The Last Dance Pt. II

        These past couple seasons have not gone so well for the Chicago Bulls especially with the expectations they had when they assembled this new core of LaVine, Ball, Vucevic and DeRozan.  In the summer of 2021 the Chicago Bulls had an aggressive off-season. To start, the Bulls acquired Guard Lonzo Ball in a sign-&-trade with the New Orleans Pelicans. Lonzo landed with the Bulls on a 4-year, $80 Million contract. Then the Bulls went out and signed Free Agent Guard and defensive specialist Alex Caruso. Caruso made a name for himself with the Los Angeles Lakers where he won a championship. The Bulls made another big and bit of a surprising move acquiring Forward DeMar DeRozan in a sign-&-trade with the San Antonio Spurs. DeRozan landed with the Bulls on a 3-year, $81 Million contract. There were rumors about DeRozan, who is a Californian native, going to play for his hometown team the Los Angeles Lakers. When reports came out that DeRozan and the Lakers could not agree on a deal there was some speculation about DeRozan going to play for the Clippers. However, on the business side, things did not work out between DeRozan and either LA team. The Chicago Bulls made another solid move by trading for Forward and Slam Dunk champion Derrick Jones Jr. The Bulls assembled a great team and surrounded Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic with great talent. 

        In the first 40 games of the 2021-22 season the Chicago Bulls looked amazing with a 27-13 record and were the first seed in the Eastern Conference. However the Bulls quickly fell apart when in the month of January Lonzo Ball went down with a knee injury. Once Lonzo was sidelined the Chicago Bulls would go 19-23 and fell from the first seed to the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. It is worth mentioning that Alex Caruso was also sidelined with a wrist injury in the month of January. The Bulls were already struggling with the loss of Lonzo so losing Caruso did not make things any better. Alex Caruso would later return for the season, despite how much of a solid role player he is it just wasn't enough for the Bulls to bounce back. The Bulls finished the season with a 46-36 record [sixth in the Eastern Conference] and matched up against the reigning champ Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. It would be the first time in five years that the Bulls made the playoffs however it did not last long as the Bulls lost the series in five games. 

        In the summer of 2022, during Free Agency, the Chicago Bulls signed Free Agents Center Andre Drummond and Guard Goran Dragic. They also re-signed Forward Derrick Jones Jr and re-signed Zach LaVine to a 5-year, $215 Million contract. Lonzo Ball did not play for the entire season as he was still rehabbing from his knee injury. The Bulls just could not make up for the absence of Lonzo as they would finish the season with a 40-42 record [10th seed in the Eastern Conference] which meant they qualified for the play-in tournament, barely. The Bulls would have to win two games in order to make the playoffs and their first matchup was set up against the 9th seed Toronto Raptors. The Chicago Bulls went up past the northern borders and pulled off an upset plus a great comeback. The Raptors led as many as 19 points against the Bulls but simply could not hold on. However the Bulls still had one more game to win to make it back to the big stage. The Bulls headed on the road again, this time to South Florida to face the Miami Heat for the final spot to make the playoffs. The Bulls however could not handle the Heat, the Bulls lost the game thus ending their season. It is worth mentioning that Miami's starting Shooting Guard Max Strus is a Chicago native and went for 31 points, 8-16 from the field (50%) and 7-12 (58%) from three-point range. 

        This past summer it was already announced that it is very likely that Lonzo Ball is not going to return to the court for the 2023-24 season. Lonzo has a player-option for the 2024-25 season which he is likely to opt into and to prove that he can still play. In Free Agency the Bulls re-signed Guards Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu. The Bulls also went out and signed Free Agent Guard Jevon Carter and Forward Torrey Craig. Nikola Vucevic signed a 3-year, $60 Million contract extension with the Bulls but a couple months after signing his extension he admitted this could be the final chance for this Bulls core to do something. "We know we can do better, and we have to do better. And we know it's kind of our last chance as this core of guys to do something." DeRozan, who made the All-Star team this past season, is on the final year of his deal so if the Bulls do not start to improve and get to winning then DeRozan might just leave to go find a situation where he has a legit chance to win.