The Chicago Bulls are entering the 2024-25 NBA season with an odd combination of certainty and uncertainty.
The organization has finally hit the reset button, as evidenced by the Alex Caruso trade and DeMar DeRozan's signing with the Sacramento Kings.
The Bulls will hand their 2025 first-round pick over to the San Antonio Spurs unless that selection lands in the top 10. In order to guarantee that happens, Chicago needs to finish the year with one of the sixth-worst records in the league.
So certainly, the team will hand a large chunk of playing time to potential franchise building blocks Coby White and Matas Buzelis. Other young players like Julian Phillips, Ayo Dosunmu, Josh Giddey, Patrick Williams and Dalen Terry should also see time over the course of the year.
This season's uncertainties surround the futures of Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic and Lonzo Ball. All three veterans will raise the Bulls' floor as long as they're healthy and call the United Center home.
How can Chicago finish the season as a bottom-six team if it doesn't have a bottom-six roster?
Head Coach Billy Donovan's future with the franchise is another question mark. He left Oklahoma City when the Thunder began their rebuild in earnest following the 2019-20 season. Does he have the patience to stick one out with Chicago? Do the Bulls even want Donovan leading that charge?
With that combination of certainty and uncertainty, though, will come an intriguing season for fans. Here are four hot takes that hopefully come to fruition in The Windy City, even if they might be long shots.
4 Bold predictions for the Chicago Bulls in the 2024-25 NBA season
Coby White makes an All-NBA team
White averaged career highs in points per game (19.1), rebounds per game (4.5) and assists per game (5.1) last season on his way to finishing as runner-up for the league's Most Improved Player Award.
He finished second to only DeRozan in total minutes, points and assists and was the Bulls' third-leading rebounder behind Vucevic and the now-departed Andre Drummond. White shot 37.6 percent from three on 556 attempts - Caruso was second on that list with 333.
He did all this as the team's No. 1 scoring option, with LaVine injured for most of the season. LaVine is healthy but saying all the right things so far - that he's willing to work within the flow of the offense and act as a facilitator more than he has before.
If that LaVine shows up and draws defensive attention away from White and Giddey soaks up most of the minutes at point guard productively, White will have an opportunity to get buckets with even better efficiency.
To make an All-NBA team, he'd have to prove he's one of the 15 best players in the league, a tall task for sure. But if everything breaks right, he may have the opportunity.
Lonzo Ball wins Comeback Player of the Year
NBA award voters love narratives, and Ball's unprecedented return after more than two and a half years away would certainly be one of the league's best storylines.
In order to win Comeback Player of the Year, though, Ball will also have to produce on the court. If he can play 60 to 65 games and have an impact for Chicago, he'll have a legitimate case.
He'll be competing with bigger stars who will put up gaudier numbers - Ja Morant, for example - which wouldn't make this a slam dunk by any means, even if he ends up as the best story in the league in 2024-25.
Matas Buzelis wins Rookie of the Year
Buzelis has already shown flashes of stardom. He's one of the Bulls' best athletes at 6-foot-10, can finish explosively at the rim, corral rebounds and should thrive in Chicago's new up-tempo system.
This year's crop of rookies isn't exactly loaded - Memphis center Zach Edey is the favorite to win the award - so if Buzelis gets enough minutes and shows he can be a consistent shooting threat, he'll have a chance to put up some of the best numbers and have the most significant impact of any player in the 2024 draft class.
Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic are traded before the Feb. 6 trade deadline
This is the boldest take on this list, even including White landing a spot on an All-NBA team, as the Bulls have come nowhere close to finding trade suitors for LaVine or Vucevic.
The franchise must act desperately at this point, though, and prioritize the current roster's building blocks, like White and Buzelis, over an attractive trade return.
The Bulls should aim to accomplish two things in 2024-25: Lose as many games as possible and develop their top young talent. Neither of those will happen with these two vets on the roster, which means they need to go ASAP.
Clearly, though, accomplishing that is much easier said than done.