Better Luck Next Year: Chicago Bulls edition

As NBA teams are officially eliminated from title contention, theScore NBA freelance writer Andrew Unterberger takes a look back at the highs and lows of their seasons, along with the biggest questions ahead of 2018-19. The ninth edition focuses on the Chicago Bulls.

The Good

Lauri Markkanen's rookie season. One of the most mocked elements of Chicago's draft-night trade of franchise player Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves was that they merely swapped draft picks with Minnesota - moving up nine spots, essentially - rather than trading for any first-round picks outright. Few predicted that Arizona stretch forward Lauri Markkanen, the player the Bulls landed with that No. 7 overall pick, would come back to haunt the Wolves. But Markkanen has been magnificent in his rookie season, averaging nearly 15 and eight on 54 percent true shooting, while hitting threes at a historic rate for a rookie for the season's first couple months. He had a rocky February that knocked him a little off track, but he's impressed in his first season, and seems as much like a sure thing as any of the young players on Chicago's roster.

Kris Dunn's emergence. Also coming over in the Butler trade, point guard (and former top-five pick) Kris Dunn's rookie season in Minnesota was underwhelming enough to raise questions about whether the 24-year-old had much of a ceiling still to hit in Chicago. But even if Dunn was an overdraft, he proved he's an NBA player in his sophomore season in Chicago, averaging 13 and six (on much better shooting numbers than he posted as a rookie) and generally serving as the team's leader and closer. He may not be good enough to be the Bulls' point guard of the future, but he's absolutely sufficient as their PG of the present.

The seven-game winning streak. For a couple weeks there, the Bulls seemed on their way to being this year's Miami Heat: a sub-.500 team that found its footing in time to go on an extended run and make the East's middle class sweat their respective playoff pushes. Didn't quite work out like that, but it was still a great subplot of the season in late 2017, as the Bulls ripped off seven straight - including wins over the Celtics, Bucks, and 76ers - to briefly audition as the most dangerous team in the Eastern Conference. They were ultimately defanged, but it was enough to demonstrate some fight in what could've been a hide-your-face season of tanking.

The Nikola Mirotic trade. After starting the season on the DL for reasons of no small franchise embarrassment, Nikola Mirotic played some of the best basketball of his career upon his return, his scorching shooting playing a considerable part in the team's aforementioned hot streak. It was enough for the Bulls to turn him into some dead money and a lightly protected first-round pick from New Orleans in February - a decent return considering Mirotic was all but a certainty to be dealt, and that very few first-rounders changed hands at the deadline this year. New Orleans has played well enough following the deal that the pick will likely be in the 20s, but it was still a good bet on Chicago's part - and, for what it's worth, Mirotic has fallen back to earth in New Orleans, only shooting 38 percent from the field and 29 percent from deep - down from 47 and 43 percent, respectively, this season in Chicago.

Bobby Portis' breakout. After also missing the season's opening stretch for inauspicious reasons, Bobby Portis turned things around and ended up having a career season, finally making good on the stretch-big promise he'd shown flashes of in his first few seasons in Chicago. Portis averaged 13 and seven as a reserve - including a career 38-point night against Philadelphia in February - on 55 percent true shooting, numbers that might've put him in the Sixth Man of the Year conversation if not for the Bulls' lousy season (and Lou Williams' historic production in L.A.). His rookie deal is up after next season and he overlaps closely with Markkanen, but if the Bulls can retain him at a reasonable rate, he could continue to be an enormous weapon off the bench.

The Bad

The other Mirotic-Portis stuff. While both had statistically productive seasons for Chicago, they also sat the first few weeks and set the precedent early on for the kind of vibes this Bulls campaign was gonna radiate when they got into an altercation that led to Portis socking Mirotic in the jaw. The latter missed time with his facial fractures and concussion, the former with his suspension, and though the two jelled surprisingly well upon their mutual return to the lineup, the damage had largely been done, and Mirotic was dealt at the deadline. For better or worse, that this registered as by far the biggest embarrassment of the Bulls' 2017-18 season may still count as progress.

The 3-20 start. WIth Portis and Mirotic out, the other young guys struggling out of the gate, and Butler, Rajon Rondo, and Dwyane Wade all leaving for (relatively) greener pastures, the Bulls limped to a horrible 3-20 start by early December, by far the worst record in the league. Then they went an improbable 10-3 for the rest of the calendar year, and briefly looked like they might still somehow jump an evolutionary level or two and find a way to challenge for the East playoffs. But 3-20 is a hard hole to dig out of, and the task ultimately proved too great for Chicago, which never got within eight games of .500 again.

