The Chicago Bulls are decimated by health issues. DeMar DeRozan, Coby White, Javonte Green and Matt Thomas are currently all in health and safety protocols due to COVID-19. Alex Caruso is out with a hamstring injury. Nikola Vucevic missed time due to COVID earlier this season. Patrick Williams suffered a potentially season-ending wrist injury near the start of the season. Zach LaVine has battled through a thumb injury.
And yet, the Bulls continue to show their resilience to win a lot of basketball games. They're on a four-game winning streak heading into a tough road matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, putting them at 17-8 on the season. That's good for second place in the Eastern Conference behind the Brooklyn Nets.
Given Chicago's continued success with the sample size getting bigger and bigger, it's nearly impossible to not take this team seriously. Even if you don't consider them a legitimate championship contender just yet (which is fair), this team is admittedly very good and looking like a threat.
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On the latest episode of Blue Wire's Cash Considerations pod, Ricky O'Donnell declared that this Bulls squad is a contender:
“I think what we're seeing to this point, so we're 25 games into the season. The Bulls are currently sixth in offensive efficiency, fifth in defensive efficiency, fourth in net rating. There's only one team in the league right now in the top five of both offensive and defensive efficiency, and that's the Warriors. … I do think the sample size is significant enough at this point to crown the Bulls a contender in the Eastern Conference. What the Bulls have done is no fluke.”
This season's Bulls squad has some parallels to last season's Phoenix Suns, who went all the way to the NBA Finals. This doesn't mean Chicago will be an NBA Finals participant, but it's looking more and more like that kind of run is a possibility if things go right.
Listen to the full Cash Considerations episode here:
Cash Considerations: A Chicago Bulls Podcast is part of the Blue Wire Podcast Network. The pod can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts.
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