Chicago Bulls: Building all-time one-year starting five

Building an all-time starting five for the Chicago Bulls from individual season performances can be a difficult feat given all the legends to choose from.

Most of the success that the Chicago Bulls had in the last three decades came as a direct result of sustained efforts from bona fide star players. But there’s always going to be one year wonders that aren’t able to find sustained success over the long haul in the NBA.

The most recent string of consistent success that the Bulls found was in the early-to-mid 2010’s, when point guard Derrick Rose and small forward Jimmy Butler were leading the way. Once the Bulls trades Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves, almost three years ago now, the years of contending for the playoffs were over and the rebuild officially began.

The Bulls sit in the midst of the third year of their rebuild in this calendar year. When the novel coronavirus pandemic-induced NBA season hiatus struck back in mid-March, the Bulls held a record of 22-43. They obviously aren’t in a position to contend right now, but they’ve recently made necessary front office changes to get the rebuild back on track heading into the impending offseason.

In this list in particular, we’re building the Bulls best all-time starting five based on single year performances. Just because an eventual Hall-of-Famer or perennial All-Star selection had sustained success with the franchise doesn’t mean that they’ll make this starting five for a complete body of work.

As far as this starting five goes, the Bulls do have a large talent pool to pick from, especially from the very early years of the franchise, through the dynasty teams of the 1990’s, all the way up to those talented and deep D-Rose years.

Here’s a look at the all-time one-year best starting five for the Chicago Bulls, built through the franchise’s entire history.