Chicago Bulls: Marc Eversley not setting bar too high for 2020-21 season

Former Sixers senior VP of player personnel and newly hired Chicago Bulls GM Marc Eversley appears ready for what lies ahead with this rebuild.

The Chicago Bulls wouldn’t be one of the teams out of the Eastern Conference next season that many expect to be a real threat as a playoff contender. They would have to take a pretty massive leap up the standings in the East to reach that point. The Bulls finished up the 2019-20 season with a record of 22-43, which was good for 11th place in the final Eastern Conference standings.

That less than stellar record the Bulls posted during the shortened 2019-20 version of their regular season largely led to the firing of now former head coach Jim Boylen. The Bulls then replaced Boylen with former Oklahoma City Thunder and Florida Gators head coach Billy Donovan.

But all of those changes to the coaching staff occurred after the main shifts were triggered by reshaping the front office. The Bulls hired former Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas to take over for John Paxson as the new lead voice in the front office. And former Philadelphia 76ers senior vice president of player personnel Marc Eversley was hired to replace Gar Forman as the Bulls general manager.

Where do the Bulls go from here to find a more promising direction for the rebuild entering year four?

In an interview that was released on the Bulls team website on Sep. 30, Eversley discussed where the state of the franchise is now and his expectations moving forward. Eversley does have high hopes for the Bulls, but it didn’t seem like in this discussion that he was getting expectations out of control.

Here’s more on what this piece had to say on the matter.

"“This team is better than a 22-win team, the talent is,” Bulls General Manager Marc Eversley was saying Wednesday during a Zoom conference with local media. “If we tweak it and do some little things, I think we’ll see some results that are positive.“When we came in, we talked a lot about player development,” Eversley added during his first media session since his introductory comments on May 1. “I like a lot of the players on this roster. I think if we put together an efficient, effective player development program I think you will see a quick turnaround in terms of the output that these players give. By going out and getting a Billy Donovan (as head coach), he brings winning."

It is true that the current Bulls roster at hand does look to be better than a 22-win team. Granted those 22 wins came in a span of just 65 games. But the Bulls were still on pace to win less than 30 games if they played a full 82-game 2019-20 regular season.

The increased confidence that the Bulls front office seems to have in this franchise from here on out is more credible than any that was had under the GarPax regime. The Bulls hired a proven winner at both the college and NBA levels in Donovan. They also look to have a more proficient front office and scouting department after both were reshaped this offseason.

And the Bulls also got lucky in the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery and jumped up three spots in the odds order to land the fourth overall pick in the first round. That gives Karnisovas and Eversley a lot more wiggle room as to how they can reshape the roster heading into the 2020-21 season.

It’s nice to see a lead voice in the front office that has reasonable, but warranted optimistic expectations for a regular season that lies ahead. The Bulls still have a long way to go to repair the roster construction this offseason, and as a whole until they are a real contender in the East. But Eversley and Karnisovas seem to be leading them in the right direction thus far.