The Chicago Bulls are currently in a similar spot as last year at this point in the season. The Bulls made it into the play-in tournament last year, and they are currently in ninth in the Eastern Conference, in line to make the play-in tournament again. However, Chicago lost early last year, and this year, their goal is to get into the playoffs. There are definitely some similarities between the two teams, but head coach Billy Donovan thinks they are completely different.

Last season, a lot of people thought the Bulls only made it as far as they did because they were fortunate avoiding injuries. That definitely hasn't been the case this season. The Bulls have had to deal with numerous injuries to key players, and yet they are still in position to make the play-in tournament.

“Our team is totally different,” Billy Donovan said to the media on Friday night. “I said this before and I'm not, there's no excuse, just the reality of it and we've had to adjust to it. When we were whole and complete, we never really ever played Andre [Drummond] and Vooch [Nikola Vucevic] together very much. That's been something we've been able to work with. But to compare the team, it's just a different team, it's just not the same team. We may be in a similar position [as last season], but we're not the same team. We started training camp with a totally different-looking team than we are right now. There's no judgment on that. It is what it is, and these guys have had to adjust because we've had to do some things differently on the fly, just based on what has happened to our team.”

Donovan says that the teams are different, but if they want to truly be different, they need to make a run in the postseason. We'll see if the Bulls can get that done.