Bulls news: Opening night small-ball lineups, how to tank, more bad news from CHSN

It's finally opening night!

Here's the latest Chicago Bulls news heading into the team's season debut against the New Orleans Pelicans, including what to expect from some mega small-ball lineups and the latest on the Chicago Sports Network saga.

Bulls will play small, fast ... and then smaller and faster

One of the benefits of DeMar DeRozan's exit to Sacramento is that Chicago will be able to run and jack up all the threes it wants without getting bogged down into an iso, half-court, mid-range offense.

Expect to see lots of that transition game and constant barrages of shots from deep.

And with only three players taller than 6-foot-9 on the roster (one of them being the plodding Nikola Vucevic), expect head coach Billy Donovan to experiment with some small lineups. Like really small.

Expect to see the 6-foot-8 Patrick Williams playing the five at times. Or Matas Buzelis, who's listed at 6-foot-9 and a slim 195 pounds.

Jalen Smith is more suited to Chicago's new run-and-gun style, but he won't be gobbling up double-digit rebounds anytime soon.

A lineup of Josh Giddey (6-8), Zach LaVine (6-5), Dalen Terry (6-7), Julian Phillips (6-8) and Buzelis could run teams out of the gym and be super fun.

Chicago's path to keeping its top-10 pick

The Bulls owe their 2025 first-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs as a lingering remnant of the DeRozan trade. The pick is top-10 protected, meaning Chicago has to finish with at least the sixth-worst record in the league to guarantee it keeps that selection.

It's going to be a major challenge to be that bad.

LaVine, Vucevic and Lonzo Ball (assuming they're healthy) are veteran players who will raise the Bulls' ceiling by default. Giddey, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu are talented enough to help win games.

That's not accounting for any production Chicago gets from Buzelis, Smith, Terry, Phillips, et al.

To put it simply, this team is too good to be too bad.

The Washington Wizards, Brooklyn Nets, Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons are locks to finish in the bottom six of the standings at the end of the season.

That leaves the Bulls trying to sneak beneath the Utah Jazz, Charlotte Hornets, Toronto Raptors and Spurs to grab one of the remaining two spots.

It will take some combination of injuries, trades, disappointing individual seasons and then more "injuries" at the end of the year for Chicago to make it.

The latest CHSN update and how to watch Bulls games

Chicago sports fans are surely familiar with the issues surrounding the Chicago Sports Network and its effect on how to watch Bulls games this season, at least for now.

CHSN still hasn't reached a deal with Comcast. YouTubeTV may never be in the cards. Hulu is out of the picture for the moment.

An app could be ready to launch ... but it apparently won't anytime soon. Not until the network reaches a deal with Comcast.

Comcast wants to include CHSN on its most expensive tier. CHSN wants to be included on the same middle tier that NBC Sports Chicago was.

Neither side has caved yet, which means Bulls fans are only able to catch games on over-the-air networks with a TV antenna, or unless they're DirectTV, U-Verse or Astound customers.

Keep checking back here for updates.