Are the Bulls back? Evaluating what's real and what's not when it comes to Chicago's hot start

Yell it from the streets. The Bulls are back (for now) and relevant again on the national landscape for the first time in years.

Four games into the season, Chicago has unexpectedly found itself along with Philadelphia as the last two undefeated teams in the East. It's the first time that they've opened 4-0 since their magical 2021-22 run, where they held onto the No. 1 seed through the All-Star break until an injury to Lonzo Ball derailed their team. 

Can they hold onto the No. 1 seed for even longer this time? On paper, that 2022 team had more talent. This Bulls team was expected by most to hover below .500. One so-called Bulls expert (me) had them finishing 12th in the conference. 

They should be better than that low bar. How much better is still up for debate. The Bulls are a team with unique quirks that make them difficult to evaluate. Here's what's real about their success, and what we still don't know about them. 

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How the Bulls have vaulted to the top of the East

The Bulls offense is uniquely balanced

Most teams are built around a superstar lead ball-handler who is capable of tearing teams apart if defenses don't provide help. The Bulls, on the other hand, rank dead last in isolations. None of their players are particularly good at cooking 1-on-1, so they have found other ways to score. 

Rather than counting on one player, the Bulls count on all of them. Their top six minute-getters all average at least 12 points per game. They've had a different player lead them in scoring in all four of their wins.

Chicago relies on every player on the floor running fast, and each one of them aside from their centers drives the ball down the throats of their opponents. They rank No. 1 in drives per game, taking advantage of the capable ball-handlers and passers up and down their roster. 

Chicago's drivers aren't explosive enough to get by their defenders by themselves, and so the Bulls screen for each other. A lot. Their 34.0 picks per game lead the league. Their guards will oftentimes come off two screens, creating space before receiving the ball instead of after dribbling the air out of it. 

That constant flurry of player and ball movement has resulted in the Bulls having the best shot quality in the league. They rank fifth in shots at the rim, third in corner 3's, and No. 1 in their expected effective field goal percentage based on where they are shooting from.

The Bulls' offense isn't only about getting shots from good locations. They also generate a lot of clean ones. They take the most catch-and-shoot 3's in the league, and they are also No. 1 in their percentage of open 3-point attempts. 

Getting open shots from great spots on the floor should lead to an elite offense. But the Bulls are ranked only 15th in the league. Given their talent level, a perfectly designed system for their personnel that generates the best possible shots can get them to a respectable and fun level but not an elite one.

There is legitimate reason to believe that they can get better on offense. Coby White is their best shot creator and driver. He should boost their attack when he returns from a nagging calf injury. 

The Bulls are getting career performances from castoffs

There's another reason why the Bulls have caught prognosticators off-guard. They're a ragtag group whose parts were never expected to be this good before arriving in Chicago.

Josh Giddey was a bad fit for the Thunder, who traded him because they didn't want to pay him. Kevin Huerter and Zach Collins were salary dumps in trades last year who forgot how to shoot. Ayo Dosunmu had a first-round grade but fell in the draft all the way down to the No. 38 pick. Isaac Okoro was benched in Cleveland's most critical playoff situations last year. And Matas Buzelis fell into the team's lap with the No. 11 pick after a brutal year in the G-League Ignite program that saw him drop out of discussion as the potential top pick of his class. 

All of those players have seemingly found the perfect fit for their skill sets. Rather than standing at the 3-point line and spacing the floor for better players, coach Billy Donovan has empowered them to make passing decisions with the ball along with improvisational cutting and screening decisions away from it. In doing so, this team has become much more than the sum of its parts.

Matas Buzelis has arrived

After an impressive season debut where he scored 21 points, Donovan tried to tamp down expectations on Buzelis. 

"He has not arrived. He just hasn't. And that's just the truth," Donovan told reporters. 

Sorry Billy, but that's about the only thing you've gotten wrong this year. Buzelis is here, and his game is loud. 

