’ 19- 20: Amountin’ to nothing

Going into the season, Bulls talked about making the playoffs; they won’t even make the play- in

They were all in — from the tippy top of ownership to the front office of John Paxson and Gar Forman, to the coaching staff, the players, even the people who mop up the sweat on the court during timeouts.

There was a whole lot of chestpounding along with some good old- fashioned Kool- Aid gulping.

The Bulls were a playoff team last September.

Just ask them.

“First and foremost, we want to compete at a high, high level,’’ Paxson said on that first day of training camp. “We think we can compete. And when you compete at a high level, you have an ability to be a playoff- caliber team. And we set that as a goal.

“[ Coach] Jim [ Boylen] talks about it. He’s not afraid of it, and our guys through their work have shown us that they want to make that commitment, so we feel good about that.’’

Boylen sure did.

“Our goals for the season are to make the playoffs,’’ Boylen said, doubling down on Paxson’s message, “and every day to prepare like we’re a playoff team, every day to work like we’re a playoff- bound team. I’m excited for that. I think that’s the only way to do it. There’s no way that we were going to stand up here and say, ‘ Hey, I hope we can win 10 more games or we hope we can be better.’ We want to get to the mountaintop.’’

They never even made it out of the valley.

And now, if the ESPN reports hold true and the NBA owners vote to restart the season by the end of July with a 22- team format, guess who’s staying home for the dance? No suit, no date, no ticket. By finishing 22- 43, the Bulls had the seventh- worst record in the league and the fifth- worst record in the Eastern Conference.

That means that by Thursday, the 2019- 20 season could officially be over for them. So here’s one last disappointing look back: