Bulls vs. Jazz roster and preview: ok, THIS ONE they gotta have

Bulls are actually favored tonight, and deservedly so

As we know, the Bulls stink. You may not know that the Jazz stink too. They have the worst half-court defense in the NBA and are 28th overall on that end.

Last season they unexpectedly won a lot of early games in the season after doing their blow-it-up offseason, but it looks like a lot of that was driven by veterans received in those trades that are now also no longer on the team.

To the current roster snapshot!

you may notice I consider the drafting team the one that scouted and made the pick. Lauri was a pick swap in the TWolves selection but the Bulls were the ones that made the pick. And Jazz traded for Kessler before his rookie season but after the draft. And look, Kris Dunn!

As we know, when Lauri Markkanen is your best player…Lauri Markkanen is your best player.

Utah starts no point guard and a jumbo front line with Lauri at the small forward position. That is why they are horrid in a lot of aspects of the game yet very good on the offensive glass.

Walker Kessler has started this year in a sophomore slump. Jordan Clarkson is shooting 30% on 5 3PA/game.

The Jazz are currently deep in that they have no injuries, but notice they are stashing many of their prospects off of the big club at the moment, with two 20 year old first rounders at their GLeague squad.

Injury Report: see above for Utah.

For the Bulls, Ayo is still questionable with his illness. Patrick Williams and Alex Caruso are listed as Probable, which is kind of funny in Caruso’s case given he was playing with one arm for much of the Denver game. Dalen Terry is not with the GLeague team, so maybe we’ll see him if the Bulls are up ten or down thirty late.

Schedule factor: same rest for both teams, Bulls returning home from Denver and the Jazz staying on the road coming from Minnesota. So you have possible Chicago nightlife drag on the Jazz here.

Betting line: Bulls -185 to win. Implied final score: CHI 114, UTA 109

Game Time: 7pm central

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