When the Chicago Bulls pushed their chips onto the table two years ago, a lot of people were excited. The Nikola Vucevic trade was gutsy, but the signings of DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, and Alex Caruso raised some eyebrows (in a good way). Then, everything seemed great when the Bulls got off to a hot start in 2021. But then the regression happened.
Ball’s injury certainly hurt Chicago, but they can’t blame all of their struggles on that. The truth is the Bulls are simply a middle-of-the-pack team, and if they want to escape that realm, they need to face the facts. One of which, according to Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report, is that Zach LaVine and DeRozan don’t fit together.
In a recent article, Bailey labeled the Bulls duo as one of “The Most Awkward Superstar Fits in the NBA Right Now.” Bailey believes the tandem is headed in the wrong direction.
“Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan have now been together for two seasons, and in terms of wins and losses, the partnership actually seems to be headed backwards,” Bailey wrote.
“After winning 46 games in their first year together, the LaVine and DeRozan helped the Chicago Bulls go 40-42 in 2022-23.”
He also noted that the duo could use a star point guard to smoothen things out.
“Both of these players have plenty of scoring talent, but with apologies to Ayo Dosunmu and Patrick Beverley, this season made it clear that the Bulls need a real point guard to bring a little order to the attack,” Bailey wrote.
Chicago may be better off breaking up the duo of LaVine and DeRozan than running it back.
