Chicago Bulls Introduce New D-League Team

The Chicago Bulls have recently revealed the new name and logo of their Developmental League affiliate team.

Amidst recent exciting Chicago Bulls play comes even more exciting news: on Wednesday, the organization announced that the NBA’s newest Developmental League team will be called the Windy City Bulls.

The Windy City Bulls will host their home games at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., starting at the beginning of the 2016-17 season. And because of this, both the name and logo were revealed in front of upwards of 600 students from Eisenhower Junior High School at a pep rally, which included a trivia game and a visit from Benny the Bulls and the Luvabulls.

Although it is a little bit unfortunate that both Chicago teams had to have the same name, the entirety of it was selected via a “Name The Team” campaign, sponsored by BMO Harris Bank. Fans were first asked to suggest names and then vote on their favorite, which got narrowed down into three finalists. Chicago Bulls’ staff were then finally tasked with making the final decision.

And in a surprising turn of events, it does seem like they made the right call, as the two remaining choices were the Great Lakes Bulls or the Heartland Bulls. Yeah.

Plus, look at that secondary logo. It is definitely a thing of beauty.

The D-League also added two other teams that will kick off in 2016-17: the Long Island Nets (Brooklyn Nets) and Greensboro Swarm (Charlotte Hornets).

Despite most NBA fans not necessarily having much of an interest in the D-League as a whole, it is pretty cool that Chicago now has its own affiliate team. For starters, it gives Chicago Bulls fans an additional team to follow and root for, which may come in handy during periods of time when things are not going so great at the United Center.

However, it will also help the team itself out, moving forward.

K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune recently tweeted:

And his statement is totally accurate.

Take Tony Snell, for example. The 24-year-old who was drafted at the No. 20 spot overall in 2013 by the Chicago Bulls, has not exactly panned out as hoped.

While the 6-foot-7 forward has had some standout games (including their latest 109-104 victory against the Washington Wizards, in which he scored 16 points, four rebounds and three assists), he is currently only averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per matchup.

Similarly, Bobby Portis (drafted No. 22 this past summer) is hitting around 7.4 points and 5.0 rebounds a game, with only a handful of notable performances (such as finishing with 17 points and seven rebounds in 126-115 the win over the Los Angeles Lakers).

And although he is just a rookie, it seems as though the organization thought they would get more use out of him, straight out of the gate.

In other words, the D-League could serve as a great learning tool for these types of young players, who have not been able to reach their full potential yet, for whatever reason.

Likewise, recalling guys from the Windy City Bulls could be extremely useful in a situation where injuries are creeping into too much of the roster. This is something teams like the Miami Heat have done frequently over the past few seasons, for example when it was first announced that Chris Bosh may once again be suffering from blood clots.

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So, are you excited for the Windy City Bulls? And do you think some of the current Chicago Bulls roster should make their way over? Sound off in the comments below!