Cowley ranks Chicago Bulls 12th in the East for 2020-21 season

Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times released his projection for the Chicago Bulls in the standings for the 2020-21 season this weekend.

Training Camp is very close to arriving for the Chicago Bulls, and all of the hype surrounding the organization right how has to do with the arrival of newly hired head coach Billy Donovan along with the new front office regime. Former Oklahoma City Thunder and Florida Gators men’s hoops head coach Donovan will replace Jim Boylen, and the ex-Denver Nuggets general manager Arturas Karnisovas replaces John Paxson as the lead voice in the front office.

The official title for Karnisovas will be the Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations. Karnisovas will be joined by the former Philadelphia 76ers senior VP of player personnel Marc Eversley, who replaces Gar Forman as the Bulls general manager.

There’s not a whole lot of big splash moves that the Bulls made in the NBA Draft, trade market, or free agency this offseason. They picked the former Florida State Seminoles freshman forward Patrick Williams with the fourth overall slot in the 2020 draft lottery. And they also landed players like former Kansas point guard Devon Dotson, big man Noah Vonleh, and shooting guard Garrett Temple off of free agency since draft night.

So how does the Bulls outlook stack up for the coming season in the Eastern Conference?

Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times gave his take on the Bulls projection ahead of the Dec. 1 start to Training Camp. He actually projected the Bulls to finish one spot lower in the Eastern Conference standings next season than they did last year, at No. 12.

Here’s more on what Cowley had to say on his Bulls projection for the 2020-21 season.

"The front office and coaching staff went through an overhaul, which was applauded leaguewide.Why there’s camp hope: A real coach can now show this front office what it has talent-wise."

Simply put, Cowley doesn’t think the Bulls did enough to make an immediate impact on their spotting in the Eastern Conference standings next season. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t improve greatly in future seasons, but that the fourth year of the rebuild won’t bring immediate results.

That projection for the Bulls spot in the Eastern Conference standings next season slotted them between the Orlando Magic (at No. 11) and the divisional foe Detroit Pistons (at No. 13). The two top projects teams in the East, according to Cowley, for next season were the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets.

The Bulls finished up the shortened 2019-20 regular season in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic with a record of 22-43, good for 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. They will tip off their preseason run this year on Dec. 11 at home against the Houston Rockets at the United Center.