Chicago Bulls: 3 big questions heading into 2018-19 NBA season

2. Can Big 3 take the next step?

The Bulls raised a few eyebrows when they sent former All-Star, Jimmy Butler, to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and Lauri Markkanen.

The initial consensus was the Bulls were on the wrong end of that deal.

This may have been harsh on the surface, but at the time, the concern was valid to an extent.

LaVine was on the shelf with an ACL injury. Dunn didn’t exactly perform that well during his rookie season in Minnesota and Markkanen had yet to prove that he was anything more than a pure shooter.

As the season progressed, though, each player proved what they are capable of bringing to the table on a nightly basis. The caveat here is for all of the success they had from an individual standpoint, they didn’t spend much time on the court together.

In fact, thanks to injuries and other extenuating circumstances, they played a total of just 12 games together. And because of the limited time on the court together, head coach Fred Hoiberg emphasized the important of them spending some time together during the offseason.

"“We’ll get the last three weeks [before camp starts], for sure, of everybody together,” Hoiberg told the Chicago Sun-Times. “And then over the course of the summer, whether guys do go out to L.A. for a stretch, or obviously they’ll be spending a lot of time together in Chicago, just to have that very important time together, just to build that chemistry and to get reps as a team, which we didn’t get many of, obviously, because of the knee rehab that was going on with Zach [for much of the season], so it is important."

With the absence of lingering injuries going into training camp, the trio will more than likely have spent a portion of the offseason becoming more familiar with each other’s strengths and where each of them can be most effective on the floor.

Based on that premise, Bulls fans should expect to see more from them in Year 2.

What will be interesting, however, is the potential effect of adding another scorer and so-so defender to the starting five will have on the development of the trio of players who are considered as future building blocks of the franchise.