The revamped Chicago Bulls will be hoping to stay motivated by one of the best runs made by a team in modern-day NBA.

Last season, the Phoenix Suns shocked the entire NBA by pulling off a surprising run to the NBA Finals. Despite not winning the championship, the Suns’ impressive stint was deeply acknowledged by the Bulls.

In fact, Bulls executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas even admitted that the Suns’ success serves as Chicago’s motivation to become more aggressive this season.

“It was very motivating to see how big a jump a team like Phoenix was able to make,” Karnisovas told Sports Illustrated, suggesting that it further fueled the decision to become more aggressive.

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Lifting the lid on the Bulls’ decision to bolster the squad with a decorated scorer in DeMar DeRozan and a versatile playmaker in Lonzo Ball, Karnisovas divulged that the team was really looking forward to getting guys who can help lighten Zack LaVine’s workload.

“We were specifically looking for guys who could present a threat and playmake for us to relieve LaVine’s burden, Karnisovas explained. “We needed guys who could get to the free throw line, which we didn’t really have a lot of last year.”

Despite the promising new-look of the Bulls’ offense, Karnisovas is also well aware that “it’ll take time” before the team finally work “schematically” together.

“It’ll take time, and there might be some growing pains,” he added. “With defense, I think it’s buy-in more than anything. But it’ll also be a question of how quickly we’re able to implement everything schematically [with so many new players].”