(670 The Score) It's not just lead basketball executive Arturas Karnisovas, his front office, coach Billy Donovan, his players and Chicago fans who expect the Bulls to be much-improved in this upcoming season.
The NBA has the same expectation.
NBA general managers predict the Bulls will be the most-improved team in the 2021-'22 season, according to an annual survey conducted by NBA.com that was released Tuesday. The Bulls received 27% of that vote, with the Warriors checking in after them at 13%.
Chicago is coming off a 31-41 season but overhauled its roster in the offseason. The Bulls acquired point guard Lonzo Ball, wing DeMar DeRozan and guard Alex Caruso and traded away big man Lauri Markkanen amid a series of moves big and small. Star guard Zach LaVine and guard Coby White are the only two players who remain on the Bulls' roster from when Karnisovas was hired in April 2020.
The Bulls finished 11th in the East last season, two games out of the 10th spot that would've earned them a berth in the play-in tournament. While they haven't explicitly stated it, reaching the playoffs is a main goal of the Bulls in this upcoming season.
"It's so hard to sit there and make predictions or project what is or is not going to happen," Donovan said on media day on Sept. 26 just before the Bulls started practice. "I just know we have a lot of work ahead of us. I'm excited about the work because I'm excited about the guys. But I think for us right now, we're going to have to see. For me to sit up and say, OK, we haven't had one practice or one game with each other, and to say what we're going to look like weeks, months is going to be hard to say. I think the expectation is you want to compete at the highest level. You want to be able to make deep runs in the playoffs. And I think we're continually trying to build and get better from one year to the next. But with all these new faces – I was looking at this several weeks ago – outside of Patrick (Williams) and Zach and Coby, nobody on our team last year started and finished the season. And two of those three guys are injured right now. So I'm excited about it because there's a lot of potential, and I think a positivity to what we can become. But we're going to have to put the work in to do that."
NBA general managers also cited the Bulls' acquisition of DeRozan in a sign-and-trade with the Spurs as the second-most surprising move of the NBA offseason after the Lakers' addition of point guard Russell Westbrook.
