The first quarter of the Chicago Bulls season doled out equal portions of hope and pessimism.
After a 5-0 start, the Bulls are four games under .500 at 9-13. This head-spinning plummet from the top of the Eastern Conference to below the play-in cutoff line is enough to leave any fan with a litany of questions.
Here are a few of the most pressing.
Do you think the Bulls’ flaws have a lot to do with injuries and therefore rotations out of order? When fully healthy do you see this team looking more like the 5-0 team rather than the team losing to sub-4-win teams? — Cody B.
Injuries are certainly a driving factor in the severity of this team’s results over the last three weeks. The Bulls were destined for a crash back to reality. Their 5-0 start was defined by a decent amount of luck, including injured stars and horrific 3-point shooting from opponents. But without injuries, I don’t believe they would have dropped significantly below .500, even when their good fortune ran out.
When the Bulls begin to get some of their starters back, they will be better equipped to run their ideal style of play. This doesn’t mean they’ll immediately start breaking off 5-0 runs again. But the way they play will feel more familiar to that season-opening streak.
However, the “when” we’re discussing is not guaranteed — at least not anytime soon. The Bulls have piled up a mess of soft-tissue injuries that don’t offer simple timelines or trajectories for a return. Zach Collins returned Friday, but other players, such as Isaac Okoro, Coby White, Kevin Huerter, Tre Jones and Jalen Smith, do not have target return dates, which adds to the uncertainty around the team’s preparedness.
Okoro is a particular source of concern. Although coach Billy Donovan has never given a specific explanation for his injury, the medical definition provided by the team translates to a pinched nerve in his left lower back. Okoro still can’t flex his back into a recumbent position without radiating pain, and the Bulls don’t know when he will be cleared for play. And without their sole stopper, the Bulls defense dropped off a cliff — an issue that won’t be fully solved until his return.
Is Donovan’s future as head coach being questioned? — César U.
No. Donovan just signed a contract extension in July. He commands strong buy-in from his players and staff. And the Bulls front office has never tied Donovan’s worth as a coach to the wins and losses of any given season, valuing instead his ability to develop young players and adapt the team’s style of play to the needs of the roster. That has not changed in the last five months and likely will not change over the course of the season, barring a dramatic development.
Who will be the starting center for the Bulls in December 2026? — @asinwreck on BlueSky
Almost certainly, it will not be Nikola Vučević. The center has been open with his desire to move to a team that better fits the timeline of his career. At 36, Vučević will still be able to offer valuable minutes off the bench, but that type of impact wouldn’t make sense in Chicago given the team’s youth.
The Bulls have a few options. They can promote Zach Collins to the position — he’s still a solid rim protector who’s still on the right side of 30 but also needs to prove he can stay healthy and hold down a bigger role in Chicago. There’s also the (still relatively low) possibility the Bulls take a major swing on a center in need of relocation — such as Anthony Davis.
A potentially strong option for the Bulls is to draft their next center. They could have done so this summer — more on that in a second — but will have another opportunity next year with their first-round pick and the potential to add an additional selection from the Portland Trail Blazers. Next year’s draft is not as replete in center options, but a concentrated effort to improve the frontcourt through young talent would fit the team’s rebuilding timeline.
Did the Bulls make a mistake in drafting Noa Essengue? Other teams such as the New Orleans Pelicans and Charlotte Hornets are having similarly awful seasons, but they’re at least able to enjoy the silver lining of a rookie showing promise for the future. The Bulls don’t even have that. Would this year feel different if they took Derik Queen or another option? — Samantha C.
Losing Essengue this week to a season-ending shoulder injury was one of those cherry-on-top blows that the Bulls weren’t really built to sustain.
Ultimately, I don’t think a player’s worth should be judged based on whether they get injured in their rookie season. Essengue always was going to be a long-term play for the Bulls. He would not have seen extended minutes, even in the latter half of the season (unlike Matas Buzelis, who had a slow rollout last season before becoming a starter after the All-Star break).
The Bulls certainly could use extra bodies, especially at center. And Queen — who was available when the Bulls were on the clock before ultimately going at No. 13 to the Pelicans — is an example of a pro-ready player who could’ve immediately redefined the Bulls in the middle. His 12.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game are enough to drive some envy at this point in the season.
However, the necessities of this season’s injury-laden roster don’t outweigh the value of developing young talent. It all depends on whether Essengue can develop into a high-level two-way star. At 18, it’s still impossible to make that discernment.
It is notable that the Bulls — both management and coaching staff — have most vocally praised Essengue’s defense since he arrived in Chicago. This appears to have been a defensive-minded draft pick, even if it still required a multiyear development timeline to see the fruit of that investment.
So the front office (in some capacity) acknowledged this team’s greatest shortcoming and tried to address it in the draft. But defense can only be built and proven in live-game situations, something Essengue hasn’t gotten the chance to experience — he played six minutes before suffering his season-ending injury.
Is this the most forgettable Bulls team in living memory? The Bulls have been mediocre for a long while, but even in the recent past the likes of DeRozan, Caruso and LaVine had individual performances to admire. — Alan L.
It’s early, but I’m going to say no.
The Bulls’ brutal stretch from 2017-20 won’t be outdone for a while. The team should have provided every season ticket holder with a neuralyzer from “Men in Black” at the conclusion of each game during that era. Maybe — a huge, huge maybe — the Bulls will sink to that level of hopelessness, but we haven’t hit that point yet.
It seems more likely that this season will slip into the mediocre malaise of the last few years. They’ll put up a fight in the play-in tournament, perhaps slip into the first round of the playoffs and head to vacation by early May. There are still a few notable highlights to watch — Josh Giddey is putting up triple-doubles that should garner All-Star attention, and Buzelis is looking to make his sophomore leap.
So forgettable, yes. But we still haven’t reached the worst of the worst.