Throughout the entirety of 2021, we’ve witnessed a complete change in the narrative for the Chicago Bulls franchise. The Bulls went from one of the laughing stocks of the Eastern Conference under former head coach Jim Boylen at the end of the 2019-20 season to starting to turn it around at the outset of the 2020-21 campaign.
A trio that includes executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas, general manager Marc Eversley, and head coach Billy Donovan, led this trend upward for the Bulls organizations in the past year or so. The Bulls improved during the 2020-21 season, showing signs of life around the turn of the calendar year almost exactly 12 months ago.
Which Chicago Bulls players were the most spectacular throughout the 2021 calendar year?
This is where we can really begin the conversation of talking about the Bulls as one of the rising teams in the East. Once the calendar turned from 2020 to 2021, there were some conversations about how the Bulls could rise in the East with some of their young core still intact.
Yet, Karnisovas and Eversley took it into their own hands to make the Bulls a contender in the East. They went out and traded for star center Nikola Vucevic from the Orlando Magic. And then, the Bulls made some really major moves in the offseason that was to build up this roster to put this team in the contender status it currently sits in 32 games into the 2021-22 season.
As we’re about to conclude the 2021 calendar year, there’s plenty to look back on to witness the start of this growth within the Bulls organization. Here’s a look into three Bulls players that truly had a tremendous calendar year at some point in 2021.