The Chicago Bulls finished up yet another mediocre season last Friday night as they lost to the Miami Heat in the NBA play-in tournament. It was a disappointing season, so it was fitting for it to end in disappointing fashion. The Bulls got out to a good start in Miami as they hit a few threes early to go up 11-6, but it was all Heat after that. Miami won the game 112-91, and they are now headed to the playoffs to take on the Boston Celtics.
After going up 11-6, the Bulls surrendered a massive run and ended up going down by 20 in the second quarter. After they went down 20, the Bulls actually did a good job of weathering the storm. Chicago fought back and made it a seven point game in the third quarter, but the Heat turned things back on and ended up winning in blowout fashion.
The Bulls finished the regular season with a 39-43 record. They did get a win against the Atlanta Hawks in their first play-in tournament game, but they once again failed to make it into the playoffs. Chicago was just one win away and a victory in Miami on Friday night would’ve sent them to the playoffs, but they couldn’t get the job done.
So, another season is in the books for the Bulls. After starting 5-14, things went pretty well, but they are still far from satisfying this hungry fan base. No one really expected this team to make it to the postseason in the early stages of the year, so making it this far was exceeding expectations, but the fan base wants more. Chicago needs to make some moves this offseason if they want anything to change, and here is one thing that they need to address.
Size
The Bulls signed Nikola Vucevic to a three-year contract extension last summer to be their star big, and this season he played side by side with Andre Drummond a lot. They had to have both of their bigs in at once because besides them, Chicago just didn’t have a lot of size.
Chicago doesn’t necessarily need to go out and sign another big man like Vucevic or Drummond, or try to replace one of them, but more length at other positions on the floor would help this team a lot. When the Bulls lost games this season, it typically came down to rebounding and fouling, and those two issues went hand in hand.
Bulls head coach Billy Donovan preached all year long that rebounding and fouling were hurting the team, and not having enough size was a big reason why they were plagued in those areas. Of course, the injuries that they dealt with made for thin availability, but it would still be nice for this team to add some length in the offseason.
We often saw the Bulls get into situations where they were giving up a lot of second chance points and also fouling because guys were matched up on bigger players. That’s going to lead to more fouls. Billy Donovan knows that those things were a big issue this season, and the team should be trying to fix that in the offseason.
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