CARTER JR. JUMPS INTO DEEP END IN OPENER
19-year-old Carter Jr. gets starting assignment vs. Embiid in season opener
The 2018-19 Bulls are wellversed in the role of underdog.
The players didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, especially after the front office took the rebuild route in the 2017 offseason and traded Jimmy Butler to the Timberwolves, allowed Rajon Rondo to walk and bought out the rest of Dwyane Wade’s contract.
A 27-win season followed with the organization in full tank mode.
Year 2 of the reconstruction project, however, was expected to be different.
LeBron James left the Cavaliers and the Eastern Conference to join the Lakers, and the Bulls felt like they added key pieces in free agent and former Simeon star Jabari Parker and No. 7 overall pick Wendell Carter Jr.
Still, the needle outside the Advocate Center barely has budged. The Bulls are predicted to be a lottery team again by NBA pundits.
But inside the practice facility, the Bulls’ attitude is, the experts be damned.
“We’re a hardworking team,’’ Bulls big man Bobby Portis said. “We have pieces. We haven’t played with each other a lot. But we’re playing with each other now. If we build our cohesiveness, go out and trust one another and become one, the sky is the limit for us.
“Every year, I feel they kind of write us off. That’s just the nature of the beast. It’s the good thing about being an underdog.’’
Portis and his teammates have that “sky is the limit’’ mentality, but there’s a certain reality that can’t be glossed over. Finnish big man Lauri Markkanen is sidelined with an injured right elbow until at least late November, Parker hasn’t exactly played like a $20 milliona-year man and, frankly, there are at least eight teams in the East that have more potential than the Bulls, at least on paper.
Are the Bulls better than the 27 wins from last season? Yes.
Are they a playoff team? Not yet.