The Chicago Bulls head into the 2022-23 NBA season looking to better their No. 6 seed and first-round exit from last season.
But, that feat won’t come easily, if at all.
Kevin Pelton of ESPN released the worldwide leader’s stats-based win projections for the entire league, which landed the Bulls as the No. 12 seed in the East with 38.1 wins, missing the playoffs and play-in tournament altogether.
Pelton explains:
Despite starting 2021-22 atop the East at 26-10 before a second-half slide, Chicago is projected to finish worse than .500 this season. That stems in large part from the Bulls’ minus-0.4 point differential, which would typically translate to 40 wins instead of the 46 games Chicago actually won. The Bulls were even worse in Lonzo Ball‘s absence, performing 1.5 points lower than average after accounting for opponent and location. With Ball’s return from knee surgery uncertain (he is penciled in for 875 minutes), Chicago might need more late-game heroics from DeMar DeRozan to get on the right side of .500.
Less wins and a lower playoff seed for the Bulls this season would be a disappointment, but missing the playoffs, let alone not even making the play-in tournament, would be an absolute disaster.
Looking at the landscape of the Eastern Conference, the competition is a lot stiffer than what was already a gauntlet last season. With better competition and starting the season undermanned without Lonzo, the Bulls have an uphill battle ahead of them.
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