BTW Padraig you a Bulls fan? Think things look good for them next year?
no and no
ofc I rooted for them growing up in the halcyon MJ days, I was exactly the right age (pre-teen, tween)
then I didn't pay attention to sports for many years and since I've returned to them as an adult I don't really have a specific team in that sense
I do root for teams sometimes but it's attached to the players rather than the franchise, i.e. I'm more of a Luka fan than a Mavs fan per se
I came back to basketball toward the end of freedarko (if you know, you know) and that was a big influence on me afa as a post-fandom mindset
my favorite team ever, for the record, is the late 00s Baron Davis/S Jax/J Rich/etc Warriors
the Bulls have not been neither fun nor great - the two criteria for watchability - since the late 90s. they were good for awhile - mid-00s thru early teens, i.e. Luol Deng et al thru the first couple years of DRose (i.e., pre-injury) - but not a serious contender, and the entire era was smothered in the gray miasma of Scott Skiles and Thibodeau, who are possibly the dreariest b2b coaching duo in NBA history
they're basically trapped where the last time they were good - i.e. a 4-5 seed not good enough to threaten the real contenders - only they've traded defense - Thibs calling card ofc - for offense. they overachieved to begin this year then got crushed by injuries, but even if healthy it's hard to see them really challenging the Bucks/Cs/Heat tier, especially as it's essentially impossible to see DeRozan getting any better after having a Julius Randle-style fluke career best season at age 32.
this year was a success as proof to concept to potentially entice a superstar free agent, but ofc getting that superstar (and idk their cap situation or whatever) is always the rub. they also need rim protection, better point of attack defense etc - too many of their guys can really only play one-way, which will work during the regular season against bad teams or tired/indifferent good ones, but murder you in the playoffs.