What Comes Next

The Bulls have now won all four games Zach LaVine has missed with a foot injury. Last night, they managed their second road win of the season, topping the Spurs, 121-112. A 9-14 record may be less than average, but a whole lot better than 5-14. Now comes the hard part, with the Bulls’ next four games against the Bucks, Nuggets and Heat. This should provide a good test to see what playing without LaVine really looks like. I should mention here that the Spurs, who led by eleven at halftime, are now 3-18. Which leads to the question, how good is Spurs’ rookie Victor Wembanyama? Well, he scored twenty-one points while grabbing twenty rebounds. That still begs the question, though. And any comparisons fall into the apples-and-oranges category. But here goes. The Bulls won twenty-seven games the season before Michael Jordan’s arrival, and they won eleven more games with their rookie sensation. The Cavaliers jumped from seventeen to thirty-five wins playing rookie LeBron James. Right now, it doesn’t look like Wembanyama is going to lead the way to thirty-plus wins for his new team, but we’ll see.