2027-2028 Chicago Bulls Pre-season Presser

[garbageman]

Welcome to the 2027-2028 edition of the Chicago Bulls pre-season press conference.

Last season ended on a sour note. We made a huge push to trade for Andrew Wiggins and were able to notch another division title. Unfortunately, we blew a 3-0 lead in the first round of the playoffs, and that's a failure that I'm chalking up to coaching. Our best players played well, but they weren't out there in their best positions, and the only thing we can take away from that is a learning experience. We lost a rock, paper, scissors game over where to play Andrew Wiggins, but the Bucks didn't flinch and ended up keeping Aubrey Broomfield guarding him. Still...we would hope that a player of Andrew's talents could win any matchup, and now that the team has spent the summer working hard and training together, we think they'll be extremely cohesive by the time the playoffs hit. Quite frankly, putting last year behind us, we think this is a team deserving of being in the championship conversation.

Of course, there's a lot of new terrain with the divisional shakeups. We're interested to see how that plays out, and we're looking forward to seeing some teams from the old Western Conference more often. Our fans will have a chance to see stars like Jeffrey Duren and Vernon Desantis one at least one more time at the United Center. We do think that our conference has some of the most talented teams in it, so we're going to be counting quite a bit on guys like Leroy, Wanderlei, and Patrick Edmunds to have their best years yet.

We're most excited to add Jaylen Brown to the Bulls. We think the offensive firepower he'll bring to our second unit will be very important to our team's success. With Jamey Brown (no relation) being a strong inside force to pair with Jaylen, we feel like we have a yin and yang combo where both halves are Brown. Like a brown circle. We also looked at a lot of backup point guards in training camp and felt that John Campbell was best suited to run that second squad. Meanwhile, Leroy Haugh looked very strong in camp. We expect that he'll make a lot of progress as a floor general this season.

There are plenty of strong teams in the league this year, but this Chicago Bulls team was built to be a championship contender. Woe be to the team that has our 2028 1st at the trade deadline.

Please post your questions in the comments thread.

[false9]

Let's talk Andrew Wiggins. Given his age and the tax situation you're in, is this the final season for Andrew Wiggins in a Bulls uniform?

[garbageman]

Let's talk Andrew Wiggins. Given his age and the tax situation you're in, is this the final season for Andrew Wiggins in a Bulls uniform?

A lot of that will be contingent on how well the team does this season, what Wiggins wants to do, and whether or not we sign 37 year old Andrew Wiggins to a vet min if he signs a max contract somewhere else. We're not really worried about it too much right now. Let's play some games this season before we worry about what to do next year.

[Xist2Inspire]

Random Reporter: Now that you've moved to a new conference where the majority of contending teams are built to win now, is this the last we'll see of this current Bulls team before switching gears to fully focus on building around Edmunds and Silva?

[garbageman]

Random Reporter: Now that you've moved to a new conference where the majority of contending teams are built to win now, is this the last we'll see of this current Bulls team before switching gears to fully focus on building around Edmunds and Silva?

We're not really worried about it too much right now. Let's play some games this season before we worry about what to do next year.

[JNR]

GWR: You've been moved to a division where it seems that you're the clear frontrunner. Are there any teams in the division you think will prevent you from a second straight division title?

[garbageman]

GWR: You've been moved to a division where it seems that you're the clear frontrunner. Are there any teams in the division you think will prevent you from a second straight division title?

With Harland Ellinger, the Hawks should make things challenging, and I'm still not counting out the Trailblazers. They don't look as strong as last year, especially with Jaylen Brown defecting to Chicago, but any team with an outstanding point guard like Ronald Small and a few scoring options can make some noise.

[digiskunk]

What's the biggest obstacle for you to win the Finals this upcoming season?

[garbageman]

What's the biggest obstacle for you to win the Finals this upcoming season?

Probably being in a conference where we'll have to go through both the Nuggets and the Spurs to do so. Both of those teams look just as strong as they did last year, so unless they're able to pare down some of their larger contracts for tax reasons, just getting to the Finals is no easy task.

[WigNosy]

Does Leroy Haugh get enough credit for the steady hand he brings to your point guard position? What do you think he needs to do to take the next jump and get some recognition?

[garbageman]

Does Leroy Haugh get enough credit for the steady hand he brings to your point guard position? What do you think he needs to do to take the next jump and get some recognition?

Leroy has been our point guard for 3 seasons now. In the first season, we were in reset mode. We had just gotten rid of DSJ and Vernon Desantis, and Haugh was more of a main scoring option with Patrick Edmunds and Wanderlei still developing. Last year, Leroy took a step back in training camp, but he bounced back handsomely this season. He worked very hard on his passing and ball handling this camp, and recommitted to defense on the perimeter. With so many offensive weapons around him, we think that he'll get more credit this season.

[Eazy P]

Wanderlei Silva looks like he had another good TC, do you think he's doing enough to keep his fouls down this season. He will be a beast if he can stay on the floor consistently

[garbageman]

Wanderlei Silva looks like he had another good TC, do you think he's doing enough to keep his fouls down this season. He will be a beast if he can stay on the floor consistently

We hope so, but with his MMA background, he's having a hard time keeping opposing bigs out of triangle holds.

[AngryBanana]

Doug Dimmadome: What was your thought process on not picking up the final year of Machado's contract?

[garbageman]

Doug Dimmadome: What was your thought process on not picking up the final year of Machado's contract?

He had a bad training camp and wasn't fetching interest on the trade market.