3 Lessons the Bulls can learn from Kings’ surge up the standings

Historically speaking, the Sacramento Kings have not been a very successful franchise. While I understand that not every team can be gifted their own Michael Jordan, it feels like the Kings have shot themselves in the foot far too many times to justify, which helps explain why they have the 24th-worst all-time win percentage in the league, and fourth-worst among all teams introduced before the1988 NBA expansion. And yet, against all odds, the Kings are now a much better basketball team than the Chicago Bulls.

While Sacramento has long suffered as a victim of playoff-drought jokes, I believe it’s far more of a joke that the Bulls have struggled to find tangible success in the 25 years since Michael Jordan’s retirement, despite an abundance of resources and franchise prestige at their disposal.

Instead of trying to emulate the already-perfected approaches of teams like the Warriors, Celtics, and Bucks, the Kings are the rare team that has managed to carve their own path forward despite lacking a true generation-defining Hall of Fame-caliber talent. They’re making history and breaking records through sheer willpower alone, and considering the Bulls find themselves in a vaguely similar position to the Kings a season ago, they’d be fools to not be paying close attention.

With this in mind, I think it would be unwise to ignore these valuable lessons the Kings are offering this season. Moving forward, perhaps the Bulls could emulate a few things that have helped Sacramento become an unlikely dark horse to make a genuine run in the 2023 NBA Playoffs.

The Chicago Bulls may need to significantly shake things up if they want to see a return to prominence like the Sacramento Kings this season.

3. The Bulls need to up the tempo

Throughout the course of the game, the Bulls actually do a respectable job of getting out in transition. Zach LaVine, Derrick Jones Jr., Alex Caruso, and Javonte Green simply excel too much on the fast break to not utilize it to their advantage. However, this team struggles to stick to the strategy even when it’s working extremely well for them.

The main culprit here? DeMar DeRozan and the art of the mid-range. While one-on-one possessions may feel more like “pure basketball” and “the right way to play”, over-relying on isolation is simply not a winning strategy in today’s NBA. With an abundance of elite athletes on this roster, the Bulls should be utilizing one of their greatest strengths to their advantage, not ranking as just the 18th-fastest pace of play team in the NBA.

These strategic differences also help to explain why the Bulls have repeatedly blown big leads and allowed opponents to build big leads of their own at a disproportionate rate throughout the season. When the games are close, however, the Bulls are still just as predictable as ever, often completely draining possessions at the top of the key just to end with zero ball movement and another predictable contested mid-range jumper from DeRozan.

As talented as DeMar is, the Bulls have the fourth-worst winning percentage in the NBA in clutch situations with a record of 14-23. The Kings on the other hand, are 25-17 in the clutch, good for fifth-best in the league. The numbers speak for themselves here; it might seem like common sense, but distributing the ball is actually a good thing.

2. Chicago must directly address team needs

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t one of the many fans to mock the Kings after their shocking decision to trade Tyrese Haliburton to Indiana for Domantas Sabonis. After a massively successful rookie season, it seemed like a terrible idea.

Well, I was wrong. Very wrong.

As it turns out, Sacramento actually understood their own team’s needs better than anyone else. Who would have thought? Prior to the trade, the Kings had virtually no inside game because they lacked a dominant big man. As much as I like Richaun Holmes, his offensive game is far from elite, he’s an average defender at best, and his size makes him a massive liability on the boards.

Adding Sabonis immediately cured the Kings’ ailments by addressing Holmes’ two biggest weaknesses and allowed point guard De’Aaron Fox to run a deadly pick-and-roll in the halfcourt. With the ball in his hands more often, Fox also got a better feel for his own game by not playing hot potato with Haliburton on every other possession. Both Fox and Haliburton have improved massively since the trade, and Sabonis is playing the best basketball of his career, so I think both sides feel more than happy with how they made out here.

On top of all that, Sacramento did an impeccable job over the offseason by drafting Keegan Murray (ahead of the highly-touted Jaden Ivey, no less) and signing free agents Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk. The Kings knew they now had the talent to win games, and that surrounding them with shooters would be a recipe for success. Huerter and Monk have each taken big steps forward in their games this season, while Murray just shattered the three-point record for rookies while hitting over 40% from deep.

If the Bulls had made the same proactive decisions, instead of sitting on their hands and preaching about “continuity”, it’s very likely they would be joining the Kings in the playoffs instead of sitting as a fringe play-in tournament team.

1. The Kings are fun to watch, but the Bulls aren’t

Not only have the Kings been willing to take risks when deemed necessary — like offering Zach LaVine a seemingly exorbitant $80 million, or trading away their blossoming sophomore guard — but they’ve undeniably put their fans first every step of the way ever since Monte McNair took the reigns in 2020. It may have taken a few years to crack the code, but you can’t say the Kings hadn’t been working hard to break their postseason drought leading up to this moment.

Identifying the NBA’s transition to an offensively-oriented game, it makes sense for Sacramento to push all their chips on being able to run and gun. The Kings score the most points per game and hold the league’s highest offensive rating not only this season, but in NBA history.

Compared to the Bulls, who hold the league’s 24th-best offensive rating, these two teams look like they’re playing a different sport at times. And I don’t just mean on the court.

While Chicago would prefer cutting corners to reduce costs and remain under the luxury tax threshold, the Kings have dumped a truckload of money to keep Fox, Huerter, and Barnes on the roster for the foreseeable future. When Sabonis becomes eligible for an extension next season, I have no doubt they’ll pony up the cash to keep their All-Star duo together, even if it means venturing into the luxury tax.

This goes beyond spending habits, of course, as I’m referring to the culture surrounding these organizations as a whole. The United Center is the house that MJ built, and yet… it no longer feels like it. Gone are the days of iconic player introductions, players being fashion icons and international superstars, and the Bulls being arguably the most identifiable sports organization on the planet. As long as the books remain in the green and Jerry Reinsdorf continues cashing checks, everything else feels irrelevant.

Meanwhile, the Kings are prioritizing the fun factor and takings risks left and right to create an enjoyable experience for their fans. Introducing the beam when nobody held any expectations for this team to be good was an insane gambit that paid off in an enormous fashion. Their social media team has also nailed it every step of the way and the Kings truly feel like the feel-good Cinderella story of the season.

To put it simply, it feels good to be a Kings fan right now. As much as I may want to, it doesn’t always feel the same for the Bulls. And this isn’t simply because the Kings are winning and the Bulls aren’t, rather, there are weeds that need pulling with roots stemming all the way to the very core of this franchise. If we’re lucky, we’ll begin to see a systemic overhaul put in place to get this team back on track. I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high, however, as history isn’t really in favor of the Bulls on this one.