Chicago Bulls Receive Poor Rating in Basketball Power Index

The Chicago Bulls hope to put their franchise on the right path to on-court relevance this season. They have already made strides in that direction with No. 4 overall pick Caleb Wilson, No. 15 overall pick Dailyn Swain and free agent offseason additions Norman Powell and Nic Claxton adding a strong infusion of talent to the roster. 

Chicago hired Tiago Splitter as the 25th head coach in franchise history, replacing the recently departed Billy Donovan, who is now the top assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs. Everything points to the Bulls being at least entertaining, if not outright better than last season. Everything, besides the analytics, that is. 

Last season, Chicago finished as the 22nd-best team in the league. The Basketball Power Index from ESPN's Dean Oliver projects Chicago to finish as the 26th-best team this upcoming season. 

Oliver has a metric called "net points," that essentially acts as a statistic that provides a more accurate view of whether a player truly had a "good game." Whereas the box score just provides raw numbers, net points aims to "capture more than the box score, including transition opportunities, matchups and help defense, and creating better shots for teammates." 

The Bulls' projected top-seven players next season via net points are Tre Jones, Norman Powell, Josh Giddey, Leonard Miller, Caleb Wilson, Matas Buzelis and Isaac Okoro, in that exact order.

It may be shocking for Bulls fans to see Wilson in the middle of this list,  rather than near the top. What the numbers project is that it will — reasonably — take some time before Wilson is a standout offensive player.

Tre Jones being at the top of the list makes sense, as his game is that of an analytical darling (minus the three-point shooting). Jones is a player who routinely posts a massive assist rate, a low turnover rate and generates steals. He is an additive player any way you slice it.

New Bulls SG Norm Powell has never been an impressive defender, but he is one of the better volume shooters in the league. Powell has shot seven-plus three-point attempts over the past two seasons, knocking down at least 38% from deep in both. Last year's hot shooting was enough to garner Powell the first All-Star appearance of his career. 

If the shooting does take a while to stabilize for Wilson, it's easy to see the Bulls' offense struggling early. Wilson's physicality and youth provide a clear path to him being an impactful defender right out of the gate, even if he struggles with positioning.

Despite a poor offensive projection, Wilson is still projected to be one of the top-five players on the Bulls next season. If he can get up to speed quickly on offense, there is a great chance Chicago outpaces their Basketball Power Index rating.