The Bulls are the Cavs’ biggest rival for the next 5 years

The current Cavs-Bulls outlook

Currently, these two squads are in similar spots, just looking at it from a face value standpoint. Chicago is ahead of Cleveland at fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, with the Cavaliers behind the Bulls by one game. The Bulls are 42-30, while the Cavaliers are 41-31; so Chicago is up narrowly with the two teams set to face off on Saturday in Cleveland.

When it comes to both teams, they’ve both been far better than one would’ve probably thought coming into the season, with the Cavs turning a noticeable corner this season for such a young team. On the Bulls’ side, while they do have more key vet contributors, their offseason additions of Lonzo Ball (via sign-and-trade) and Alex Caruso have been home runs, when they’ve been healthy, and DeMar DeRozan has had a dark horse MVP-level year.

Unfortunately for both teams, an early-season injury to Collin Sexton and then, later on, Ricky Rubio, were crushing for Cleveland, and the Cavs have had other injuries to significant contributors during the season, such as Lauri Markkanen. Jarrett Allen is sidelined at the moment too.

Chicago, as we noted, has been without Ball for much of the season, diddo for Caruso, and they didn’t have Zach LaVine for a number of games, although him and Caruso look to be in a good place now. The Bulls just got Patrick Williams back, but he’s missed nearly all of the season to this point.

When comparing the two clubs, the Bulls look to be a borderline-contender, and could be a club with a shot to go deep in the postseason, whereas the Cavs, frankly, could make some noise or theoretically win a first-round series, but even that seems unlikely.

Chicago, even with struggles against the elite in both conferences during the season, has a multiplicity of shot creators, more clutch time scoring options on and off-ball, and more meaningful experience, whereas Cleveland seems to be a year away from real contention. Chicago, when healthier and/or with Caruso at least, has been able to turn it up a notch on the defensive perimeter, too; I’m not glossing over Cleveland’s overall defensive efforts from pre-All-Star break play, though.

In relation to the teams’ matchups, the Cavs are 1-2 against the Bulls this season, with them beating Chicago handily earlier on, albeit with the Bulls being injury/COVID-19-depleted. In the two other matchups, even without Ball and LaVine in both, Chicago handled Cleveland at home behind pressure defense, easy transition scoring and DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic hitting a number of big buckets.

For now, even with the standings how they are, I wouldn’t expect the Cavs to finish ahead of the Bulls with 10 games left for both. If they do, I still would think the Bulls are more dangerous, this go-round that is, in the postseason.