#5: Could the Bulls be sneaky good?
Bear with me for a moment of rare optimism. Let’s start with the ifs:
-If LaVine, Ball and Williams are healthy
-If LaVine, White and Giddey can gel
-If Lonzo Ball is back
-If Vucevic remembers how to shoot 3’s
-If Jalen Smith is better in an expanded role
-If Matas Buzelis is ahead of schedule
-If Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu have another level
-If Billy Donovan can get this team to defend 3-point shots
IF all of those things happened, could the Bulls be good? They should have a high-powered offense and can sprinkle in defenders like Williams, Buzelis, Dosunmu, Ball and Craig to balance the defensively-challenged starting five.
They will potentially have seven good 3-point shooters to spread the floor, which should benefit Giddey.
The defense is likely to be atrocious, so that last “if” may be the hardest to overcome.
It’s the longest of long shots that all of these things happen, but the Eastern Conference is not great and the Bulls may have enough depth and scoring to compete.
But this goes back to question #1: Do they really want to?