This Is NOT The Same Chicago Bulls…

This Is NOT The Same Chicago Bulls…

The Chicago Bulls are good at basketball all of a sudden. Someone check on Kenny. Someone check on all the Bulls fans because nobody expected this. This was a team that had win total projections somewhere in the low30s even in a weak Eastern Conference. And as of this recording, they are 6 in1. Now, I apologize if for whatever reason things completely fall apart right after I record this. But what exactly is happening here in Chicago? Well, there’s a lot of things happening. Some of which are real and some of which aren’t. Anytime you’re dealing with early season success or disappointment in the beginning of an NBA season, you obviously have to adjust the fact that it is a small sample size. NBA games are swung so much by shotmaking. And in a small sample size, a team can look really good because they’re making a lot of shots way above what they normally would. And in Chicago, you could make the case that that’s what’s happening. As a team, they’re shooting 40% from three. That will not continue. There is just no way they’re going to continue to shoot the ball as well as they are. Let me read you some of these three-point percentages in terms of players on the roster. Right now, Josh Giddy is at 42%. Nicole Voucheovich is at 48%. Iodum is at 47%. Patrick Williams is shooting 40% from the three. That should tell you everything you need to know about what’s happening in Chicago. Now, to be fair, shot making is not all just luck. It is about shot quality. And in watching the Bulls, they are getting good looks from three. And there’s obviously something to be said for shot quality, shot selection, making sure you’re actually taking good ones. It’s not just, wow, they’re getting really lucky from three. They’re getting a little lucky from three. And that obviously has a good amount to do with their success, but you can’t just be six and one when everybody thought you were going to be a 32- win team just because you’re hitting a lot of threes. The other thing that’s happening here that has made this a lot of fun is they are playing and getting really, really good play out of two creators at the top of the roster. Obviously, Josh Giddy, who we’re going to talk about a lot more in depth, and then Trey Jones, who’s also been really good for them. someone they got in a trade last year and their combined numbers are out of control. They’re averaging collectively in like 54 minutes of basically point guard play. They’re averaging around 15 assists and around five turnovers a game. They’re getting a 3 to1 assist to turnover ratio out of those two guys and getting a ton of offense, good offense out of both of them. That has to be addressed. And in combination with that, Nicole Vuvich is playing out of his mind. He’s 35 years old. is averaging like 20 a game and he’s been genuinely very very good. The pick and roll chemistry both with Jones and Giddy has obviously been there and it’s just funny because I think we’re on like year four at this point of Bulls fans, NBA fans in general wondering why Vousvich is still on the team. They’ve given him multiple contracts. They’ve refused to trade him multiple times and he’s just been really, really good. Now, is that sustainable for the entirety of the season? Probably not. But I don’t think anybody clicked on this video thinking that bull that the Bulls were going to go six and one every seven games. There’s obviously some things that are happening here that are unsustainable. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t real actual positive things happening. They’re top half of the league in pace. They’re a little bit better defensively than people thought, although some of that might be getting a little bit of shot miss. But the big thing that’s happening here is Josh Giddy. And this has been a story line for Chicago for the last year plus because at the time that they traded for Josh Giddy in exchange for Alex Cruso, myself, a bunch of other people hated the deal. Didn’t understand it. How are you not getting multiple first round picks in exchange? Josh Giddy needs this new contract. Well, now all of a sudden Josh Giddy’s averaging like 23, 10, and N. And looks like an upand cominging all-star focal point franchise player for Chicago alongside of Matas Buzzelis. And the combination of those two guys makes what has been a fun start to the year seem a lot more promising in the long term. The the Giddy stuff is just out of control. He was really really good to end the season last year, but as I’ve talked about a bunch on this channel, it’s not uncommon to see players put up big numbers at the end of the year because they’re playing G-League rosters half the time because a bunch of teams are tanking. But then to see Josh Giddy come into this season and play this way does kind of remind you of, oh yeah, this guy’s 23 years old. The Thunder didn’t need him. They didn’t need his onthe- ball creation, but the Bulls did. He’s got good passing instincts. He’s got great size and he’s continuing to improve as a three-point shooter. And if you’re going to give Josh Giddy a lot of onball reps and he’s going to improve as a three-point shooter, he’s going to be an asset for you. It works out great for Oklahoma City. They get Caruso, they go win the title. And the the issue at the time with the deal, I said this at the time, was I felt like they probably could have gotten two first round picks in exchange for Alex Cruso. And I’d rather have that than Josh Giddy. But now that he’s signed longterm and he’s playing this way, he looks unbelievable for Chicago. And I’m sure I’m not going to be the only person that’s going to be making a Chicago Bulls video right now. But one of the things I think is going to generally go overlooked for other people is this is year six for Billy Donovan. And I think that needs to be accounted for. Obviously, in those now six seasons, there have been plenty of disappointments. Plenty of fans have been upset. Uh the team has just been kind of mediocre. That has been the theme around the Chicago Bulls is that they are constantly stuck in the middle. But there’s something to be said for a clearly very good coach both at the college level and at the NBA level. Having this much time to really establish what his plan is, what the organization is about. And in Billy Donovan’s case, the adaptability yeartoyear