While most of the teams in the league have either made moves to improve their championship or lottery odds, the Chicago Bulls remain stuck in the dreaded middle, tied to a core of Coby White, Josh Giddey, and Nikola Vučević. The Bulls have participated in the Play-In Tournament in each of the past three seasons.
Chicago is projected to finally finish outside the tournament this season, with just the 12th-best win total in the Eastern Conference at DraftKings Sportsbook: 32.5.
If you’re interested in seeing any of the other NBA teams’ projected win totals, check out DKN‘s master list of the full 2025-2026 NBA projected win totals.
Chicago Bulls 2025-2026 projected win total
Analysis
The Bulls didn’t make any major moves in the offseason, trading backup point guard Lonzo Ball to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Isaac Okoro in a more or less inconsequential move and drafting Noa Essengue with the 12th overall pick. Instead, they’re more or less running back the core of a team that won 15 of its last 20 games to sneak into the Play-In after finally dealing Zach LaVine at the trade deadline. Across that span, White averaged 26.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game on 51-39-91 shooting splits, and Giddey very nearly averaged a triple-double after the All-Star break. White is under contract this season for just $12 million, while Giddey is in negotiations with the team for an extension.
The question for Chicago, once again, will be the defense. Across the last 20 games of the season, the Bulls had the seventh-best defense and the ninth-best offense, but prior to that, they had the fifth-worst defensive rating in a much larger sample size. Chicago’s defense should be better this season after the deal for Okoro, who has consistently graded out as a plus defender over his last four seasons and has slightly fewer availability concerns than Ball. Giddey had the best defensive season of his career, so the Bulls will hope he can keep it up.
At just 22, Giddey should fit the timeline of the next contending Chicago squad, and the 25-year-old White could still be in his prime at that point as well. Right now, the Bulls’ best building block is Matas Buzelis, a six-foot-10 wing who they drafted with the 11th overall pick last season and averaged 13.0 points, 4.5 boards, and 1.7 combined steals/blocks per game after being inserted into the starting lineup at the trade deadline. Vučević won’t, though even at the age of 34, he’s still capable of contributing consistent double-doubles while making 40% of his three-pointers. With a one-year, $20 million contract, he should still have some trade value should Chicago opt to go in that direction.
Chicago Bulls projected win total: Best bets, predictions
Chicago Bulls Over 32.5 (-110)
This roster is built for the Play-In Tournament, especially with two of the Bulls’ divisional opponents getting worse. White’s superstar turn in the second half of the season might not be fully sustainable, but he should maintain a high usage rate with LaVine off the roster, and he’s always been, at minimum, an above-average shooter. Giddey’s per-36 numbers weren’t that much better than they were in a smaller role with the Oklahoma City Thunder, so his production should be stable, and Buzelis is arguably the most intriguing prospect from the 2024 class. Essengue is a wild card with elite athleticism and defensive instincts but a balky jumper.
