No one expected much from the Chicago Bulls this season, but here they are sitting atop the Eastern Conference standings with a 6-1 record. Should we be taking them seriously?
It could’ve been better. It could’ve been worse.
The Chicago Bulls have been stuck in the middle. And for a once-proud franchise, the play-in tournament has unfortunately become an annual event.
After a relatively quiet offseason, the Bulls seemed destined to compete for a play-in berth for the fourth time in as many seasons.
But here they are early in the 2025-26 NBA season, sitting atop the Eastern Conference standings with a 6-1 record. For the first time since they topped the East with a 26-10 record on Jan. 7, 2022, they seem like a legitimate contender.
What’s going on here? Are the Bulls just riding a wave of good luck? Or are they actually a threat to be reckoned with in the conference?
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What The Bulls Are Doing Right
Everything starts with Josh Giddey. A trade that was once mocked by the basketball world now seems to be a smart piece of business from a Bulls front office that isn’t necessarily known for its decision-making.
To put it simply, Giddey is the horse that pulls the cart. The Bulls have confessed that they’re trying to construct a deep roster that may not have superstars but has several really good players. It’s a formula that helped the Indiana Pacers get to the NBA Finals last season.
They want to play fast (fifth in frequency of shots, with between 22-18 seconds on the shot clock, per NBA.com). They want to move the ball around (second in passes made per game). And they want to drive it down people’s throats (first in drives per game).
The Bulls aren’t doing this because they are obsessed with the Pacers (although they are easy to admire). They are doing it because Giddey is perfectly suited to play this way. He’s a speed racer in the open court.
He is one of the best passers in the association (one of the few right-handed guys who can effortlessly throw a left-handed skip pass). And he loves to attack the rim with the dribble (sixth in the NBA in drives per game).
More than being in a system that optimizes his strengths, Giddey has made some noticeable improvements to his game. He’s a significantly better shooter than he was with the Oklahoma City Thunder (38.2% from 3, compared to 31.0% with the Thunder).
And more recently, Giddey has become much more comfortable absorbing contact on his drives (he’s nearly doubled his free-throw attempts per game). These additions make him a more complete primary option, which, in turn, makes Chicago more dangerous on that end of the floor.
As it stands, the team is eighth in offensive rating.
Not only is head coach Billy Donovan the architect of this well-oiled offensive machine, but he’s also been able to empower his ragtag bunch. Kevin Huerter is having a mini-renaissance after stuff hit the fan for him with the Sacramento Kings. Red Velvet is averaging 12.9 points on 61.7% true shooting, and he’s second on the team in on/off rating (+9.5 per 100 possessions).
Isaac Okoro looks more confident than ever, which allows him to stay on the floor and add his stout perimeter defense (75th percentile defensive DRIP). Tre Jones has turned into a defensive pest (fifth in steals per game).
Steals Per Game Chart
Nikola Vucevic is aging like fine wine (19.3 points and 12.0 rebounds per game on 69.3% true shooting). Matas Buzelis continues to grow as a scorer (his PPG is up by 6.3). The list goes on and on.
The players deserve kudos for performing at this level, but credit to Donovan for creating a system that empowers players and lets them enjoy what they are doing.
This Bulls team is also sneaky deep. Nine guys have played over 100 minutes through seven games, and Chicago currently ranks fourth in bench points per game.
Where The Bulls May Be Lucky
Along with having a top-10 offense, the Bulls have a 12th-best defensive rating. This is curious because, on paper, Chicago doesn’t really have a ton of great defensive players.
Of those nine players we mentioned earlier, only four of them have a positive D-DRIP, and none of them are in the top 100 in this metric.
Now, defense isn’t as talent-driven as offense. And even in the NBA, you can get pretty far on defense with effort, communication and strong coaching. This iteration of the Bulls has all of those character traits in spades, which, by the way, is another arrow in Donovan’s quiver for his Coach of the Year candidacy.
For the "they don't play defense in the NBA" crowd: Here's all the stuff that you might miss in real time.
First watch normally, then check out the slowed down version. pic.twitter.com/chn1QEHdAA
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) October 23, 2025
But Chicago has also gotten pretty lucky. Defenses have very little to do with how well a team shoots from 3, particularly on open ones – making it (arguably) the most luck-driven stat you can find.
So far, the Bulls are surrendering the fifth-lowest opponent 3-point percentage on wide-open shots from beyond the arc (33.9%). If this number starts to regress to the mean, so will Chicago’s defensive rating.
Still, the Bulls are doing a good job of defending without fouling (ninth in opponent free-throw rate) and completing possessions with a rebound (eighth in defensive rating). So, even if teams start shooting better against them, they could still avoid the bottom 10 in this category because of these attributes and the competitiveness they have displayed on that end of the floor.
How Good Are The Bulls Actually?
In the last 10 seasons that started on time (the 2020-21 season started in December because of COVID-19), 85% of the 60 teams that were in the top six in net rating on Nov. 5 made the playoffs. (Despite face-planting after the Lonzo Ball injury, the 2021-22 Bulls did make the postseason but lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.)
But this bodes well for these Bulls and is emblematic of who they are right now.
If the Bulls can stay out of the bottom 10 in defense and maintain their current offensive pace (which seems reasonable given how progressive their infrastructure is), they can certainly be a true playoff team (not just play-in fodder) in the Eastern Conference.
Still, even when Coby White returns from injury, the Bulls lack the top-end firepower to be a truly elite offense (no players in the top 75 in O-DRIP), and because of their personnel, they don’t have the two-way tools to be a truly balanced team. So, it is hard to envision them being more than a feel-good playoff team.
But considering where expectations were for this team and how confusing their long-term outlook seemed, being a mid-seeded playoff team in 2025-26 would be considered a major accomplishment for these new-look Bulls.
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