has been really, really impressive. And I think there’s something to be said for someone that has just been there for a while and you’re not constantly establishing a new coach every two seasons. He’s had, you know, a handful of seasons with Patrick Williams. He’s had a handful of seasons with Iodumo, Nicole Vouchevich, and there hasn’t been nearly as much roster turnover as you would expect for a team with the lack of success the Bulls have had the last couple of seasons because that’s just kind of been what the ownership group has wanted to do. They wanted to put together a fun team and a semicompetitive team at least in terms of making the playin. And the start to this year is a great example of why they wanted to do that. For all of the times that they could have traded pieces away and tried to tank and tried to get top picks and and Bulls fans have have certainly and rightfully been upset about that over the years. What’s happening right now with Chicago is why the ownership group is so adamant about keeping a semicompetitive roster together. And Billy Donovan’s a big part of it. The other thing that’s interesting is that they don’t even have what I think some people would argue was either their best player, their second best player coming into the season. And that’s Kobe White who just has not been playing. And I wonder if some of the Josh Giddy stuff that we’re seeing, some of the Trey Jones stuff that we’re seeing is partly to do with the fact that there isn’t a Kobe White out there. Kobe White who needs a new contract, who maybe is a little bit more on the Anthony Simon side of things in terms of a guy that you got to give the ball to a ton, is going to put up numbers, but maybe isn’t helping everybody be better. I don’t want to turn this into a negative thing because this supposed to be a positive video because the Bulls are good and it’s exciting. But it does make me wonder if this potentially shifts your mindset around what Kobe White meets means to the team in comparison to kind of where the hierarchy is obviously with guys with Josh Giddy and Matas Buzzel. However, this is where we start to turn a little bit negative. The Bulls are six and one. That’s awesome. Their only loss is to a Knicks team that’s been a little bit up and down to start the year, but they played pretty well in the game that they lost. They’ve only played one team in the Western Conference in these seven games, and they’ve only played two road games in these seven. Look at their schedule over their next handful of games. They’re going on the road. They’re playing good teams in the West. They’re playing good teams in the East. Some easier games in there. They could genuinely lose every single one of these games, and all of a sudden, we’re not talking about how fun and exciting and up and cominging the Chicago Bulls are anymore. So, if your question coming into the video is, is this real? I think probably not. I don’t think the Chicago Bulls are going to be a 50- win team. They’re going to be better seemingly than what we thought they were going to be coming into the year. They’re not going to finish with 32 wins, presuming good health. And in a weaker Eastern Conference, you get to 42 45 wins. You never know where exactly that’s going to put you in the playoff standings. And I think that’s definitely where Chicago’s ceiling has kind of shifted given how well they play to begin the year. But it’s also definitely possible that they have this tough stretch on their schedule and then all of a sudden they kind of fall right back where we thought that they might be coming into the year. But the bottom line is two things. one. This is why some teams around the league, Indiana comes to mind, Chicago comes to mind, they don’t want to tank. They don’t want to win 20 games a year for years on end because there’s always this possibility that something clicks, that these pieces like Bushvich that people have wanted you to trade for years. Suddenly something happens and they go on this really nice run and you start winning some games. There’s always a possibility that Iumu becomes this really, really good role player for you and someone that now seems like indispensable to the team. And when you have that combined with Josh Giddy, Montas Mousellis, guys you could potentially see improving and being something even more than that moving forward. All of a sudden the outlook on your team changes within a span of seven games. The other thing here is it all revolves around Josh Giddy. If this is a flash in the pan, if he can’t sustain the three-point shooting, uh, all that stuff, if that doesn’t happen, obviously a lot of this cools down very quickly, both in terms of on the court success and in terms of what the Bulls are going to potentially be moving forward into the future. What if this is just who Josh Kitty is now? You continue to get improvement from Montasoose Ellis. You got some other guys on the roster you’re pretty excited about. Then you start to get some ideas about what Chicago could be because they’re relatively flexible long-term in terms of salaries with the exception of guys like Josh Giddy who’s on a big deal, Patrick Williams who’s on a semi- big deal. Uh you start to get some ideas about adding in free agency, adding a potential trades is a team that does have a handful of assets they can use moving forward. And I think Josh Giddy is the kind of player that guys would potentially want to play with. Not in the same level as someone like Tyresese Hallebertton, but it comes to mind in terms of the way that he’s looking for other guys, the way he’s improving with his three-point shot. I’m not saying he’s going to be Tyresese Hallebertton and that over the next couple years they’re going to go on that Pacers run from last year, but I am saying that there are some similarities and in a scenario where like Indiana was a couple years ago, they add someone like Pascal Seakum be a trade. I don’t know that that’s what the Bulls are going to do this year, but I don’t think it would be crazy for them to consider it depending on how they do over these next handful of games in a really really tough schedule. end of the day, this is super super fun and it’s great to have fun watching the Chicago Bulls play

The Chicago Bulls are off to an incredible start this season behind a leap from Josh Giddey.

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