The Chicago Bulls are sticking to their word.
In a single summer, they changed the way they play — entirely. And after preaching pace of play throughout the preseason, the Bulls have exploded onto the scene as the NBA’s fastest team through their first five games.
Teams often fail to deliver on such preseason platitudes, but the Bulls have accomplished a complete revamping of their offensive system, leaning into their strengths in an attempt to cover their lack of size and defensive rigor. As a result, they’re off to an unexpected 3-2 start, the first time they’ve been above .500 since November 2022.
The shift in philosophy is predicated on one simple edict: run.
“I told them — we don’t run, we’re done,” coach Billy Donovan said. “It’s that simple. If we run, we’ll maybe have some fun.”
The Bulls had a similar goal last season — but Donovan said it was doomed from the start. The roster wasn’t built to run. But the departures of DeMar DeRozan and Andre Drummond relieved the Bulls of their dependency on a more methodical style of play.
This season, the desired style of play fits the personnel. Nikola Vučević is the only true center on the roster. The rest of the team consists of lengthy wings such as Patrick Williams and a cluttered collection of guards such as Coby White and Zach LaVine who thrive in a more fluid system.
“We’re obviously a very, very guard-dominated team with a lot of guys that can make plays,” Donovan said. “You want to get guys like that opportunities in transition and in the open floor.
“It’s probably more of a credit to the guys being committed to try to play like that. It does take a lot physically from them. And they’ve done that.”
The NBA calculates pace by how many possessions a team averages over 48 minutes (the length of a regulation game). The Bulls lead the league with a 107.5 pace rating — a major leap from last season, when they finished third-to-last at 96.94.
Pace isn’t just about running the floor. And the Bulls aren’t actually supplementing that much of their scoring through fast breaks — they rank 11th in the league with 14.3% of their points off the break.
Instead, their speed comes from a newfound urgency in moving the ball, often emptying the paint to stretch the floor and whip passes around the perimeter until an optimal angle to the rim or outside shot opens.
The Bulls are one of the highest-volume passing teams in the league. They rank sixth in assists (27.6 per game) and ninth in secondary assists (4.2). Execution is still an issue — the Bulls rank third in potential assists, reflecting an inability to finish at times — but their robust ball movement has helped to outweigh other deficiencies.
That’s accompanied by a nonstop green light to take 3-pointers. It’s hard to overemphasize the scope of this shift. The Bulls finished last in the league in 3-point attempts in both 2021-22 (28.8 per game) and 2022-23 (28.9) before improving slightly to 26th last season (32.1).
Through five games this season, the Bulls are taking the third-most 3s in the league, averaging 44.2 attempts. A staggering 44.4% of their total scoring has come from 3s — a 13.7% increase from last season.
While this rapid increase has helped catalyze the offense, the Bulls still can’t afford to live or die behind the arc — something Donovan hammers into his team on a regular basis.
He has outlined three key factors in a successful up-tempo offense: dominating the defensive glass, attacking the open court and taking care of the ball. The Bulls are finding mixed success in those areas. They lead the NBA in defensive rebounding (41.8 per game) as well as pace, but they’re coughing up 16.2 turnovers per game, 12th-most in the league.
If they can stabilize their ball protection, Donovan thinks this new identity could be sustainable.
“We may have some good nights and some bad nights shooting,” he said. “That’s OK. But we can’t have a bad night shooting, turn the ball over and then get crushed on the glass. That gives us no chance.”
While playing up-tempo creates an obvious advantage on offense, it also might be an indirect answer to some of the Bulls’ defensive weaknesses.
Bulls opponents are shooting 38.3% in the fourth quarter — the second-lowest mark in the league — and their 19.6% 3-point shooting in the fourth is the NBA’s lowest. It’s a small sample size, but the pattern has been clear: The Bulls are running their opponents ragged.
“If we stick with our pace of play the whole game, eventually it’ll break through for us on the offensive end,” LaVine said. “And they’ve got to keep up with us the whole time.”
The biggest test is whether the Bulls themselves can maintain this pace for an entire season.
While the young roster certainly is a benefit for the increased endurance required, Donovan is implementing this new identity with a cast of often-injured players such as LaVine, Williams and Lonzo Ball. The NBA season is a marathon course of 82 games, and as invigorating as these early wins have felt, the Bulls will put their conditioning to the test when the calendar turns to January.
That’s a risk Donovan and his team are willing to embrace. The bottom might fall out at any point. But for now, the Bulls are enjoying the ride — and surprising the Eastern Conference.
