Over the final 20 games of the regular season, the Chicago Bulls went 15-5, a top five record in the NBA over that time. That run put them in a position to host a Play-In game, when in February it seemed they'd be fighting for lottery positioning by April.
It was encouraging, but in the end Chicago folded at home against the Miami Heat in the 9 vs. 10 Play-In game. They trailed wire-to-wire in a disheartening 109-90 defeat that really soured an otherwise exciting finish to a seemingly lost campaign.
Even with that scorching run to end the regular season schedule, they only finished 39-43—the exact same record they finished with last year. And, funny enough, they finished in ninth place for the second straight year too. The only difference was that last year they won the 9 vs. 10 game before losing to, you guessed it, the Heat, in the final 2024 East Play-In game.
Despite those harsh truths, Bulls vice president Arturas Karnisovas, who's been in the job since 2020, was very positive in his exit interview on Thursday. The team had the same record and same finish in the Eastern Conference as last year, but the former EuroLeague star believes they took "a step forward" nonetheless.
"We took a step forward this year. ... You projected before the year that we were going to have 28 wins and we had 39."
“We took a step forward this year.”
— Elias Schuster (@Schuster_Elias) April 17, 2025
AK after finishing with an identical record to the 2023-24 season and winning one fewer Play-In Tournament game.
If those projections are true, then they did exceed expectations even though they remained stagnant in terms of raw win-loss numbers. Last year, the Bulls finished 39-43 with the failed superteam of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, and Alex Caruso.
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DeRozan left in the offseason, and Caruso and LaVine were traded for promising youngsters. Vucevic is likely gone in the summer. That leaves Chicago with an exciting core of Coby White and Josh Giddey (though the latter is hitting free agency), who both turned into bonafide stars and team leaders this year. Tre Jones, Zach Collins, and Kevin Huerter are other solid young additions acquired through the LaVine trade. Ayo Dosunmu is an exciting player too.
2024 No. 11 overall pick Matas Buzelis also finished the season really strong. That's not only huge for the team, but an important marker to show that Karnisovas and company can evaluate talent.
For the first three months of the season, Buzelis averaged 5.3 points and 2.8 rebounds in 13.3 minutes in 47 games. After being inserted into the starting lineup for the final 30 games, Buzelis averaged 13.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game with a 47/35/81 shooting slash line in 26.9 minutes a night.
Chicago is now in the lottery for the top picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. However, they have a 92.0 percent chance of landing only the 13th pick. If they can hit on that one like they seem to have done on Buzelis at No. 11 last year, they could be cooking with grease.
Meanwhile, the Heat will head to Atlanta to take on the Hawks on Friday night to determine who gets the honor of the No. 8 seed in the East and a first round date with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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