The Chicago Bulls had a season that was truly a tale of two halves. They started off slow and then finished strong. The Bulls went 9-6 in March, and had a number of memorable individual performances that included some massive scoring barrages from Coby White and several triple-doubles from Josh Giddey. Chicago’s strong end to the regular season earned them a spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament for the second-straight season. Despite the good-feelings engineered in Chicago by the Bulls inspiring play down the stretch, the squad proved they weren’t quite ready yet for high-leverage games, suffering a 109-90 defeat to the 10-seed Miami Heat. After another NBA offseason of dramatic change league-wide, where exactly do the Bulls stack up with last year’s Eastern Conference Play-In teams?

The 2024-25 Eastern Conference Play-In field included the Bulls and three Southeastern squads in the Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat. They were the 7th, 8th, and 10th seed respectively. This offseason

Orlando made the biggest swing of the bunch, trading multiple draft picks, Cole Anthony and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for sharpshooting guard Desmond Bane.

https://x.com/OrlandoMagic/status/1934345823724171446

This move indicates very clearly that the Magic are done with the “rebuild” or even “build” phase of their franchise, Orlando is ready to win and win now. Last season Bane averaged 19.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 39.2% from the 3-point line. Bane’s career-best 6.1 RPG were truly impressive for a 6-foot-5 guard with an unimpressive wingspan, a testament to a toughness that will make him fit in with a Magic team that ranked 24th in rebound rate and could use his help cleaning the glass. With the addition of Bane and a healthy offseason for Orlando stars Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, it is truly difficult to see them finishing below last season’s 41-41 record.

While Orlando finished two games ahead of Chicago, the Atlanta Hawks finished a single-game ahead of the Bulls despite the presence of an All-Star Trae Young and Most Improved Player Award winner Dyson Daniels. The Hawks had a busy offseason, adding floor-spacing, shot-blocker Kristaps Porzingis, sharpshooter Luke Kennard and versatile defensive wing Nickeil Alexander-Walker. Atlanta finished 17th in Offensive Rating (113.7) last season. A big part of this was only getting 36 games out of up-and-coming forward Jalen Johnson. The Porzingis addition is massive for the Hawks. Porzingis replaces any rim protection that left with Clint Capela’s departure and adds a 3-point shooting element from the center position that only enhances the pick-and-pop game with Young. Even potential injury-related absences for Porzingis aren’t as big for the Hawks as they would be for other teams, with Onyeka Okongwu still present on the roster.

Last is the only team of the bunch to finish with a worse record than the Bulls, the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat finished last season 37-45. It was an awkward season for the Heat, with Jimmy Butler’s standoff with Pat Riley resulting in his eventual trade to the Golden State Warriors. Miami didn’t necessarily receive an inspiring return, but Andew Wiggins was solid for them and the top-10 protected first round pick they have will be instrumental in any future moves. Despite finishing with a worse record than the Bulls, Miami throttled them in the Play-In at the United Center. The Heat then went on to receive a gentleman’s sweep at the hand of the Boston Celtics. Their offseason addition of Normal Powell will give them some much-needed scoring punch, but may not help enough for a team that finished with a worse offensive rating than the Bulls.

This brings us to the Bulls. Despite the Bulls looking great down the stretch, the same issue from the beginning of the season reared its ugly head. A lack of floor spacing sunk the Bulls, who shot a terrible 10-37 (27%) from 3-point range in the 19-point loss. Chicago didn’t add any sharpshooters this offseason. Their big acquisitions were lottery pick Noa Essengue, who figures to play a miniscule role next season, and Isaac Okoro, a rugged defender who only shoots from the corners.

The true secret sauce for Chicago will be the development of Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey. Buzelis shot 36.1% from his rookie season despite not being pegged as a strong outside shooter. And Giddey shot an easily career-best 37.8% on 4.0 attempts per game from deep.

With the internal improvement, along with second-year Bulls like Kevin Huerter, Tre Jones and Zach Collins becoming more familiar with the system, expect Chicago to stay ahead of a Miami team trying to find its identity in the Eastern Conference hierarchy, but struggle to keep up with Orlando and Atlanta as they continue to add elite role players around their stars.