Bulls Season Wrap-Up

The Bulls wrapped up their 2021-22 campaign with a whimpering 116-100 loss to the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday. That loss ended the NBA 1st Round series with the Bulls bowing out in 5 games. After their Game 2 win, the Bulls simply could not match the Bucks’ size, physicality and shooting. The Bulls’ 3-Pt shooting was anemic(in the three games after Game 2 the Bulls never shot above 28% from 3), their defense was inept, they played soft and just could not adjust to the Bucks’ style. For Bulls fans this was not the way they wanted to see the season end given how the team started.

Now that the season is over the big question is what’s next? There are a few things Bulls President Artūras Karnišovas and GM Marc Eversley will have to figure out heading into the 2022-23 season. Let’s take a look at a couple of items on their list:

• Lack of consistent shooting: Let’s face it – the Bulls were not a team that could hurt you by spacing the floor and consistently knocking down 3-pointers. While the Bulls shot a respectable 36.9% during the regular season that percentage dropped to 28.3% in the postseason. The Bulls were shredded by the Bucks’ open shooters in their playoff series and the Bulls couldn’t match that pace. The focus should be adding reliable 3-point shooters to take pressure off of the Bulls’ stars.
• Athletic, front-court defenders: The other telling weakness for the Bulls was their lack of size in the front court. Athletic big men like Giannia Antetokounmpo & Joel Embiid made life difficult for the Bulls. Bulls center Nikola Vucevic looked like he was stuck in cement most nights trying to guard the other teams’ big men. If the Bulls are to keep Nikola they will need to add length and athleticism around him.
• The Zach dilemma: The Bulls want to keep Zach LaVine around. They want him to be one of the faces of the franchise. There’s just the question of whether or not give LaVine the 5yr/$200 max contract he’s looking for. LaVine made the All-Star team this past season and showed some improvement on the defensive end but his lingering knee issues curtailed his effectiveness toward the end of the season & playoffs. Much of what the Bulls will do in the offseason will depend on what they do with LaVine first.

Bulls play-by-play announce Adam Amin offered his thoughts on the 2021-22 season & what expect next:

Whatever happens, the Bulls’ future looks a lot brighter than it did 2 years ago and fans have A.K. and Eversley to thank for that.

Bears Draft Results

The Bears entered the 2022 NFL without a 1st round and a 4th round pick but still had 6 picks overall. That number stretched to 11 when new Bears GM Ryan Poles made some trades late in the draft to stockpile picks for this year. In total the Bears drafted four offensive linemen, three defensive backs, one wide receiver, one edge rusher, one running back and one punter.

Leave it to the armchair quarterbacks in social media to either declare Poles a genius or a bum. It’s way too early to judge Poles on his draft picks considering not one of these players has seen the field yet. So here’s a look at all 11 draft picks for the Chicago Bears:

A number of sports outlets have done their grades and analysis for the Bears’ draft including The USA Today, ESPN, NFL.com and Pro Football Network. Here’s NBC Sports Chicago & ESPN Chicago host David Kaplan with his thoughts on the draft:

The Bears clearly need help on the offensive line to protect QB Justin Fields. The Bears gave up a league high 58 sacks during the 2021 season. The also need help on the defensive end particularly with the secondary and defensive line. This is not going to be a one year turnaround. Ryan Pace put the Bears in a terrible spot and it’s going to take Ryan Poles a couple of years to dig the Bears out of it. Here’s hoping he took the 1st steps with this year’s draft class.

Final Thoughts

• The White Sox’ woes continues: With today’s 6-5 loss to the Angels, the White Sox have dropped 11 of their last 13 games since starting the season 6-2. In those 13 games the Sox have scored 5 or more runs just twice. Equally depressing they given up 6 or more runs 8 times during this putrid stretch. One has to believe there’s too much talent even with the injuries for this team to continue to struggle like this.
• Despite another very profitable earnings quarter for the WWE the wrestling company decided to release another 10 NXT superstars on Friday. Among the releases are Dexter Lumis, Malcolm Bivens and Dakota Kai. Here’s hoping all of those wrestlers land on their feet.
• Speaking of ex-WWE wrestlers, Ryback got himself in hot water shooting on WWE CEO Vince McMahon. You can have your opinions on McMahon & how he runs his company but tweeting about his recently deceased mother is abhorrent and out of bounds. Here’s the tweet in question:

• WWE Superstar Becky Lynch recently decided to shoot on AEW’s women’s roster:

• Anyone watching the USFL? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? I would like to see this league succeed but I don’t know if it will attract enough viewers to watch players who are obviously not quite ready for the NFL.

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