The Chicago Bulls continue to play a very dangerous game.
Finishing their road trip with two surprise victories, the Bulls briefly saw their lottery odds shrink last week. The team moved ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks in the East standings after an OT win over the Golden State Warriors. This dropped their chance at a Top 4 pick from 20.3 percent to 13.9 percent.
To be clear, losing both games against the LA teams did move Chicago back to the ninth-worst record in the NBA. But the odds the Bulls and Bucks swap places again feel pretty dang high. Milwaukee has lost four in a row despite the return of Giannis Antetokounmpo. Meanwhile, Chicago has repeatedly insisted that lottery odds are not part of the current equation.
In fact, Billy Donovan did this again following the team’s second defeat in Los Angeles. The head coach told the Chicago Sun-Times that they may only begin to rest players and look toward the future when they are officially eliminated from postseason contention:
“If we get to a place where we are mathematically out of anything as it relates to postseason and there are guys that are dealing with some ailments or have challenges health-wise, could they say, ‘Hey, let’s get these guys right first.’ I don’t know,” Donovan told the Sun-Times’ Joe Cowley. “Everything I got from them up to this point and time is to continue to put our best foot forward.”
As I always like to say, no one can necessarily blame the coaching staff and players for competing. It’s quite literally what they are paid to do. Fans also shouldn’t be as frustrated when they see Josh Giddey stringing together triple-doubles and Matas Buzelis posting career-highs. Those two remain key building blocks, and this is a great time for them to assume more responsibility and prove their worth.