Tanking threats. In one of the sillier subplots of the NBA season, the Bulls were reportedly reprimanded by commissioner Adam Silver for resting their scant number of supposedly healthy veteran players - center Robin Lopez and wing Justin Holiday - in the name of protecting the "integrity" of the game. Nevermind that Lopez and Holiday are hardly LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard - the Bulls have been only marginally better with the duo on the court than off - and that the Bulls' season was well into its developmental stage by early March. The mini-controversy reignited yet another round of tanking debates, which, to be fair, are as good a motivation as any for the Bulls to get out of their rebuilding phase as quickly as possible.

Jordan Bell's rookie season. Taken with the Bulls-owned seventh pick of the 2017 draft's second round, Jordan Bell had an extremely promising rookie season, contributing consistently as an efficient energy guy and versatile defender off the bench. The only problem? It wasn't for the Bulls, who sold the pick to Golden State for cash, and watched him flourish essentially as found money for the Warriors throughout the year. The auctioned pick was a thumb in the eye to Chicago fans who had long watched the team's front office waste personnel assets for fungible returns, and was roundly (and rightly) mocked throughout the season in pretty much any Bell-related discussions.

No TNT home games. For the better part of five seasons, Bulls fans could bank on their team delivering a strong performance at least a couple times a year - specifically when they played at home on TNT, where Chicago holds an unthinkable 20-game winning streak at the United Center. Unfortunately for the Windy City faithful, no such games were scheduled for the Bulls this season, with a lone ESPN game being their sole national representation. The good news? The streak remains unbroken, meaning Chicago should be able to pick it right back up when it's ready for showtime again.

The Questions

How much is Zach LaVine worth? The Bulls' most-hyped player return in the Butler trade, LaVine has had an inconclusive opening run in Chicago. He has a 17-4-3 line, but on true shooting under 50 percent, having hit less than half of his field-goal attempts in 12 of his last 13 games. He's getting to the line more and turning the ball over less, so, with his incredible athletic gifts, the Bulls will likely be motivated to hold onto him when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. But is he worth eight figures annually? A near-max? Will some talent-starved franchise really force the Bulls' hand here? If so, it'll be interesting to see how committed they are to the former Slam Dunk Contest champion.

Can the Bulls land a franchise player in the draft? As impressive a rookie season as Markkanen has had, and as promising as LaVine and Dunn's futures may be, you'd have to squint pretty hard to see any of these guys as the eventual best player on a contending team. The Bulls' best chance to land one of those might be in the upcoming draft, and unlike many of the teams in their tanking range, they actually don't have a long-term answer at center already installed on the roster. Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley could certainly be nice fits in Chicago, but they may need some lottery luck to land one of 'em, as the Bulls' long-tepid hot streak may have been enough to bump them out of the top five of the tanking rankings.

Is GarPax safe this offseason? Given last season's calamitous Three Alphas experiment - and the subsequent interruption of the team's deus ex machina attempt at playoff salvation - it seemed like it was about time for at least one of GM Gar Forman and EVP of basketball operations John Paxson, collectively known by the GarPax smush, to move on from the franchise. However, both started the season in Chicago and seem on their way to lasting all 82, with an understandable losing-but-not-too-losing season actually ranking as one of the franchise's more successful campaigns of recent years, at least in terms of expectations met. If they've lasted this long, there might not be much reason to make a behind-the-scenes move this offseason - but 50-some losses is still a lot to stomach for a team that's been in the playoffs nearly every year the past decade.

What about Fred Hoiberg? It's hardly been the primrose path for Hoiberg on the way to three subpar seasons at the Bulls' helm. He's been consistently given rosters unfit to play his alleged style of hoops, or anyone else's for that matter. Still, he managed to keep a Chicago team together that seemed on the brink of total anarchy at season's beginning, the young players are mostly flourishing under his watch, and, well, who else is out there these days? Tempered hopes for this season may have come just in time for the former Iowa State coach, but we'll see if he's given the chance to get the team moving back in this direction after.

So ... same time next year? Though the Bulls have promising talent - we haven't even mentioned unearthed defensive-minded wing David Nwaba and sporadically explosive second-year guard Denzel Valentine - two first-round picks this June, and potentially decent cap flexibility, there's no reason to assume next year's roster will make a quick turnaround from this year's crapulence. Chicago may be due for another season of growing pains and losing streaks - unless, of course, it decides to short-circuit the process once again and splurge on the Wade and Rondo of 2018 free agency. Can the Bulls stomach the former, or will they set this all in motion once again by retreating to the latter?

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)