With the recent news that All-Star Zach LaVine will be placed in health and safety protocols for the foreseeable future, the chances of the Chicago Bulls squeezing into the NBA playoffs look slim. But if the Bulls can work on some of the aspects of their game outlined here, there still may be a chance.
1. The Chicago Bulls Defense
In the 11 games Nikolva Vucevic has played in for the Bulls, they have plummeted to 25th in defensive efficiency, only being able to muster up a measly 3 wins in that period of time. While the Bulls defense already wasn’t amazing (21st in efficiency), that is no justification for how awful they have been.
In just that span of time alone, we have seen the likes of Steph Curry, Devin Booker, Trae Young and Chris Boucher all score over 30 points, with other big games coming from the likes of Karl Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell and Paskal Siakam.
While Vucevic alone isn’t an amazing defender, it would be wrong to put the blame solely on him. It’s not entirely surprising that the defense has slipped up a bit, considering the Bulls dealt 2 very good defenders away in Otto Porter Jr and Wendell Carter Jr to get Vucevic, but it still doesn’t excuse the lack of effort on most plays.
Without LaVine to make up the difference offensively, it’s gonna take a collective effort from everyone to try and tighten it up while the new-look offense without the All-Star sorts itself out.