Chicago Bulls: 5 positives from first half of 2017-18 season

The Chicago Bulls finished the first half of their season with a 116-107 loss to the Houston Rockets on Jan. 8, dropping them to 14-27 at the time (they are currently 15-27 overall). Of course, being 13 games under .500 at the halfway mark isn’t anything to be overly excited about by any means.

At the same time, though, this isn’t totally bad considering how the 2017-18 campaign began. For starters, the preseason altercation between Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis didn’t do much for the new culture the front office was trying to build going into the first year of team’s rebuild.

In light of that heated exchange, reports have surfaced that Mirotic still wants to be traded and the fourth-year forward has drawn interest from several teams, including the Detroit Pistons, Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz.

With all the recent trade talks, what may have been overlooked is the fact the Bulls posted just three wins through their first 23 contests, but have managed to turn things around, winning 12 of their last 19 games – a remarkable accomplishment, to say the least.

Although the Bulls will more than likely miss the postseason for the second time in three seasons under head coach Fred Hoiberg, there were a few noteworthy positives from the first half of the season. Today, we will take a look at them.