Chicago Bulls Mid-Season Awards, Surprises and Disappointments

Chicago Bulls Mid-Season Awards, Surprises and Disappointments

Hard to believe that the Bulls have already played 41 games halfway through the season when it feels like it was just yesterday that the season started and while I’m sure we all wish their record was a little better currently sitting 19 and 22 and Ninth in the

Eastern Conference could have been a lot worse though based on what we saw this team at the start of the season when it looked like the Bulls were going to be right on their way to the lottery and on the verge of blowing up the entire roster but the Bulls have somewhat

Turned their season around the last 20 games or so with the fifth best record in said time frame and now that we enter the second half of the season the question now remains how will the Bulls close out this year what trades will be made as we approach the NBA trade

Deadline in a few weeks but while we anxiously anticipate the back half of the season I figure what better time than to do my mid-season recap Awards surprises disappointments all of that good stuff and then I’ll end it with my predictions and expectations for the rest of the season speaking of

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Let me know what picks you guys end up making now before the start of the season I always give my preseason Bulls Awards on who I think will be the Bulls MVP most improved player of the year six Man of the Year Etc just for the Bulls

Roster and while sometimes some of those predictions can be a bit obvious I feel like going halfway through the year that really hasn’t been the case based on what we’ve seen from the Bulls so far this season because well I think a lot of people will still agree that demard

De R rozan is probably the Bull’s best player you might say Zack LaVine now that he’s been looking fully healthy again and looking like an All-Star type player the fact of the matter is if you’re talking about the MVP for the Bulls so far this year halfway through I

Honestly feel like there is a world where you can say that this belongs to Kobe White and the same can obviously be said for the most improved player of the year award because no one has improved more year-over-year on this roster than Kobe white like it really isn’t even

That close in fact you could argue Kobe White is a top candidate for the most improved player of the year award in the NBA so if you had to give an MVP award to someone on this roster for half the season I feel like I have to go with

Kobe white with dear being a close second now dear has been more consistent than Kobe has throughout the season because Kobe started off the year really bad so bad to the point we were talking about how he needed to be taken out of the starting lineup and then of course

Kobe had that brief stretch of a shooting slump where he cooled down quite a bit after shooting a ridiculous 50 plus% from three on high volume for a couple of weeks but in terms of the overall value the impact on winning the impact on bringing this team back to

Life getting the guys energized again being that positive voice in the locker room bringing the Good Vibes I give more credit to Kobe on that one than I do tomorrow so yes Midway through the season Kobe is my most valuable player my most improved player as well

Defensive player of the year for the Bulls anyway another easy one no question Alex guso who is likely on his way to another all defensive team as long as he can stay healthy both IO and Pat have been great on defense but not to the level of impact we’ve seen from

AC who is just constantly a dog on defense getting in passing Lanes so good at navigating screens drawing charges pickpocketing guys to the basket too easy for that award for him and then as far as Sixth Man of the Year on the Bulls I mean this is probably the

Toughest one mainly because guys have been in and out of the starting lineup and coming off the bench Patrick Williams has been starting and then coming off the bench Alex kuso has taken his spot in the starting lineup more recently but then also Caruso Has Come

Off the Bench a fair amount of times this season Tory Craig was great in the second unit but he’s been injured and hasn’t been playing more recently Javon Carter has been up and down in the second unit yeah I honestly don’t know this might surprise some folks but I’m

Actually going to go with IO dumu mainly because IO has consistently been coming off the bench whereas Caruso has started in 22 games so far this year Pat has started in 27 games but IO has lowkey been so underrated for the Bulls you’re talking about a great bounceback season

After a sophomore slump I wouldn’t call it a breakout year by any means but he’s been very valuable in the second unit not only for his defense but also he’s been impacting the game offensively case in point the game the other night in San Antonio where iow was a big differen

Maker in being a scoring spark Off the Bench efficient on the floor shooting eight for n 21 points I mean overall this season he’s improved his scoring his efficiency gotten that three-point shot back to where we saw in his rookie year he’s much better at finishing around the rim improved Court Vision as

Well and he’s doing all of this on Lower minutes than he’s used to seeing love what we’ve been seeing from iio so far this year and more importantly knowing his role accepting his role and doing what needs to be done to help this team win now as far as surprises and

Disappointments go I’m going to start with some of the surprises of this season which I guess some of these surprises might inevitably end up being disappointments but one of the biggest surprises so far this season has to be the ascendants of Kobe white look we all knew Kobe had showed signs of

Improvement last season even though his numbers weren’t up the way that he was playing the skills he had developed in terms of his improved ball handling improved passing decision-making Better Effort and execution on defense a quicker first step in getting the basket like even though Kobe had impressed a

Lot of bulls fans who were down and out on him and wanted him traded he had more or less earned his trust and respect back from Bulls fans in large part because he hustled and worked hard to get to where he was but even the most optimistic Kobe fans I don’t think would

