Chicago Bulls: 5 holiday wishes for a struggling franchise

5. Establish a winning culture

When an NBA team starts 5-17 to begin a season, the assumption is that the team is tanking and fans begin dreaming of the NBA Draft Lottery. For the Chicago Bulls in 2019, the lottery is likely, but it shouldn’t be the goal. Franchises don’t learn to win by losing. While accumulating talent through the draft is necessary for most teams, that in itself doesn’t built a championship culture.

At some point, a team has to start focusing more on building a winning environment and less on stockpiling draft picks. Once the Bulls have a healthy roster, the focus should shift from trying to survive the first month without Markkanen and Dunn to figuring out how to win some of these close games. Of their 22 contests, Chicago has had eight games ending within five points or less, winning three of them.

Fans may be clamoring for the Chicago Bulls to try to tank the rest of the season. In reality, with Markkanen back in the fold soon and Dunn and Portis close behind, the team will be much improved and likely will push itself down in the draft lottery positioning.

This won’t be a popular opinion in Chicago, but the rest of the season should be consumed with finding a way to win games, not lose them. Young players learning how to close out games successfully is invaluable. This will only serve them better for next season and beyond.