Chicago Bulls: 3 early season takeaways from the first week

The Chicago Bulls are now four games into their 2018-19 campaign. Here are three quick takeaways from the young season thus far.

It’s not even November yet and the Chicago Bulls have already suffered from the injury bug. The Bulls started the season without young forward Lauri Markkanen, out with an elbow sprain, Denzel Valentine with an ankle injury and now Kris Dunn went down in his first and only game of the season with a knee injury.

For at least the next month, Chicago will be without two key starters, forcing Zach LaVine to carry the offensive load and hope that the team can get some production from others. Key contributors may be Cameron Payne, who scored a career-high 21 points on seven 3-pointers in Wednesday’s win against the Charlotte Hornets.

As head coach Fred Hoiberg continues to tinker with the rotation, he’ll need Jabari Parker to play a key role and shoulder some of the offensive burden. It’ll be equally important for rookies Wendell Carter Jr. and Chandler Hutchison to provide additional boosts for this shorthanded squad.

Four games is an admittedly small sample size for evaluation, but let’s take a look at three takeaways early on from the Chicago Bulls.