For the first half of the season, the Bulls were a complete mess. They made the Kardashians look like a stable family. It began with losing — lots of losing. They lost to the Boston Celtics by 56 points, the largest margin of defeat in team history. Consequently, the team fired their head coach Fred Hoiberg and promoted Jim Boylen to the position. Unfortunately for Boylen, the players were so fed up with him that they damn near mutinied against him. Did I mention this was less than a week into his head coaching career?
After that, things settled back down again. The Bulls and Boylen began to work together again. While the team was showing slow but sure improvement, they were still losing almost every game they played. If the team was competitive late in the game, you could almost guarantee that their youth and inexperience would manifest itself down the stretch in a collapse and yet another loss. By February 6, the Bulls were a putrid 12-42 (12 wins and 42 losses), the fourth worst team in the entire league. Then, on February 6, the Bulls made a trade.
The Bulls shipped Jabari Parker and Bobby Portis to the Washington Wizards for Otto Porter. Porter was seen as a player that wasn't worth his massive contract but could still produce at an above average level. On top of that, the Bulls were able to get rid of two expiring contracts worth in excess of 30 million dollars. In short, the Bulls were getting rid of players they didn't want and were going to get rid of any way in exchange for a young, talented player locked into a long-term deal. In my opinion, both teams got good returns — the Wizards got two young players with no financial commitment and got rid of an expensive contract — but the Bulls did pretty well for themselves.
So, how has the team fared since making the trade? Not only have the Bulls been watchable for the first time in almost two years, but they're also even better than watchable: they're mediocre. Now, being a mediocre team isn't great in and of itself, but considering that the Bulls aren't really trying to be competitive right now, and how god awful they were before the trade, the team has made a dramatic improvement in the last month and a half or so.
Since Otto Porter made his debut with Chicago, the Bulls are 7-9 (7 wins and 9 losses). Is this a very good record? No. Is winning 7 games out of 16 better than winning 12 games out of 54? You're damn right it is! This is a team that looks like it's starting to put the pieces together. Apart from trading for Porter, Zach Lavine has been playing out of his mind, Lauri Markkanen has developed well, and Robin Lopez has proven that he still belongs on an NBA roster. On top of all that, rookie center Wendell Carter Jr. will return from injury next season, and hopefully, pick up where he left off.
So, are the Chicago Bulls actually good? No, but they're WAY better than they were just a month ago, and as a Bulls fan with little to no expectations for this team, I'll take it.
