The Chicago Bulls are having a fantastic season. Despite some issues with injuries in the second half of the year, they are still a great squad. The additions of Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and most notably, DeMar DeRozan proved to be amazing moves. Now, most of the regular season is done and the Bulls are gearing up for the postseason, where they look to come back for the first time since the 2016-17 season. With an exciting regular season behind them, some Bulls fans are even hoping for the Bulls to go all the way. Here are three reasons why the Bulls will make and win the 2022 NBA Finals.
Reasons why the Bulls are winning the 2022 NBA Finals
They have two incredible scorers
Let's be honest for a moment – the playoffs, normally, are completely different from the postseason. That is why we saw some incredible regular season teams fall apart in the postseason, and why we had, albeit rarely, the occurrence of eight seeds winning against the first seeds. Playoff basketball is one of the shortened rotations, intense defense, and of guys who can put the ball in the net. Thankfully for the Bulls, they have two guys who can put the ball in the basket with the defense just looking at each other and wondering what hit them. Of course, these two guys are DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine.
Both of them have been averaging over 20 points per game this season and if LaVine was to have a few more games with 25 or more points, they could become teammates that both average 25 or more points per game, a great feat for the Bulls duo. However, the manner in which they get the points is incredible. DeRozan has his unstoppable midrange delivery, and he is averaging 27.6% on 50.5% shooting from the field, which is incredibly efficient. LaVine does not have the same efficiency, but he can shoot the three at a solid 39.9% clip on 7.2 attempts, giving the Bulls a proven three-point shooter. Getting points up is critical if a team wants to win in the postseason and the Bulls have two options when the rest of their team is stopped.
They have the right mix of youth and experience
This is, age-wise, a roster that is very varied. Usually, teams in the postseason are more geared towards experience, as they have players in their prime to contend for the title, with one or two younger guns playing. The Bulls, however, are a true mix. Of course, there is the older guard there, represented by Nikola Vucevic and DeRozan. There are also guys in the middle, like the 26-year-old LaVine and the 27-year-old Caruso. Also, playing big minutes, the Bulls have Lonzo Ball, Coby White, and Ayo Dosunmu. This does not seem like much, but it can be a great thing for the Bulls.
Firstly, their two veterans have been through a lot and have played a ton of playoff basketball. Vucevic was, unfortunately for him, stuck on a poor Orlando Magic team, but still led them to the postseason twice in his career. DeRozan, of course, made some deep runs with the Toronto Raptors but was always stopped by LeBron James. Secondly, the younger guns, such as Dosunmu and Ball specifically, have a ton of energy and they are contributing a lot on both sides of the ball. Both of them are great defenders and, together with Caruso, they can complement the Bulls' offense with elite defense at times.
They are finally all healthy
Of course, this is conditional on Lonzo Ball not having any setbacks, but the Bulls should have their entire roster available for the postseason. After a frustrating few weeks with some notable omissions, such as losing Caruso for 21 games in a row, just after getting him back after a 13-game absence, the Bulls look to finally have all their troops available. Right now, as said above, they are just missing Ball, who is set to return before the playoffs begin. This season, the lineup of Ball-Caruso-DeRozan-LaVine-Vucevic played just 95 minutes on the court together, putting up a difference of 11.2 points on their opponents, in the positive, according to Basketball Reference. Obviously, due to injuries, they had to improvise a ton, but they should not have to do that going forward.
What is also indicative of the Bulls' struggles with injuries is the fact that they posted 24 starting lineups this season. The lineup referenced above has started just one game this season, and the quartet of Ball-DeRozan-LaVine-Vucevic started just 11 games this season, winning eight. The Bulls can finally rely on their entire roster to string some games together and when they have been healthy, they have absolutely dominated. Thus, we have every reason to believe these Bulls have a realistic shot of making it into the Finals.