The Chicago Bulls have been a bit lost in the wilderness since the end of Jimmy Butler’s tenure. Realistically, it’s been longer than that (thanks GarPax), but the trade of Butler signaled a clear pivot and makes for a nice era endpoint. Like most rebuilding teams, they’ve been a defensive turnstile over the last few seasons, led largely by young players who are far more offensively inclined.

In 2017-18, the first without Butler, the Bulls finished 28^th in the league with a defensive rating of 110.5, just 1.2 away from the dead-last Suns. The next year, the Bulls ranked 25^th with a 112.8 defensive rating.

Naturally, this year (heading into Friday at least – thanks, Kyrie Irving) they sit with a 106.7 defensive rating that’s good for seventh in the NBA.

While there’s enough negative talk around the Bulls to make you think they’re completely incapable of doing anything right, the team has managed to put together a legitimate, NBA-caliber defense.

The Bulls did some light roster overhaul last summer, though the core of their team is largely the same. Among the nine players who logged over 1,000 minutes for Chicago last season, only Robin Lopez, Justin Holiday and Jabari Parker are no longer on the team, though Shaq Harrison has been completely cut from the rotation.

Further down the roster the Bulls lost Wayne Selden and Antonio Blakeney’s combined 100 appearances, with Cristiano Felicio also mostly out of the rotation after playing in 60 games a year ago.

The big replacements have been Tomas Satoransky, Thaddeus Young and rookies Coby White and Daniel Gafford. That’s definitely a net upgrade in defensive talent, though the Bulls have also had Otto Porter available for just 226 minutes all year while dealing with another lengthy absence from Carter.

And although the Bulls have slipped a bit since the injury to Carter, whose ability to read the play and to quietly disrupt things is downright Horfordian, they’re still 12^th in the league since the sophomore went down. Certainly not elite but not the disaster they were in recent years.

That moderate dip is all the more impressive considering Carter’s impact on the game. It’s an imperfect measure, yes, but Carter is one of just three Chicago starters with a positive net rating (Satoransky and Porter are the others), and his on-off differential in net rating (5.8) is second on the team to only Satoransky (plus-1.3 on and minus-6.3 off for a whopping 7.6).

Even among the bench group, Young, Gafford, Ryan Arcidiacono and Luke Kornet all have better defensive ratings than Carter. This isn’t a phenomenon limited to one lineup, though Chicago’s most commonly used five-man group – Satoransky, Carter, Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen – has an incredible 97.1 defensive rating.

The addition of Satoransky looks like a big lift, as despite his imperfect offensive profile, it’s given the Bulls an effective perimeter defender while also pushing Dunn down to a lighter role that asks less of him but also allows him to be more engaged in playing to his strengths as a defensive presence.

Additionally, the Bulls have made some broad tactical tweaks while also benefiting from a few things that they can’t influence. For one, they lead the league in opponent turnovers per game at 18.0, likely helped by a more aggressive style of play. For another, they have slowed the pace down, which is a usual move from a team that hangs its hat on defense. Though Chicago is a middling 16^th in pace overall, they have been pumping the brakes since November and were at a season-low 98.05 pace in the month of January.

As for those signs of good fortune, the Bulls allow the fewest mid-range and paint shots of any team in the league and are second-best at limiting above-the-break threes, but that means that opponents are getting tons of looks in the restricted area (6^th-worst) and from the corners (6^th-worst from the right corner and 8^th worst from the left). Though opponents are shooting a league-best .495 on threes from the left corner against Chicago, they’re also shooting .340 from the right corner, which is the 5^th-lowest mark in the league. The Bulls are giving up plenty of the most efficient shots in the game.

There’s also the fact that the Bulls began the year with an easy schedule (they’re also 0-17 against the East’s top seven teams, which is worth noting), as well as that teams have given their stars the night off against Chicago from time to time. Still, the team deserves ample credit for their growth, even if they’ve been aided by some good luck and things beyond their control.

And yet, the Bulls, despite the biggest defensive improvement (by one major measure) in the league, sit at 19-32. Chicago’s offense is impotent, with the team ranking 28^th in offensive rating after finishing 28^th and 29^th in the two previous seasons.

The notable improvement is not enough to excuse Jim Boylen’s tenure overall, and there are definitely questions about what sacrifices have been made to put the Bulls’ defense so far ahead of last year’s output. Is a top-10 defense worth limiting Lauri Markkanen’s playing time, to say nothing of what Boylen’s ineffective offensive scheme has done to the Finn? Almost certainly not, though his recent right pelvis stress reaction may retroactively explain some of that deployment. But something has clicked, and that the Bulls have managed to build a strong defense around Markkanen and LaVine, while also giving major minutes to White, is a feat worth recognizing.

Unfortunately, it may all be for naught. Likely too “good” to snatch a high lottery pick, the Bulls may be better served by getting Markkanen, LaVine and Carter some postseason experience. There’s a certain element of “why not us?” at the bottom of the East’s playoff picture as Chicago is only 3.5 games back of Orlando and ahead of teams that are very clearly playing for the future, but the Bulls will need to find a way to put some more points on the board to make it happen.

That’s a surprising weak spot considering some of the personnel, but at least the Bulls are experiencing some form of progress – even if it doesn’t feel like it on any given night. There are still plenty of very good questions about the team’s choices and direction that need answering, but a vastly improved defense is something to acknowledge.