Are the Bulls Back?

Graphics, charts, and more explaining what's going on in Chicago

In 1995, three players would get MVP votes despite being on the same team. They would start the season 5-0, have a 6MOY winner by the end of the season, and win 72 games — not to mention the championship.

In 1996, the team would also go 5-0 to start the year, cap out at 69 wins, and, well, what do you know; they won the championship, too.

In 2025, another team from the same franchise as those in 1995 and 1996 has a 5-0 record to start the year.

All of that being said: Are the Bulls back?

Yes, the historically average post-2000 Chicago Bulls are having the best start to a season since the Michael Jordan days, despite being comprised of a group of players that wouldn’t expect to clear such a mark. They’re top-5 in offensive rating, top-6 in defensive rating, and rank 6th overall in good ol’ net rating.

That begs the question: How the heck are they doing it?

Let’s start at the team level and work our way down, shall we?

Analytically Probable (On Offense)

Before diving into the data, my original theory was that the Bulls simply play analytically sound basketball better than most teams, based on the current construction of their roster. After all, it looks like they get to the rim a lot and knock down a lot of threes, but that turns out to be only half true.

Take a look at the Bulls’ shot distribution and FG% at each zone below. The little lines within the bars represent FG%, while the primary, big bars are the percentage of shots taken from that specific zone.

What you’ll notice right away is the sheer volume with which the team is getting into the restricted area, otherwise known as the rim. According to the data, the Bulls are getting to the rim at a 48% higher rate than the average NBA team, and they’re shooting only a bit below average in the process. That, in turn, gives them a lot of free points.

The other thing you’ll notice is — in a widespread departure from how the team once played — they aren’t taking many mid-range shots. And that’s a good thing, too, because they shoot terribly from the mid-range (as low as 30-ish percent). As any good analytics person will tell you, the mid-range is less effective at generating points than at the rim or the three-point line, so this may actually end up being a good thing for the Bulls.

Speaking of the three-point line, that’s where things deviate the most from an efficiency perspective, specifically above the break. The Bulls are actually taking fewer above-the-break threes compared to most teams, but they’re blowing them out of the water when it comes to knocking them down. Chicago’s 41.9% clip on those shots is over 6 percentage points higher than the average team and, notably, far better than what they’re shooting from the corners.

It’s worth noting that this is not normal activity for an NBA team. Last season, the team with the highest shooting percentage on above-the-break threes was the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they “only” hit 37.8% of their shots from that zone. If Chicago were to regress to that level, it would lose about 2.85 points per game, though they’ve won all games by at least 4 points or more.

In conclusion, the Bulls’ offense:

• Gets to the rim

• Makes way more threes even though they don’t take as many

• Doesn’t take or make a lot of shots from the mid-range

The defense is a bit of a weirder story.