Bulls’ Series vs. Bucks Perfect Metaphor for 2021–22 Season
It took a little longer than many people expected given recent trends, but the Milwaukee Bucks knocked the Bulls out of the playoffs in five games. The fact that the series went even a little beyond the minimum four games had to come as a surprise. After the Bulls were at the top of the Eastern Conference at the All-Star break, they took a serious tumble and just barely avoided the Play-In Tournament. Although Bulls fans were happy to see their team make the playoffs for the first time in five years, it came during a very frustrating last two months of the season.
You knew all of this already, but you may not realize how perfectly the Bulls’ first-round loss to the defending champions symbolized the 2021–22 season. Like the Bulls had no expectations for the regular season, no one expected them to do anything in the playoffs. But a funny thing happened: The Bulls split the first two games in Milwaukee to catch folks by surprise much like they did for the season’s first four months. People began to believe then, and Khris Middleton’s injury made people believe in the postseason Bulls.
Then, hard reality set in. The Bucks earned blowout wins in the next two games at the United Center, and they served to remind the Bulls just how far they have to go. Or maybe they should have been on the road less traveled because who knows what would have happened in both the regular season and playoffs if Lonzo Ball hadn’t been sidelined since January? And if Pat Williams had more time to get into game shape after being sidelined with a broken wrist for months, how much more would he have been prepared?
Game 5 featured pretty much every season storyline wrapped into one. Alex Caruso in concussion protocol represented all the serious injuries this team had. Zach LaVine found himself in the health and safety protocols, and that reminded people of the whole team being decimated by COVID-19 in December. Just like before, no one was going to feel sorry for them, and they had no choice but to soldier on.
DeMar DeRozan did what he could to keep the Bulls in the series, but the Bucks clamped down him, forcing the Bulls’ role players to make the difference. That didn’t happen because, as we found out in the latter part of the season, the role players weren’t tall enough, physical enough or able to shoot very well. The Bucks have role players capable of all of those things, either individually or collectively, so the series result should have come as no surprise. It practically was a freshman team playing a state champion.
All of this meant the Bulls weren’t able to stick with the best teams in the NBA, and the Bucks made sure this series would go no differently. In fact, the Bulls were humiliated during most of their games against the cream of the crop. It was nice that they won the majority of the contests against inferior teams, but you can’t be taken seriously if that’s all you’re capable of. The Bulls demonstrated time and again that while they were vastly improved, they weren’t ready for prime time.
So what can the Bulls do to prevent a duplicate of this during the 2022–23 season? Most importantly, address all of the above personnel issues so they can compete with the big boys during the increased number of national TV appearances sure to come. A major revamp of the role players will allow TNT and ESPN audiences to see the best of what the Bulls have to offer. No one wants to watch a team that’s well out of its league get destroyed over and over again.
Fortunately, Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley showed last offseason that they aren’t afraid to make moves for immediate improvement. They knew how to get the Bulls out of the doldrums and back into the postseason. Now, what can they do to make a contender out of this core? It won’t be easy, but you would be hard-pressed to find any Bulls fan that doesn’t trust these two.
Until the front office is given the go-ahead to start improving, we will reflect on a season that was memorable but ended with bumps in the road that were too big to overcome. The Bucks were one of them, but they also took advantage of the large issues facing the Bulls. Hopefully, most if not all of those can be fixed over the summer. Besides, why would we want to see this year’s story play out multiple years in a row like picking seventh in the draft?
