What will it take for Chicago Bulls fans to start believing in this season’s team?
That was the question posed to newcomer Isaac Okoro on Monday night at the United Center after a 128-123 win over the Atlanta Hawks left them 3-0, one of four remaining NBA unbeatens.
Photos: Chicago Bulls take a 128-123 win over the Atlanta Hawks at the United Center
“We’ve just got to prove it game by game,” Okoro said. “We know what we have inside this locker room. We know the group of guys we have here. We’re a gritty team. We believe in each other, one through 15, that we can go out there and win against any team in this league.”
Monday’s win might have made believers out of some of the announced crowd of 18,094. A nearly perfect 41-point third quarter, another big night from Ayo Dosunmu and the bench, a crowd-pleasing reverse slam by Matas Buzelis and a near triple-double by Nikola Vučević (17 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists) was enough to convince some these won’t be the Invisi-Bulls come playoff time.
But it’s only three games, and the players know it’s a work in progress.
“Winning keeps the morale high around the group,” said Josh Giddey, who recorded another double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds. “We’ve been through stretches, especially last year, where we lost a stretch of games, and we’ve been through a stretch where we’ve won a bunch. You don’t want to ride the waves too high or too low. Try not to look too far ahead, but you also acknowledge what you’ve done well to win the first three and acknowledge (things) we need to get better at.
“But the exciting thing with this group is there is a lot of room for growth, and we’re going to watch film (Tuesday) and get ready for another tough team coming in here Wednesday night.”
That would be the Sacramento Kings of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, who took a 1-2 record into Oklahoma City on Tuesday to play the defending champion Thunder.
The former Bulls stars took different routes to Sacramento, but the narrative of their leaving remains the same.
DeRozan was sent to the Kings in a three-team sign-and-trade deal after the 2023-24 season so coach Billy Donovan could install a fast-paced offense, and LaVine was traded there in February in another multiteam deal after he’d requested a trade the previous season. The Bulls desperately wanted to unload LaVine’s maximum contract, a five-year, $215 million deal with a player option for 2026-27, to get their rebuild in gear.
DeRozan returned to the UC for the first time last season, and now LaVine gets the video board tribute and standing ovation from Bulls fans.
“I hope Bulls fans give him the welcome he deserves,” Vučević said. “He gave a lot to the Bulls organization throughout the years. I know people criticized him at times, but it wasn’t always fair.
“He’s a great guy, always competed, played hard, tried his best and cared and wanted to do what’s right for the organization. He didn’t win, but I don’t think he always had the pieces (around him). And when we did, it didn’t work out for all of us.”
Who won the LaVine trade?
The easy answer is everybody. LaVine got his escape to an organization he believes can bring him that elusive championship. Bulls executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas got three pieces for the rebuild in Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter and Zach Collins while keeping the first-round pick he eventually used on Noa Essengue.
Bulls guards Tre Jones and Josh Giddey (3) high-five at the end of the first half against the Hawks on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, at the United Center. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
And Bulls fans got a selfless group of players willing to sacrifice individual stats to make Donovan’s system work. Giddey, for instance, might not close a game, even though he’s their top offensive threat with Coby White out with a calf injury.
“There are going to be some times I’m going to make some decisions that I’m just going off my gut, quite honestly,” Donovan said Monday.
Giddey isn’t bothered by not always being on the court for closing time.
“We’re a selfless group. We all want to win,” he said. “That’s our No. 1 priority. When a group in the lineup is rolling, you let them go and leave them out there.”
LaVine, of course, had a much different reaction when he was left on the bench for the final 3 minutes, 43 seconds of a one-point loss to the Orlando Magic in November 2022. He was 1-for-14 that night but said afterward of the benching: “Obviously I’ve got to do a better job in the beginning of the game, but you play a guy like me down the stretch. That’s what I do.”
Kings guard Zach LaVine goes up for a dunk against the Suns on Oct. 22, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
The three players the Bulls received for LaVine have a ways to go to prove themselves.
Collins is out with a fractured left wrist, but Jones has been instrumental to the 3-0 start as a deft distributor and disruptor, totaling 25 assists and 10 steals. Huerter has been a vital sub in Donovan’s 10- and 11-man rotations, scoring 15 points Monday on 6-of-8 shooting.
When the collective unit is all pitching in — like having eight players in double figures Monday — it makes this still-evolving team easy to like.
“We’re a pretty young team,” Vučević, who turned 35 on Friday, said before pausing.
“I’m kind of lifting the age average a little bit, so not too young,” he added with a laugh.
Whether the Bulls eventually could’ve won with LaVine in the lineup is irrelevant. They made the playoffs only once with him and flamed out in a first-round exit against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2022. He wasn’t the main reason the Bulls didn’t win. A lack of risk-taking by Karnišovas at the trade deadline and in the offseason was mostly responsible.
Still, LaVine was the main guy here for a long time, and the organization needed to try something different.
“Things didn’t work out the way we hoped when we were all here together,” Vučević said. “We didn’t achieve the results we wanted. That’s unfortunate. We all wanted more.
“But DeMar became a free agent and Zach got traded, and you just move on. Zach’s been playing real well the first few games, and DeMar as well. That’s life and the way a career goes.”
Cue the tribute video.