Chicago Bulls: 3 astounding players for Billy Donovan in his first year

Now that the 2020-21 regular season slate is wrapped up for first-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls, the focus can now turn to continuing to build up the roster this offseason. The Bulls remained rather quiet last offseason amid a cycle of free agency that wasn’t too fruitful. And the open trade window and free agent cycle flew back last offseason in the wake of the shortened timeline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With Donovan and the Bulls nearly getting a full offseason to evaluate their roster and talent on hand, there should be more change ahead in the coming months. The Bulls will have the postseason to evaluate other looming free agent/trade targets and to figure out what to do with their own contracts that are running up.

The Bulls concluded their first full regular season with Donovan as head coach (or at least the closest thing we’ve seen since the 2018-19 campaign) with a record of 31-41. That was nearly a double-digit win improvement over the mark the Bulls posted last season under the direction of former head coach Jim Boylen.

Reviewing Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls’ 2020-21 campaign

Ending the regular season on a high note with a win over the Milwaukee Bucks at home at the United Center on May 16, the Bulls still missed the postseason for the fourth straight year. Given some of their big deadline day acquisitions, it was disappointing to not even finish among the top 10 seeds in the Eastern Conference.

Still, the Bulls have more optimism ahead of the start of the 2021-22 campaign than they did in each of the last three preseasons. That comes with good reason, thanks to a new star duo forming in Chicago and some young talent still sticking around in this core.

Here’s a look back at three players that were astounding for Donovan and the Bulls in the season that was, and how they can give the fans optimism ahead of 2021-22.