If you head over to Google or the internet search engine of your choice and type in words ‘NBA Playoff Odds’ you’ll have to scroll down a good way before you find the Chicago Bulls.
According to the bookmakers there are 21 teams in the NBA with a better chance of winning the Larry O’Brien Championship than the Bulls. When you consider that there are only 29 other teams in the NBA that puts into perspective the plight of Chicago’s famous basketball team.
Why though are the Bulls such long-shots to make the Playoffs? What’s gone wrong for one of the most famous basketball teams on the planet? Read on to find out.
(Long-suffering Chicago Bulls fans, to save you having to go to the trouble of opening Netflix and searching for The Last Dance, here’s a YouTube clip of Michael Jordan closing out the Utah Jazz in 1998.)
Cycle Breaking
There’s no team on the planet that wins it all, time and time again. Every sports team that has ever existed has gone through cycles where they have been good followed by cycles when they have been not so good.
The Bulls however seem committed on breaking that cycle once and for all by missing out the part where they are good.
Their last NBA Championship came way back in 1998 when Bill Clinton was making denials about Monica Lewinski, The Boy is Mine by Brandy and Monica was the #1 song in the US and when Titanic became the first movie ever to earn $1 billion at the Box Office.
Since then the closest they have come to recreating that feat was the 2011 Conference Final defeat to the Miami Heat. In the last 8 seasons the Bulls have only made the Playoffs twice, losing on both occasions in the Opening Round to the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks respectively.
So why won’t the Bulls make the Playoffs this year? Well on point one, they’re not very good and haven’t been very good for some time.
Offensive Inconsistency for Chicago Bulls
The Bulls offense has improved in recent months but unfortunately, that’s more down to luck than design. Injuries gave Coby White the opportunity to step out onto the court and the 24-year-old has grasped that chance with both hands.
In his most recent game, White finished with 32 points against the Cavaliers to supplement his 20 point haul in the previous game against the Hawks. That said though, White has been carrying the Bulls offense which has been hair-pullingly frustrating and inconsistent all season. His performances haven’t been enough to alter the NBA Playoffs odds though.
So why won’t the Chicago Bulls make the Playoffs this year?? Well on point two, their offense is simply too inconsistent to see them win the requisite number of games to play on past the regular season.
(Coby White has been performing brilliantly for the Bulls this season, but he can’t carry his team to the Playoffs on his own.)
Defensive Consistency
There’s a phrase in soccer that goes like this, ‘if you can’t be good going forward, be sure to keep the back door closed’ and on that front the Bulls have failed miserably this season. Struggling for consistency in offensive areas they have found consistency defensively.
Unfortunately for Bulls fans this has meant that they have been consistently dreadful in defense.
So why won’t the Bulls make the Playoffs this year??? Well on point three, their defense has more holes in it than Swiss cheese.
Lack of Talent for Chicago Bulls
Good teams are made up of good players and bad teams are made up of bad players. It’s something we often overlook when we get bogged down in discussions about tactics, plays, coaches, stadium atmospheres and all of the other intangibles that go into deciding the on-court action.
When we truly drill down into the facts though, the Chicago Bulls just simply do not have a very good roster. Say what you want about last season and the occasional game where the Bulls have performed well, but all the evidence points to the fact that this team just aren’t very good.
So why won’t the Bulls make the Playoffs this year???? Well on our fourth and final point, their roster just simply isn’t good enough and believe it or not, that’s a major barrier to sporting success.
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