NBA

How The Chicago Bulls Became Surprisingly Fun In 2024-25

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Nikola Vucevic & Ayo Dosunmu, Chicago Bulls.

The 2023-24 Chicago Bulls were by no means a bad team. They finished 20th in the NBA in net rating, earned 39 victories, and even won a Play-In game. But they were an absolute snooze fest to watch.

The reason for their mundanity was their lack of direction. Their absence of an identity. To put it rhythmically, they were “A Horse With No Name.”

Too bad to truly compete for anything meaningful. Too good to bottom out for a high-end pick. Below average on offense and below average on defense. Their roster was an odd cross between aging/flawed veterans, useful role players, and potentially tantalizing prospects.

The 2024-25 Bulls suffer for no such shortcomings. Don’t get it twisted. They are far from formidable. But they have committed to their own distinct style, one that will have folks frequently tuning into their games on NBA League Pass.

The Bulls’ Offense Has Finally Entered The Modern Era

For the last few years, the Bulls seemed like the only team that didn’t get the memo the NBA was now in the Spaceball Era. However, in just one offseason, they’ve completely revamped their style, and they owe their new look to three key variables: shooting, pace and ball movement.

Shooting

Last season, they attempted midrange shots at the fourth-highest frequency and 3-pointers at the fifth-lowest rate (per Cleaning the Glass). Their 2022-23 numbers were even more archaic (29th in 3-point rate).

During the summer, the Bulls shed the venerable, yet midrange-happy DeMar DeRozan (career 29.6 percent 3-point shooter). This allowed more minutes for more accurate perimeter marksmen, such as Coby White (36.8 percent) and Ayo Dosunmu (36.4 percent). Patrick Williams (40.7 percent), Zach LaVine (38.3 percent), and Lonzo Ball (36.4 percent) have all also returned from injuries that caused them to miss most/all of last season. Chicago replaced classical backup center Andre Drummond (12.3 percent) with a true stretch five in Jalen Smith (34.2 percent) as well.*

*It also helps that the team’s starting center, Nikola Vucevic, has gone from hitting 29.4 percent of his threes in 2023-24 to 52.4 percent this season – a mark that will surely simmer down as the season progresses.

Now, the Bulls are 29th in midrange frequency and fifth in 3-pointers. Plus, since they can field good shooters, they are actually converting those attempts (seventh in 3-point percentage).

The New Look Chicago Bulls.

Pace

Aside from some crucial free agency moves, the Bulls dealt Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Josh Giddey this summer. Caruso is a phenomenal role player and, at this point in time, the best player in the deal. But his skill-set is better suited for raising the ceiling of good-to-great teams like the Thunder.

That sort of talent doesn’t fit the Bulls’ current timeline. Instead, they need a young player who can grow with their burgeoning core, which is exactly what the 22-year-old Giddey provides.

Giddey is a polarizing player whose weaknesses are well-documented (e.g.: the Western Conference Semifinals against the Dallas Mavericks). But he’s also armed with intense strengths. Specifically, his Eastern background has trained him to play the game with great speed and decisiveness, enabling him to drastically enhance the pace of this once-methodical offense.

In 2023-24, the Bulls took 17.8 percent of their shots between 18 and 15 seconds remaining on the clock, per NBA.com. This year, that number is all the way up to a league-leading 24.5 percent. For reference, the second-place Cleveland Cavaliers are only at 20.5 percent.

The phenomenon of offense being more efficient earlier in the shot clock is a tale as old as the Seven Seconds or Less Phoenix Suns. Now that the Bulls have Giddey — as well as Dosunmu, when Giddey sits — to ignite their fastbreak offense, they can finally profit from this sensation.

Ball Movement

In addition to his injection of pace and quick processing, Giddey brings elite passing, an aspect the Bulls have been desperately searching for (having a prodigious decision-maker like Ball back helps, too). Gone are the days of sticky isolation possessions. Today, the ball ricochets around like a projectile fired out of Deadshot’s firearm

Last season, the Bulls averaged 286.7 passes per game, which was good for 10th in the Association. This year, that number has skyrocketed to 314.6 passes (fifth in the NBA). 

The clip above is banal in the grand scheme, but it serves as the perfect microcosm for how these three points of emphasis coalesce. From the moment Dalen Terry comes up with the steal, the Bulls pass the ball five times, with everyone except Smith touching it, in a 10-second span before White hits an open catch-and-shoot three. That’s how you play the game.*

*The best part of this sequence is that it takes place without Giddey or Ball on the floor. That’s how much the ball movement initiative has proliferated the team’s bloodstream.

Why This All Makes The Bulls More Fun

First, this iteration of Bulls basketball is fun for reasons the aforementioned Mike D’Antoni Suns, the Don Nelson Mavericks, or Showtime Los Angeles Lakers were entertaining – people love watching fast-paced teams that share the sugar and score a ton of points.

Further, the Bulls are cool now because they are more unpredictable. Midrange shots – and the overall conservative style they were previously known for – tend to lead to more consistent outcomes. Midrange shots are closer than 3-pointers, so there is a lot less variance tied to them because there are less physics involved. It keeps your team’s floor at a reasonable level, but also drastically limits its ceiling (hence, the Bulls’ reliable mediocrity over the last few years).

By taking more threes, they create a larger realm of possibilities. There are nights when they can catch fire and hang with any team in the league, even ones touting title aspirations like the Milwaukee Bucks. 

There will also be nights when the perimeter Gods never answer their prayers and they shoot 20 percent from three to lose by 20 — like they did on Saturday against the Thunder. 

But honestly, who cares? This year was never supposed to be about consistent winning. It was supposed to be about finding an identity and direction to build off of, something the Bulls now have. Steps still need to be taken before we can have non-Draft-related conversations about the Bulls in May and June. But at least fans have a fun team to follow while they wait for the next great basketball team in Chicago.