Things have been less-than-stellar for the Chicago Bulls this season. Like, they've been spinning their wheels and headed nowhere fast.
Part of that can be chalked up to the season-ending injury to guard Zach LaVine, a borderline All-Star and generally one of the Bulls' top two scoring options (along with small forward DeMar DeRozan).
Of course, the Bulls and LaVine both were hoping for a trade, and those hopes began at about the same time the season started. But in short, no one wanted LaVine and his massive contract at the trade deadline in February. He was shut down with a foot injury around that time anyway.
So, on to the here and now. The Bulls are guaranteed a spot in the NBA play-in tournament — but that's it. If they want to get to the playoffs, they'll have to win a couple games in the play-in, since they're guaranteed no higher than the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference.
In other words, the Bulls have been decent — just not decent enough regularly.
And perhaps a missed dunk attempt off a fastbreak in Tuesday's home loss to the New York Knicks exemplified their entire season in a nutshell.
The unintentional comedy routine took place when Bulls forward Torrey Craig went up for a breakaway jam, bouncing the ball off the glass in what appeared to be an attempt at style points — only to have teammate and Bulls center Andre Drummond crash into him and completely muck things up.
Why Craig wanted to perform such a dunk, and why Drummond would ruin it, is anyone's guess. That's just the Bulls for ya.
Torrey Craig tried to throw a lob off the backboard to himself but Andre Drummond thought it was for him and this happened ???? pic.twitter.com/S40XtLV50h
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) April 10, 2024
Oh, by the way, on the next possession, Drummond landed awkwardly while going up for rebound, injuring what appeared to be his ankle. He then exited the game in a wheelchair.
In Chicago this NBA season, that's just the way things are destined to play out.
