There may not be a more disappointing team in the NBA this season than the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls made the playoffs last season as the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference but will be lucky to even make the Play-In Tournament this year.
Chicago is currently 29-36 on the season, 1.5 games behind the Washington Wizards for the 10th spot in the Eastern Conference. Their loss on Sunday afternoon to the Indiana Pacers was a crushing one, as they lost the tiebreaker with their Central Division foes.
That loss on Sunday seems to have really put a damper on things in the Bulls’ locker room. Center Nikola Vucevic shared what can be categorized as waning confidence. The belief that a postseason run can still occur is disappearing.
“Maybe 30 games ago, but now it’s hard to look at it that way,” Vucevic said to The Athletic. “It doesn’t really depend on us anymore. I mean, it does. We have to win. But we’re depending on the people in front of us, on how they do. So it’s hard to say after 65 games we didn’t figure it out. It’s tough to believe that something’s just going to (click) like that. We’ll see. We’re going to keep fighting, keep hoping something happens. But it’s obvious we’ve put ourselves in a very difficult spot now.”
The Bulls need to continue winning games if they want to have any chance at making the postseason. But, in some regards, Vucevic is right. Their ability to move up the standings relies on other teams tripping up and losing games as much as it does Chicago winning them.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Nikola Vucevic & Chicago Bulls Updates
They aren’t going to find many breaks in the schedule either. 10 out of their final 17 games are coming against teams that currently own winning records. The Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons are the only contests they have against teams that aren’t competing for a spot in the playoffs or Play-In Tournament.
This is shaping up to be a truly lost season in the Windy City. The Bulls aren’t good enough to compete with the upper-echelon teams in the Eastern Conference but aren’t bad enough to truly be in the Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson sweepstakes.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Nikola Vucevic & Chicago Bulls Updates
Expect some major changes this offseason as something needs to be shaken up. Not having starting point guard Lonzo Ball all season has certainly hurt as they have struggled to find consistent success since he was sidelined in January of 2022.
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