A Q&A with Matt Bernhardt of SB Nation’s Bulls site Blog a Bull.

What needs to happen for this to be an enjoyable season for Bulls fans?

“Enjoyable” is a very high bar. The team is likely going to be very bad and a tough watch most nights. Team performance will have to thread the needle where the young players look like keepers, yet the team cannot get too many wins to screw with their lottery chances.

Chicago Bulls / Projected Starters
Position	Starters	Bench
Guards	Kris Dunn	Jerian Grant Cameron Payne
Wings	Zach LaVine (injured) Paul Zipser	Justin Holiday Denzel Valentine Quincy Pondexter David Nwaba
Bigs	Robin Lopez Nikola Mirotic	Bobby Portis Cristiano Felicio Lauri Markkanen

What makes Bulls fans most excited about this year? What makes Bulls fans most nervous?

If “Hoiball” is real, and a team that's actually “younger and more athletic” can make that offense fun, that’ll be nice. But if Hoiball instead needs good veteran decision-makers, the lack of quality guard play will make it difficult to objectively measure anybody's performance.

Zach LaVine in particular is an excited/nervous coin-flip as he returns from an ACL tear.

Gut Check

Survey data collected from site writers and editors. The wider the graph the more optimism and trust the fans have in their team! The grey line indicates the average of all sites' collected data.

1.2

Out of 10

How good will your team be this year

1.4

Out of 10

Are they on the rise or on the decline

2.8

Out of 10

Are fans happy with the team’s direction or angry

1.2

Out of 10

Are they trying to win now or build for the future

What storyline might a national audience be missing about the Bulls?

That the Bulls are not only going young, but very inexpensive. It'll be interesting to see if they actually use cap space to their advantage or hold it for “flexibility.” Chicago is the third-biggest market in the country and the largest with a single team, yet the Bulls are below the salary floor.

Why should neutrals pay attention to the Bulls this year?

If Lauri Markkanen is good right away, having a 7-footer bomb threes (alongside other chuckers like Nikola Mirotic and Lavine) is fun. If Cameron Payne returns from foot surgery, he's usually good for a GIF to point and laugh at.

What's your prediction for the season?

They won't win many games, and the entire second half of the season will be accompanied by an annoying gnashing of teeth over every infrequent victory “hurting” them. Everybody involved will say the word “accountable” a lot, but not actually practice accountability.