NBA season preview: 5 big questions for the Chicago Bulls

1. Can they really hang with the best teams in the East?

The Bulls will almost certainly be better this year than they were last season, and it will be hard to keep them out of the playoffs. But what happens when they get there? Can they really hang with teams like the Bucks, the Celtics, or even the Heat? It would be hard to blame anyone for being skeptical of that.

DeRozan and Vucevic are very good players, but they have their flaws, while Ball’s overall game is somewhat limited. That said, we just saw Trae Young take the Atlanta Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals with a roster full of good-but-not-great players due to a combination of excellent team chemistry, and Young taking over when he needed to.

Is it that crazy to think LaVine could do the same thing? He’s gotten better every year, and since he evolved to an All-Star level player, this is the best team he has played with by far. Hanging with the best teams in the East won’t be an easy task, but if Lavine can take advantage of the talent the Bulls acquired in the offseason, and lead them to the next level, the Bulls could be a very tough out this postseason.