The dynasty above was the 1997/98 season of the NBA season, Chicago Bulls undoubtedly had the best starting five including Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen, and the great Michael Jordan. Fast forward 22 years and the Bulls are looking like a team that may finally after all this time to make a playoff run. With the offseason additions of DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic, and Lonzo Ball to team up with Zach LaVine, some people wrote them off as just “names.” I wonder how they feel now.

The Bulls are the best team in the Eastern Conference (by record) with a 1.5 game lead on second-placed Brooklyn, and 2.5 over the defending champion Bucks. Led by a scorer like DeRozan with 26.9 points per game, a glass bully like Vooch with 11.6 rebounds per game, Ball who shoots 41% from 3 point range, Alex Caruso who leads the league in steals per game (2.0), and monster Zach LaVine who would dunk on his mama if she’s in the lane shooting nearly 50% from the field, Chicago could see more than four games in the playoffs this season.

DeRozan was a trade that people frowned upon but he has shut up all his haters this season. The 6-foot-6 forward has been a revelation since arriving in Illinois with his MVP caliber performances, yes I said M-V-P. Performances when it matters and consistency is what puts him in this conversation. I mean yeah he is probably behind LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Trae Young, and Ja Morant, but he has been a breath of fresh air for the Bulls fans.

Chicago tried to recreate the playoff pushing team when they assembled a roster including the likes of Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, and Jimmy Butler in 2013 but was unsuccessful in making a real charge, whether it was poor shooting or Rose’s knees, it was never enough.

Now is the time they can take advantage of. Having a consistent scorer like DeRozan, and an all-around player like LaVine, a playmaker like Lonzo, sticky hands like Caruso, and a big like Vooch and the tutelage of Billy Donovan, I don’t see why they cannot go to the Conference Finals.

If the season was to end today, the playoff picture would suit the Bulls so well. As number 1 they would play the winner of the play-in tournament game between the number 9 (Wizards) and number 10 (Knicks) team. This makes it favourable because say the Bulls breeze the first round, one of Miami or Philadelphia would not be in the 2nd round. Yes they have a chance of meeting Giannis in the second round, but it is a game of four quarters and seven games; anything can happen.

If Chicago was to have a Cinderella run like the Phoenix Suns unexpectedly did last season, it would cause an uproar especially in Oklahoma City where Donovan was for the past decade and was unable to win with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. We still have a long way to go, the Eastern Conference is up in the air so a prediction would not be ideal at this moment, but if DeRozan balls like the rap songs suggest he can then things are gonna get scary, but not for them.