Sports
Bulls Players Under Most Pressure Entering 2023-24 NBA Season – Bleacher Report
Every player on the Chicago Bulls will feel pressure to perform during the upcoming 2023-24 NBA season.
After seeing this core produce just a single playoff trip and no series wins over the past two campaigns, this front office could have spent this summer tearing down the roster and starting over. It further invested in this nucleus instead, paying up for the club’s top internal free agents and adding a few rotation players from outside the organization.
Sooner than later, though, this organization needs to see some results to justify the price paid to assemble this roster. That ups the ante for everyone, but the following three players face an even greater pressure than their teammates.
The Bulls haven’t been the same since losing Lonzo Ball to a knee injury in January 2022. They were an Eastern Conference-best 27-13 at the time, and they’ve gone just 59-65 in the season-plus since.
Obviously, upgrading the point guard spot is a must, and Chicago tabbed Jevon Carter to make that happen. A career reserve (48 starts in 304 games), he could have a chance to score an opening gig after inking a three-year, $20 million pact this summer.
The Bulls have other candidates for the job—Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu—but Carter’s skill set mostly closely aligns with Ball’s. Carter doesn’t have the same volume shooting or passing proficiency, but his defense-first approach and low-maintenance offense are similar in ways that could make him the best fit alongside DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević.
If the Bulls make Carter a high-minute starter, though, they’ll be asking the soon-to-be 28-year-old to thrive in a role he’s never played before. It’s an intriguing fit on paper, but Chicago really needs this to work out.
Zach LaVine is a two-time All-Star with one of the most dynamic offensive skill sets in the entire Association.
And yet, it remains a major question just how good a team can be if he’s a first or second option. Just one of his nine NBA seasons have featured a playoff berth, and that can’t all be tied to his supporting cast. The Bulls were postseason participants right before acquiring him in 2018, and the Minnesota Timberwolves snapped a 13-year playoff drought as soon as he left.
At 28 years old, LaVine should be in his prime. If he doesn’t lead a team to substantial success soon, it just won’t happen.
The Bulls are betting on him taking the leap from someone who piles up points to a player who elevates the cast around him. Chicago’s plan of fielding a competitive club can’t compute without LaVine showing he can lead a winner.
Patrick Williams might still have time on his side for now, but that won’t be the case much longer.
He is still young, but he also has 170 games (and 145 starts) under his belt, so it’s not like he’s a blank slate with limitless possibilities. His physical tools are impressive, and he’ll have flashes in which he hints at becoming something far greater than his present form, but at some point, a player’s reality outweighs the idea of what they maybe, potentially, hopefully become.
That’s especially true in this case, given Chicago’s transparent win-now intentions. The Bulls could be tempted to dangle him for a more established (and consistent) player, but they also know their best hope of dramatically lifting their ceiling starts with getting the long-awaited leap year out of Williams, the No. 4 pick of the 2020 draft.
“He has shown flashes over the first three years,” Bulls general manager Marc Eversley said, via NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson. “He’s got it in him. … He’s starting to get it. It’s starting to click. And when he puts it together—and he will put it together—we might have something special.”
Williams’ high-end upside is special, as if you squint hard enough, you can see the outline of the league’s next two-way star on the wing. But if you’re looking for evidence of him becoming that player, there simply hasn’t been any to find. If that ever changes, though, Chicago’s biggest hopes and dreams would move a lot closer to materializing.
