The Chicago Bulls basketball team has added six new players to their 2018/2019 season roster: Rawle Alkins, Wendell Carter Jr., Shaquille Harrison, Chandler Hutchison, Jabari Parker and Tyler Ulis. Despite the changes, the Bulls are looking like a below .500 team this year. Hopefully for the Bulls, this could help them get a higher pick in the draft to continue rebuilding themselves as a team.
One of the biggest problems I see is the holes in depth they have at every position. For example, the Bulls have very average point guards: Cameron Payne—who is only averaging 6.2 points per game and making 2.5 assists every 18.5 minutes—and Kris Dunn, who is averaging nine points per game on 30 percent shooting every 30 minutes. The Bulls only have two true centers—Robin Lopez and Cristiano Felicio. In 41 minutes, the two centers are only averaging 7.8 rebounds.
That being said, there are many players on the team who are playing fantastically, Bobby Portis being one of them. He is averaging a little over 10 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Also, Antonio Blakeney is currently averaging around 11 points per 17 minutes. 48 percent of those shots coming from shooting and 46 percent from three point range. This is definitely very impressive.
Another total baller in Chicago is Jabari Parker. Currently, Parker is averaging 14.8 points per game, shooting 45.6 percent. I believe Parker will be a key piece in the Bulls’ future.
Zach Lavine, a 23 year old guard off an ACL injury, is also currently doing great. If he keeps playing like he is now, averaging 27.4 points per game on 46 percent from the field, he could easily win MVP.
Some players on the team are currently struggling, such as Wendell Carter. This is expected, due to him being a rookie and still adapting to the team. However, players like Robin Lopez and Chandler Hutchison are having poor seasons so far, both with low shooting percentages. Both of them are just not scoring enough in the amount of time they play, and aren’t contributing on the boards as much as they probably could. Luckily, there is still plenty of time left in the season for them to pick it up.
Lauri Markkanen and Denzel Valentine are currently injured. Valentine is a 6-foot-5-inch 25 year old forward currently in his third season, who is out indefinitely with an ankle injury. Markkanen is a 7-foot 21 year old power forward with a right elbow injury, and is expected to miss four to six more weeks of his sophomore season. In the best case scenario, these two can come back and easily average 15+ ppg.
Coming into the NBA, Wendell Carter looked like a very safe pick out of Duke. His game looked like it could easily transition to the NBA, but he is currently struggling. He could still recover and become a top-five big man in the league, simply because of his ability to do everything from scoring when needed, to defending anyone on the floor. Hopefully the Bulls’ head coach Fred Hoiberg can continue to help Carter so he can blossom into an allstar-type player.
With the current roster and some key players being out, the Bulls could have some easy games, some games they will get blown out in, and some that will come down to the wire. This being the case, I think they will be below .500 and my projected record for them is 31-51.
