Chicago Bulls: Biggest strengths and weaknesses for 2017-18

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Weakness No. 2: Lack of experience

In trading Butler, not only did the Bulls get rid of their top scoring option over the last three seasons, they also traded their longest-tenured player.

Aside from Dwyane Wade (14 years) and Robin Lopez (nine years), the Bulls roster will be filled with quite a few guys who don’t have a ton of NBA experience.

Lauri Markkanen – who the Bulls took at the No. 7 spot in the trade with the Timberwolves – will be playing in his rookie season. Dunn, Denzel Valentine and Paul Zipser will be playing in just their second season.

Bobby Portis, Cristiano Felicio, Grant and Payne headline the group of players who are suiting up for their third NBA season. To put this list into proper perspective, out of the young core, only Justin Holiday (four years) and Nikola Mirotic (three seasons) have more than three NBA seasons under their belt.

Taking that into consideration, who will the Bulls rely on to get baskets in a tight game? Who can they depend on to guard the opposing team’s top scorer while averaging 20 points each night Which of these players can establish themselves as a legitimate rim protector to help get defensive stops in crunch time?

These are all questions that cannot be answered at this point, which makes this an area of weakness to be concerned about.

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