The Chicago Bulls haven't advanced to the playoffs since the 2021-22 season. Led by DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball, they finished 46-36 and earned the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. They held the best record in the East, in fact, at one point in the year.
But Ball got hurt in January (one of the franchise's most significant sliding doors moments of this century), the Bulls backed into the postseason having lost 15 of their last 22 games and promptly got beaten by the Milwaukee Bucks in five games.
Chicago finished the last two seasons 40-42 and 39-43, respectively, with two Play-In Tournament appearances but no playoff games to speak of. The Bulls had just one lottery pick out of those two failed campaigns and seem to be in familiar territory this year: an average team with no chance at a real playoff run and another late-lottery pick in the cards.
Things have taken a dramatic turn for the better since the All-Star break, however. Maybe Chicago's luck will change?
Where the Bulls fit in current 2025 NBA Playoff standings
Chicago has hovered around the No. 9 or 10 spot for most of the year but is playing its best basketball of the season right now, having gone 10-7 since the All-Star break and 8-2 in the last 10 games behind encouraging stretches from Josh Giddey and Coby White.
That has yet to make a major dent in the standings, though, as the Bulls are still ninth in the East heading into the March 26 slate of games, just one game up on the Miami Heat for 10th and 2.5 behind the Orlando Magic for eighth. The Atlanta Hawks currently own the No. 7 slot with three games separating them and Chicago.
The Bulls have the 21st easiest schedule the remainder of the season, according to Tankathon. They have four games against the bottom five teams in the East and one more critical chance at Miami, at home in the third-to-last contest of the year.
If the regular season ended today, the Bulls would host the Heat in the 9-10 matchup of the East Play-In Tournament while Atlanta would host Orlando. If Chicago wins, it would face the loser of that Hawks-Magic game with a playoff berth on the line.
If the Bulls can leapfrog Orlando, however, it would take just one win to solidify a spot in the playoffs for the first time in three seasons.
If that's how things shake out, it would mean a date with the second-seeded Boston Celtics.
If Chicago loses that game (which would likely be against Atlanta), it would still have a shot at the playoffs with a victory over the winner of that 9-10 game (likely Orlando and Miami). That would mean a first-round series with the NBA-best Cleveland Cavaliers.
Even with the Bulls' current run of form, making a deep playoff push (let alone winning a series) is almost certainly an impossibility, but getting there would at least give them a chance.