Will Lonzo Ball be able to win a championship with the Chicago Bulls? NBA free agency opened its doors and, immediately, the Bulls began making moves. Vice President Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley wasted zero time in improving the roster.

The Bulls have missed the playoffs in the past four seasons and it seems that run is about to end mainly because of the new point guard in the “Windy City”.

The Bulls came to terms on a 4 year, $85 million with the restricted free agent Lonzo Ball immediately once free agency opened. The deal was a sign and trade in which the Bulls sent back Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple, and one second-round draft pick for Lonzo Ball to the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Bulls have been looking for their point guard since the exit of Derrick Rose. They have gone through several guys at the position but now find themselves locking up a real franchise point guard in Ball.

One of the most glaring issues the Chicago Bulls faced last season was having a true point guard to facilitate the offense. Zach LaVine’s natural role is to be a lethal, efficient scorer. While he can facilitate the offense, his talents are maximized when asked to put the ball in the basket as much as possible. Similarly, Coby White also excels as a scorer off the bench, but often showed his age and inexperience when asked to run the entire offense – even as part of the second unit.

Many believe Ball could be a future All-Star, even. While the Bulls didn’t necessarily need an All-Star point guard, they really just needed a guy who can facilitate the offense while providing a lift defensively. That’s exactly what they received in Ball.

The Bulls were also very fortunate to not have to sacrifice Lauri Markannen in the sign and trade for Lonzo Ball.

Ball has drastically improved since his rookie year with the Lakers in plenty of aspects. Field goal percentage, three-point percentage, free throw percentage, offensive rating, scoring, and playing off-ball are all much better. With Ball’s wide-ranged skill set and insurmountable potential at 23 years old, he will perfectly fit on both sides of the basketball with the Bulls.

Zach LaVine, the Bulls franchise piece will thoroughly enjoy Ball’s presence on both sides of the floor. LaVine will be able to work off-ball well more in the offense than he is used to next season. In the past, LaVine was needed to handle the ball and score with the ball in his hands on offense.

LaVine’s percent of two-pointers that were assisted last season was 35.5 percent of field goals. Clearly, LaVine does most of the work himself on offense when he has the ball. With Ball, LaVine can use his athleticism to work off-ball and allow the offense to get more creative.

The first thing that comes to mind is that LaVine will be an effective lob threat, transition threat, and offensive decoy off-ball. All these things point to the fact that the Bulls’ offense is about to get well more creative and versatile with Ball running the show at point.

On the other side of the floor, LaVine is not the best defender. He has never held a positive defensive box plus/minus in any season of his seven-year career. Ball, on the other hand, has never had a negative defensive box plus/minus in his four-year career. Most importantly, Ball is most effective guarding the guard positions. His presence will take the defensive pressure off of LaVine in the backcourt next season.

The starting center Nikola Vucevic will also benefit by playing alongside Lonzo Ball. Vucevic, a two-time All-star, has developed into one of the best scoring big men in the league. Lonzo is a point guard who distributes the ball perfectly wherever his teammates are positioned. Vucevic plays well both outside and under the rim and having a pass-first point guard is exactly what he needs.

The Bulls didn’t stop at the Lonzo deal.

They also signed former Los Angeles Lakers guard Alex Caruso to a 4-year, $37 million deal.

Like the addition of Ball, one of the main impacts with Caruso comes on the defensive end. Chicago has needed perimeter defenders in a big way, and they got just that with Caruso.

In an even bigger deal, the Bulls signed DeMar DeRozan to a 3-year contract worth $85 million.

Despite the Bulls giving up Thaddeus Young and Al-Farouq Aminu for DeRozan, the fact of the matter is, they landed a guy who is still just 31 years old and playing excellent basketball. Last year, DeRozan averaged 21.6 points, 6.9 assists, and 4.2 rebounds while shooting the ball at a 49.5 percent clip.

With a lineup of Ball, LaVine, DeRozan, Patrick Williams, and Vucevic the Bulls can definitely make the playoffs in the East and maybe even become one of the top 4 teams in the East right away.