Reflecting on the highs and lows of another Chicago Bulls season in the middle

NEW YORK — The 2023-24 NBA regular season concluded on Sunday with the Chicago Bulls (39-43) falling to the New York Knicks 120-119 in overtime.

Despite the game having no impact on the standings, DeMar DeRozan, 34, who leads the league in minutes, scored 30 points in 44 minutes.

“Hell naw, I wanted to win,” DeRozan said. “And everybody out there wanted to win. It just felt like one of those games where we were playing for something. And we are. Just to be able to have that competitive nature. We don’t have the luxury to be able to sit out regardless. The energy we had will carry over when we have film tomorrow and the next day.”

While the regular season has ended, the Bulls still have a Play-In game to prepare for. As the season wraps up, it’s fair to reflect on the ups and downs.

After starting the season with a 5-14 record, the Bulls turned their fortunes with an impressive overtime win against the Milwaukee Bucks, even without Zach LaVine or DeRozan. They finished the rest of the season with a 34-28 record, showcasing some legitimately promising moments.

“I told the guys I couldn’t be any prouder and feel more privileged to be able to work with these guys every day,” Billy Donovan said, reflecting on the season following the game. “You know, and the reason I say that is because of, you know, things that they’ve had to endure this season as a team. And I think I mentioned to you guys before the game (following the 5-14 start), it could have been a lot worse.”

“If I would have said to anybody here, LaVine’s going to be out. Patrick Williams is going to be out. And you’re going to miss Torrey Craig and you’re gonna go through all these things, and you’re gonna have to bring back to Javonte Green, no one would sit there and say this team is capable of having a winning record,” Donovan continued.

DeRozan should be a shoo-in for the Clutch Player of the Year award. His play continues to defy age and the modern trends of basketball. Alex Caruso surely played his way into a back-to-back appearance on the All-Defensive First Team. He is an absolute menace.

Coby White should be a finalist for Most Improved Player for his breakout season. His box score averages exploded across the board, boosting his points, rebounds and assists per game. More importantly, he reached a level of consistency that evaded him throughout his previous seasons. He stepped up as a vocal leader of the team and established himself as a fixture of the franchise moving forward.

Ayo Dosunmu also experienced an incredible leap. During the second half of the season in particular, Dosunmu’s scoring popped, but he also developed into a consistent three-point shooter while bringing effective point-of-attack defense on a nightly basis.

But the positive storylines end there. Though they performed better without him, losing Zach LaVine (25 games played) limited the team’s upside and forced the remaining rotational players into being overburdened in minutes and usage. The reports from November that both sides were open to a trade resulted in awkwardness that has yet to be resolved.

The Bulls defense slipped from fifth overall in 2022-23 to 21st in 2023-24. They failed to replicate the one positive element of their identity, leading them to have to rely on clutch time magic — an unreliable source of winning at a high level. They benefited greatly from DeRozan’s heroics in the clutch, leading them to a league-best 27 clutch wins and a 27-17 clutch record.

It’s hard to buy into the wins over teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors when the team had has many bad losses to teams like the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards. In the end, the Bulls are yet again in the Play-In Tournament with a sub-.500 record. Finishing 39-43 in 9th place in the East, they were 21st in net rating, 19th in offense and 21st in defense.

“Is this where we want to be going forward? No, we want to be in a situation where you’re making a deep playoff run. We’re not that right now,” Donovan acknowledged. “But I give our guys a lot of credit for holding on to the rope and fighting and battling and competing and giving ourselves an opportunity, to advance and maybe earn an opportunity to get to the playoffs.”

The players and coaches deserve a tremendous amount of credit for their effort to make the most of a difficult situation imposed on them by the short-sighted decisions of the front office, who sat out a third-straight Trade Deadline. They failed to come up with ways to add to a group they claim to believe in. They passed on opportunities to build something more sustainable and with higher upside.

The Play-In represents an opportunity to rewrite some of those narratives. Their first chance will be at home on Wednesday against the Atlanta Hawks. If they can win that game, they’ll face the loser of the Philadelphia 76ers-Miami Heat 7 vs. 8 matchup for the rights to the eighth seed.

“It just gives us the opportunity to salvage so much of what we went through, and not let the season go in vain,” DeRozan said. “It would suck for us to go home knowing this was the last game of the season with everything we went through. Now it gives us an opportunity to make something of this season by giving ourselves a chance. It should be fun, it should be competitive, I’m glad it’s on our home floor first. We can make something happen.”

Even if they can get themselves out of the Play-In and into the Playoffs, the mighty Boston Celtics, who finished atop the league standings with the third-best net rating of all-time, await.

This season had some highs and lows. Some progress and setbacks. Some elements of fun and many of frustration. Some highlights and some Shaqtin’ all-timers.

The team may argue, through it all, advancing to the first round of the Playoffs represents progress. That the 34-28 finish to the season is positive momentum. That their record doesn’t tell the whole story.

That’s true, there is more to it than their record. Whether or not they make the Playoffs shouldn’t dictate whether this season is a success or failure. But by that same token, a pair of wins and a trip to Boston doesn’t take them off the treadmill of mediocrity.

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