Patrick Beverley believes the Chicago Bulls should bring their core back

While experts and fans have long been lobbying for the Chicago Bulls to make some wholesale changes to their roster to avoid another disappointing season, there’s at least one team member who publicly stated a desire to bring the core from this season’s team back: Pat Beverley.

The catalyst of the team’s resurgence late in the regular season, the ferocious guard commented on Twitter how solid the currently constructed team is and that management should just run it back.

Team is solid. #RunItBack https://t.co/F3Tqz0IgXS
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) June 21, 2023

Is Pat Bev right?

The Bulls looked lost and rudderless all season long until the 34-year-old veteran signed with the team after he was bought out by the Orlando Magic after the trade deadline. With Beverley’s trademark intensity and leadership, the Bulls closed the season out with a 14-9 record to sneak into the Play-in Tournament. Beverley averaged 5.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in 22 games with the Bulls.

It’s clear that Beverley had an impact on the team throughout the season, so it makes sense why he would want to keep this group together heading into next year. Whether or not management listens and commits to bringing back most of the roster from this season remains to be seen.

More of the same result

The main argument experts and pundits have against bringing the Bulls’ core back is their lack of success this season. Despite the positive ending to the regular season, the Bulls were still unable to make it into the postseason. It should be noted that the Bulls’ “Big 3” with Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic was healthy for most of the season and played the most minutes of any trio in the NBA, yet the Bulls still ended up below .500.

Team got lucky to be so healthy last year (minus Lonzo). Even with health and the 3-man combo of Lavine/Demar/Vuc leading NBA in minutes, Bulls finished under .500 and didn't get into playoffs. #runitback
— statspros (@statspros) June 21, 2023

That kind of result is hardly inspiring. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that the majority of NBA experts are suggesting Chicago should look to move on from their core and instead focus on developing younger players with more upside.