Top Six Bulls Stories of 2019
2019 was a year in which the Bulls continued to find their identity. We found out more about the players that supposedly will make up the team’s core for the foreseeable future, and that core got slightly bigger too. Mostly though, it was another year with disappointment and empty promises. Here are the six moments that defined the past calendar year in chronological order.
Trading for Otto Porter Jr.
Eager to move on from the failed Jabari Parker experiment and fill up salary cap space, the Bulls did both when they dealt Parker, Bobby Portis and a future second-round pick for small forward Otto Porter Jr. While Porter provided a semi-veteran presence for a young team desperate for a player who had been in the NBA for a few years, his $27.3 million contract for the 2019–20 season meant the Bulls were throwing in the towel on the epic free agency period that was to come over the summer. Having whiffed on premier free agents too often throughout the decade, Gar Forman and John Paxson realized it would be better this time around to sit this one out. As for Porter, injuries have limited him to 24 games in a Bulls uniform and left the team thin at the three.
Beating Atlanta in quadruple overtime
The Atlanta Hawks are one of the few teams the Bulls have had little trouble with recently, but their March 1 meeting in Georgia was beyond anyone’s comprehension. Their 168–161 win in four overtimes was the highest scoring game in Bulls history and the third-highest scoring game ever in the NBA. Zach LaVine’s 47 points led the team but fell short of Trae Young’s game-high 49. Still, LaVine got help with 31 points each from Porter and Lauri Markkanen, while Young’s closest scoring teammate was Alex Len, who scored 24 off the bench.
Seventh in the draft lottery (again)
With the draft lottery taking place in Chicago and the Bulls holding the fourth-best odds to land the top pick, hope was high that the ping-pong balls (rigged or not) would fall in their favor. No such luck as the premiere of the revamped lottery system forced the Bulls back to the seventh pick for the third year in a row, proving that tanking no longer was such a foregone strategy for struggling NBA teams. With that, dreams of Zion Williamson or Ja Morant lighting up the United Center were dead except as opposing players. Bulls Nation felt pretty helpless in the immediate aftermath of that May evening.
Selecting Coby White
Once they were on the clock in the June draft, the Bulls took arguably the best player available in guard Coby White of North Carolina. The decision was praised everywhere, and so far, White has justified that praise. Through 34 games, all off the bench, White is averaging 11.5 points and 2.2 assists a game and has had games where he’s sparked the Bulls in crucial moments. As he gets more experience, his value to a team should increase, which is good news for the Bulls.
Trouble backing playoff prediction
After two seasons of actively rebuilding, the 2019–20 season meant it was time to return to the postseason, or so Paxson and Jim Boylen said on Media Day. But one issue after another turned what should have been an easy schedule to start the season. By the time the record reached 6–12, Jerry Reinsdorf reportedly began to put pressure on Forman, though the general manager remains employed. Despite the incredibly shaky start, the 13–21 Bulls enter the New Year only a game-and-a-half out of the final playoff spot in the East, so the preseason predictions might not be so farfetched.
Attendance begins to suffer
After spending most of the decade either first or second in the NBA in attendance, the Bulls finally began to feel the effects of what happens when you put out an unsatisfactory product for too long. Bulls fans finally seem to be getting the message that major sweeping changes won’t be made unless they stop filling the organization’s pockets, and the best way to do that is to make sure tickets to games at the United Center go unsold. By mid-December, the drop-off was noticeable enough that it had become a storyline in this tumultuous season. Through 18 home games, the Bulls rank 11th in average home attendance and 23rd in capacity percentage, and it serves as a signal that Bulls Nation wants the next year and the next decade to contain a complete organizational overhaul to improve their team’s chances of competing for a championship once again.
