The Chicago Bulls' dream season is not what you'd expect

For many teams, the dream season would include winning an NBA title, but for the Chicago Bulls, that’s more of a pipe dream that is so far down the road you can’t see it. 

The Bulls are nowhere near winning a title, evidenced by the fact that they won 39 games last season and the roster got worse by losing two of its best players. 

How much worse will determine whether next year’s campaign is a success or another foray into the middle ground where no team repeatedly wants to be. 

The Bulls have been the NBA’s symbol of mediocrity over the last several seasons, topping out as a play-in team, so the focus of next year has to shift to the future.

For the Chicago Bulls, failure would be a success 

Obviously, it would be great if the Bulls exceeded even the wildest expectations, made the playoffs and threatened to win the Eastern Conference, but the chances of that are about as high as me starting at center for the Bulls next season. 

The more realistic dream season would follow this narrative: 

-Zach LaVine is on fire early on, looks healthy and is scoring a ton of points. 

-Some other team gets desperate because of injuries or a slow start and trades for LaVine without the Bulls having to give up draft capital or take on long-term money to do it. 

-Vucevic follows the same path. 

-The Bulls commit to the young players on their roster and let them take their lumps. It will likely be ugly at times, but increased reps won’t hurt guys like Matas Buzelis, who may even have a shot at Rookie of the Year. 

-The Bulls tank out the rest of the season competitively, showing some promise but coming up short most of the time and finishing with one of the bottom four records in the NBA. 

-This not only ensures they will keep their top-10 protected pick, but will give them maximum odds at one of the intriguing talents at the top of next year’s draft. 

-The Bulls luck out and get the #1 pick and now have Cooper Flagg, Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey, Patrick Williams, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu to build around to go with copious cap space from the LaVine trade. 

-The Bulls move forward with a young, promising roster that doesn’t have any bad long-term money.

Are all of these things likely to happen? Given the recent history of inaction from the Bulls front office, I’d say it’s unlikely. 

But this is what fans should hope for, as it’s the only thing that will get the Bulls out of the perpetual cycle of chasing the play-in, which is fine for a young team on the rise, but not so much if it’s the ceiling of your roster, which is the case right now.