Have expected to see what we’ve been seeing from Kobe to start the season like people joked about how Kobe white would be a most improved player of the year candidate and now he legitimately is and there’s an argument that he has a case for being an All-Star I don’t think

He’ll be selected as an All-Star but the fact that we’re even having this discussion is saying something you’re talking about a guy who most people thought would never be more than a role player a player who the Bulls signed to an incredibly team-friendly deal at 3 years $33 million which is now looking

Like one of the biggest steals of the off season like no one would have expected Kobe to look this good this season this was a player most people thought was still going to be coming off the bench behind Javon Carter Kobe putting up 18 and 1 12 points per game

On efficient shooting the best of his career and also one of the top three-point Shooters in the league shooting 40% on over seven attempts per game he’s improved in damn near every statistical category averaging five assists per game four and a half rebounds despite his usage he’s turning

The ball over at a very low rate speaking to how much he’s improved his handles and decision-making on the coure so yes of all the surprises this has to be the biggest one for the Bulls because if anyone told me Kobe white was going to be a borderline Allstar by mid-season

I would have thought you needed to be committed as far as other surprises and I might go through some of these a little more quickly but definitely did not expect Alex Caruso would be one of the better 3 and D guys in the NBA after a pretty poor shooting season last year

For AC I did not expect him to be shooting near 42% from three on four attempts per game which is the highest volume for him shooting it from Deep for his career I also wouldn’t have expected the Bulls to shoot the three ball as well as they have which I’m not saying

It’s great they’re still 18th in the NBA and 21st in overall threes attempted but compared to last year where they were dead last in the league in three-point volume I expected their three-point rate to increase a little bit just because it was such an emphasis going into the off

Season and they added a couple Shooters via free agency but seeing the Bulls put up considerably more threes and hitting them at a decent rate has been a surprise like even dear has been shooting it more from behind the arc and on a decent clip as well at

36% as far as other surprises and I guess these are more of the surprises that led to disappointments was not expecting that we would see the drama early on from Zack LaVine wanting to be traded I mean we kind of knew this was going to be the last go around of this

Core for the Bulls but that early Zack news of him wanting out actually happen What like 10 or 11 games in the season also related to that disappointed and surprised by just how bad the Bulls were to start the year kicking things off going five and 14 in the standings

Looking non-competitive with no grit Edge or energy of any kind the guys look checked out they look like they hated playing together Vibes were bad body language demeanor everything was pointing to this being a quick tear down before the season ends and so I guess

With that it was a huge surprise to see that the Bulls bounce back in the way they did because you really thought there was nothing saving this team and while they’re still not a great team and changes still need to happen the fact that they were able to come together

Start playing better team basketball changing their mentality and attitude and actually looking like a fun team again was very surprising when I think most of us including myself had already said this season was is all but over by the end of November other disappointments just some quick ones

Here um Javon Carter really thought he was going to provide a bigger impact not only helping the Bulls overall shooting profile but their tenacity and effort on the defensive end and neither of those has really come to fruition he’s had some nice games here and there but not a

Reliable and consistent shooting threat for the Bulls uh this other one I don’t know if I would necessarily call it a disappointment but I was expecting more from Patrick Williams now Pat has looked a lot better since Zack LaVine has been out and even after he’s turn he was

Getting more touches more shots up and so I don’t think calling Pat a disappointment is fair to say when he’s been solid so far this season but I was hoping like a Kobe white for a bigger breakout year especially when the Bulls have really needed it from him and we’re

Kind of just seeing the same level of Patrick Williams from last season with some added aggression shot creation and drives to the basket so far this year hopefully we see a strong second half to the year from Patrick Williams especially when he comes back healthy as far as my predictions though for the

Rest of the season I mean this is really tough to say because a lot of it depends on what the Bulls do with the deadline do they trade Zach do they not trade Zach do they actually push to rebuild and move on from the big three maybe

Even Alex guso as well or do they stand Pat which honestly would not Shock me at this point or do they make minor moves on the margins but based on what we know now as well as how other teams in the East are trending I do think the Bulls

Will make the play in they’re creating enough separation from teams like the Nets the Hawks and the Raptors playing much better than all of those teams and the Bulls have one of the easier schedules in the league in the back half of the year so I do think they’ll make

The play in probably finish around 500 and I’m even going to go as to say that they make the playoffs as the seventh or eightth seed so getting into the playoffs by way of the playin but get knocked out in the first round because there’s no way they’re going to be able

To beat the bucks or the Celtics in the seven game series this just not happening but hey all of this is just me what are your guys’ predictions for the second half of the Year where do you see the Bulls finishing what awards would you give out so far this year let me

Know in the comments as always be sure to subscribe and I will see you in the next one

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Mid-season check in, awards, and expectations for the Chicago Bulls

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