With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been understandable—maybe even easy—to view the Bulls’ 2022–23 season as something to build on.
After a highly disappointing first half of the campaign, Chicago won better than 60% of its games after the All-Star break, logging the league’s stingiest defense during that span. The Bulls earned the last and final play-in spot, taking down Toronto on the road after benefiting from the free-throw-distracting screams leveled at Raptors players by DeMar DeRozan’s daughter. And Chicago nearly won its second play-in game, too, holding a lead over the Heat in Miami with just two and a half minutes remaining in the contest. The Bulls faltered down the stretch, though, then watched the Heat go from being a No. 8 seed to winning the East and reaching the NBA Finals.
But if there was enthusiasm about last season’s ending—sprouting a thought that maybe, just maybe, it could serve as a springboard of sorts for Chicago this season—some of it appears to have dried up already, just one game into the campaign.