There were signs of a breakout at the end of last season. Buzelis started the team's last 31 games and averaged 13.0 points per game in a dumbed-down role during that span. He mostly stood in the corners, ran out for layups in transition, and made some cuts. 

Buzelis is getting way more chances with the ball this season. He's having plays run for him, and he has shown some real driving skill. He's the most athletic guy on the team, and he has some dribbling chops that he didn't get a chance to break out as a rookie. 

Doing this at 6-foot-10, sheesh. pic.twitter.com/v1jH5kMj9s

— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) October 30, 2025

Buzelis has also been a great weakside rim protector and held up well on faster players. He's the one guy on the roster that isn't perfect on his defensive rotations quite yet, but he's going to be a very solid two-way player with All-Star upside. 

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The Bulls bend-don't-break defense is holding for now

The Bulls have the No. 3 defense in the league right now and a bottom-five talent level on that end of the floor. Nikola Vucevic is a do-your-job big man who is completely incapable of cleaning up messes at the rim. As gifted as Giddey is on offense, he's targeted regularly on defense. Isaac Okoro is the only above-average defender in the starting lineup. 

That No. 3 ranking is going to drop. The Bulls have benefited from opponents shooting just 25.9 percent from 3 against them. That's not going to last.

There have been a couple of explanations given for why the Bulls are so good at getting opponents to miss from downtown. It's been suggested that their pace tires out the legs of opponents. The stats don't back that up — there is no correlation between pace and 3-point defense. Donovan downplayed that explanation too, stating that the goal is to get good contests on 3-point shooters. That could explain the shooting defense too, except that his team ranks 28th in the percentage of open 3's they allow. 

The most likely explanation boils down to dumb luck. No defense in modern history has ever allowed such a low percentage on 3's. There will be some regression to the mean. 

The Bulls defense has other serious underlying problems aside from 3-point luck. Just as they take the best shots from the court, they allow the worst ones. They're dead last in opponents' expected effective field goal percentage, mostly due to giving up by far the most shots at the rim. The Nets, Hawks, Raptors, and Wizards, who are the next-worst teams at protecting the rim, are ranked 30th, 22nd, 29th, and 24th in defense. It is almost impossible to build a good defense while giving up so many layups.

There are some things that the Bulls do very well. They're a good defensive rebounding team, limiting second chances. They also defend on a string, making very few mistakes in their help rotations.

— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) October 23, 2025

Simply put, the Bulls don't beat themselves. Donovan won't play guys who make defensive mistakes — to wit, No. 11 pick Noa Essengue has yet to log a single minute on the season, and Buzelis barely played as a rookie at the start of last season.

Even with solid team defenders, no scheme is going to be able to cover for their weak one-on-one defense and lack of shot blocking. This team should end up around 20th on defense by the end of the year.

The vibes are immaculate

The Bulls have been vocal in how much they like each other. It's a young team that has grown together (Patrick Williams at age 24 has been referred to as "unc"), and without the weight of expectations, they are playing fast and free. They are embracing the old Warriors motto of strength in numbers, rooting for each other's success.

It's not unusual for teams to highlight their chemistry in the beginning of the year. What is a little more special is for the team's highest-paid player to voluntarily sit crunch time minutes in order to help the team. 

Donovan said Giddey, who scored 18 pts and 13 boards, told him to keep the bench unit in during the fourth quarter: "I was gonna put him back in. He said, 'Let them keep playing, they're going well.'

— Kevin Lu (@kevlu0288) October 28, 2025

The Bulls have been egoless throughout this winning stretch. That has given Donovan the freedom to play around with different lineups and be more creative than he ever has as an NBA coach. 

It's easy to sacrifice when you're winning. Chicago hasn't been tested yet, and we will see if that selfless attitude holds while eight players on the roster are in contract years. The team also has one of the most brutal stretches in the league over its next six games. 

For now, Bulls fans should lean into this. It's rare that they have something to root for. It's a fun style to watch, and the team finally has some promising blue chip prospects on the roster. Even if the Bulls do fall slowly down the standings, those truths will remain throughout the season.