The end to the season that many Chicago Bulls fans desired was not what was delivered by first-year head coach Billy Donovan down the stretch. Despite making numerous big moves at the trade deadline to try and upgrade the roster, the Bulls were once again left on the outside looking in for the postseason picture in the Eastern Conference.
Even the addition of the play-in tournament, which gave Donovan and the Bulls two extra seeds to try and work their way into the postseason, wasn’t enough to get them over the hump. The Bulls finished up the regular season with a record of 31-41, which was a nine-win improvement to their mark from the prior season.
Nonetheless, the Bulls did extend their postseason drought to four years. Since the Bulls shipped off their former star shooting guard/small forward Jimmy Butler back in 2017 to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team was not able to find solid footing in playoff contention in the East.
Chicago Bulls trying to push for the postseason in 2022 with an upgraded roster
There will be fewer excuses that the Bulls can come up with if they miss out on the postseason again in 2022. But for the time being, the focus for executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley tends to lie on building up this core around the trio of star shooting guard Zach LaVine, center Nikola Vucevic, and rookie forward Patrick Williams.
The Bulls have a newfound core thanks to the roster reshaping of Karnisovas and Eversley thus far. But the job appears to be far from done for those two as the Bulls have a crucial offseason ahead as they try to continue to build up the supporting cast in the best fashion possible.
In terms of the focus on the Bulls players that are impending free agents, or could have some important contract negotiations this offseason, which could be looking at significant pay raises in the near future?