The Chicago Bulls have a strange roster with a mixture of young players and veterans who are in or near their primes.
Their depth chart shows a plentitude of guards but is thin on forwards and big men, a problem that showed up last season when they were just 20th in the NBA in rebounds, 18th in blocks and 19th in points in the paint per game.
This imbalance may force the Bulls into some wacky lineups that could work to their advantage at times.
Bleacher Report gave a “wildest” lineup idea for each team and came up with this for the Chicago Bulls:
-Lonzo Ball
-Coby White
-Zach LaVine
-Ayo Dosunmu
-Patrick Williams
At first glance this seems silly, as the group has four guards, a forward and no center, but it’s something the Bulls may be able to lean into at times to create an advantage.
The Chicago Bulls bringing back small ball
We haven’t heard much about “small ball” since the Golden State Warriors were winning titles with their “Death Lineup” that didn’t feature a real center.
They were able to get away with it because of the defensive versatility of Draymond Green, who was always able to defend bigger players.
The league has since moved onto tall wings and skilled big men, leaving small ball behind in favor of more size.
But the Bulls’ best players are all guards, so if they want to put their best lineups on the floor, they will need to play small at times.
This group may get killed defensively and on the boards, but that’s likely to happen anyway, as the Bulls don’t have a dominant rebounder or defender in their big-man ranks.
You could probably switch out Williams for Jalen Smith in this scenario, and could ditch one of LaVine, Ball or Dosunmu for Matas Buzelis or Josh Giddey, but the Bulls’ best lineups likely won’t contain a traditional center.
Ball, Dosunmu and Williams can all defend bigger players and at least hold their own and the Bulls would have mismatches, spacing and shooting all over the floor on the other end.
All five guys on the floor can shoot (even if you switch out Williams for Smith) and they’d have a couple of creators to draw defenders. This group would be a nightmare for opposing defenses and might force them to adjust with a smaller lineup of their own.
That’s good news for the Bulls, whose best players are all guards and who need to find ways to use that to their advantage. They may not be able to go small all of the time, but it’s something we’ll almost certainly see Billy Donovan experimenting with throughout the season.