The Chicago Bulls are two games deep into the 2017-18 season. While there isn’t a lot that can be taken away from such a small sample size, there’s been enough action on and off the court to take away three observations about the team.

Lauri Markkanen is NBA Ready

Markkanen, the Bulls’ top pick from the 2017 draft, had an impressive preseason and displayed the ability to shoot at a high level: 38.9 percent off of six three-point shots per game. He also possesses rare ability of having the skillset of a perimeter player-despite being seven feet tall. In his first couple of games of regular season action, he’s showing his preseason play wasn’t a fluke and why the Bulls were smart to draft him.

He’s averaging a double-double, 15 points per game and ten rebounds per game, after the Bulls’ losses to the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs. His lack of efficiency, only shoots 41.7 percent on two-pointers and his limited rim protection ability is concerning. He should improve in both areas as he becomes stronger and grows to be more comfortable inside the three-point arc.

No Good Guards

The Bulls’ guard situation has been pathetic for the past couple of seasons. Last year they played a total of nine guards (ten if you include occasional shooting guard, Jimmy Butler) and seven of them recorded a negative box plus/minus. The ones that didn’t record negative were Butler, Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade, all of whom are no longer on the team.

This year their two best guards are Zach LaVine and Kris Dunn. Both of whom are out at the start of the season due to injury. Cameron Payne, who didn’t figure to be much help to the Bulls’ anyway, has been sidelined due to a foot surgery that he had in August and won’t be expected to return until 2018. Four of the guards that the Bulls have played this season have a defensive rating that eclipses their offensive rating.

Even when Dunn and LaVine are ready to return, the guard situation will still take multiple seasons to fix.

The Rebuild Is Going Perfect…Kind Of

Nobody expected the Bulls to be a good team. In fact, many projected them to be the worst team in the league for the 2017-18 season. Which is exactly what they wanted when they traded Butler to the Timberwolves, didn’t bring back Rondo for the season and agreed to a buyout with Wade.

The Bulls have the worst offense in the league and their defense doesn’t appear to be much better. The front office is setting up the team for failure, so the ping pong balls will fall in their favor come NBA lottery draft night. This will allow the Bulls to pick one of the highly touted college prospects.

The process won’t be easy, and it may come across as a punch to the face for fans (no pun intended), but playing poor basketball is necessary for the rebuild process to be successful.