Magic Keep Making the Bulls Look Bad, Playoff Resumes, Learning to Win, and Other Bulls Bullets

Apr 28, 2024

The Chicago Bulls front office would never stand for what we saw on Saturday!

All four winners took the game by double digits. That’s right, not a single competitive loss!

The Orlando Magic started the day off with their second-straight blowout over the Cleveland Cavaliers. They cruised to a 112-89 win, marking the second time they held the Cavs under 90 points. The series now heads back to The Land knotted up at 2-2 with plenty of momentum on Orlando’s side. Even if the Magic can’t advance to the second round, however, they can at least take one small victory away from this postseason. Orlando now officially has more playoff wins since the Nikola Vucevic trade than the Chicago Bulls. Shoutout to Jason Patt for turning me on to that unfortunate fact.

The Magic are about to have more playoff wins than the Bulls since the Vooch trade. The key draft pick in that trade, Franz Wagner, has 32/13/4 and is a +29 in this game— Jason Patt (@Bulls_Jay) April 27, 2024

Of course, the Bulls’ one playoff win came in Game 2 of their first-round series with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021-22. Nikola Vucevic had a pretty solid performance with 24 points and 13 rebounds, but DeMar DeRozan was the sole reason for that victory. The veteran forward dropped 41 points on 16-31 shooting. I really hate to keep bringing up this Vucevic trade – especially now that it is fully paid off – but the domino effect has been intense. Not to mention, Orlando’s success since moving on from the two-time All-Star really puts into perspective how flawed the organization’s approach has been.

Look, I understood the Bulls’ logic from the beginning. Let’s get three All-Star-level scorers together and try to build one of the more dynamic three-level offenses in the NBA. It sounds fun in theory. But the fact of the matter is that there is only one ball and neither of these three players are particularly gifted playmakers. The other big problem was that none of them had seen what winning looks like at the highest level. Nikola Vucevic came to Chicago with 11 total playoff games under his belt and only two playoff wins. Zach LaVine didn’t have a single playoff appearance on his resume at the time. DeMar DeRozan obviously had the most experience thanks to multiple successful years in Toronto, but he built a less-than-ideal reputation for going cold under the spotlight. He also had just one playoff appearance during his three seasons with San Antonio.

Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls — © Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

This collectively underwhelming playoff resume should have been one of several red flags. At least two of the team’s top 3 players had zero idea what it took to be a constant postseason threat. It’s hard not to think this played a pretty significant role in the team’s inconsistency. I’m a big believer that you have to learn how to win at a pretty young age. All things considered, neither LaVine nor Vucevic were in situations that allowed this to happen. Does this mean they can’t ever be a part of a winning team? No. It just means that you can’t necessarily expect them to set that culture or lead the way.

I think about this a lot with LaVine, in particular. I know the man gets a fair amount of criticism for being a “good stats, bad team” player, but I really don’t think that is his fault. There is no denying his talent. He truly is one of the league’s most versatile and efficient scorers. But he was also stuck on a dysfunctional Minnesota Timberwolves team before being traded to an arguably more dysfunctional Chicago Bulls team. If anything, the fact he developed into the two-time All-Star we know today is pretty amazing. I can’t hold him having SIX different head coaches and consistently poor teammates against him.

This is big news for the Knicks. Mitchell Robinson looked like he could miss time after Joel Embiid’s dirty play in Game 3.

Knicks center Mitchell Robinson is warming up with the intention of playing Game 4, source tells ESPN. Final decision to come. https://t.co/tI87ALEc88— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 28, 2024

If the Pacers screw this up …

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are out for tonight’s Game 4, the Bucks say.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) April 28, 2024

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Cade Horton Dominates Once Again in His Latest Start

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Meet the Chicago Bears 2024 NFL Draft Class

written by

Elias Schuster

Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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