Fantasy Review For 2018/19 Season:

It was a franchise reshaping season on court, off the court and fantasy wise. Off the court they’ve changed their coaching staff and training approach with Jim Boylen, an oldschool pushups&suicides coach took over. Somehow he won young guys hearts and the team started rolling with a new, more defensive approach. Fantasy wise it looks like it was “a year before” for almost all of their fantasy relevant players. Zach LaVine became an impressive scorer but with some holes in other stats, Markkanen was very inconsistent in his play, Wendell Carter Jr had some flashes in his injury plagued year, they’ve aquired Otto Porter who needed some time to mesh with the team and only Kris Dunn was a huge disappointment with combination of injuries and weak play.

Changes in the offseason

Lost = Robin Lopez,
Added = Coby White, Thad Young, Luke Kornet, Daniel Gafford

Projected Depth Chart:

PG SG SF PF C
Tomas Satoransky Zach LaVine Otto Porter Lauri Markkanen Wendell Carter Jr.
Kris Dunn Coby White Denzel Valentine Thad Young Daniel Gafford
Ryan Arcidiacono Shaq Harrison Chandler Hutchison Luke Kornet Cristiano Felicio

Positional Battles: PG

They have 5 point guards worth playing time and no wingman depth at all. Tomas Satoransky is probably the best, most consistent player of the crop, and Coby White is definately the most talented one. Ryan Arcidiacono and Shaq Harrison have already proved they belong to league as deep rotation players and Kris Dunn might be the odd man out, not only because of the lack of reliable shot, but also because he carries around a disappointment smell sprayed all over him – Chicago may try to get rid of him just to unload the logjam.

Fantasy Relevant in leagues with 12- to 15-teams:

Zach LaVine

He signed a star-level contract and hedidn’t have any lingering effects of torn ACL. He was shining as an effective and versatile scorer but lack of the other stats dragged him down a bit. It looks like he is going to fill up some holes this year, and the second full year of play after a major injury usually is the one to take a leap. Lets expect him to be a top40-50 player at least.
However, his defensive numbers still were weak for uber-athletic wing so he will have to improve them to jump from specialist in offense to a legit fantasy star.

Lauri Markkanen

His sophomore season was a bumpy road, slowed down by injury and a roster unstability. However he managed to pull of an impressive mid season run when he was averaging 26 ppg in February. This year he should thrive with clear rotation role and a healthy offseson and training camp. He is a Top50 lock.

Wendell Carter Jr

His rookie campaign was ruined by several injuries, but still he had an almost month-long run of being a top10 roto player, with no loopholes in his game and impressive block numbers. It is maybe too much to expect him to be that good but him settling in that 50-70 range is quite a realistic scenario.

Otto Porter

He will give you a balanced stat line with an exepctional steals and threes and also no turnovers. Playing reasonable minutes he is capable of being even a top20 player, but what there is also a bright red flag attached – there are rumours that he will be at 30 mpg limit while also sitting out some back to backs.

Tomas Satoransky

Stat wise he is going to provide a balanced stat line with above average percentages and steals and below average threes. Still he could be as good as a top70 player, with top120 being a downside.

Could be useful with trades/injuries [or in deeper leagues than 15 teams]:
Kris Dunn, Coby White, Luke Kornet, Thad Young

Just don’t bother with:
Cristiano Felicio, Chandler Hutchison, Ryan Arcidiacono, Denzel Valentine

Don’t forget to check the rest of the Chicago Bulls fantasy basketball projections..

Posted in Teams preview
  • webslinger48

    I just ended up with Dunn, LaVine and Parker on the same fantasy team so hopefully they take a step this year.

    I am enjoying the previews, thanks for doing them.