guys we’ve had–and I include Otto in that–they’re at a point now where they have to show that they can win in this league at some level,” Paxson said. “We believe their maturity allows them to make that jump. We’ve added certain players. When you look at the league in general, there have been a lot of changes. In the Eastern Conference especially, there’s been a lot of turnover. I think as an organization, we have to adapt that attitude.”"
The bottom line is, it’s become about winning for the Bulls.