After trading for two-time All-Star center Nikola Vucevic at the deadline last March, they added four-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan and point guard Lonzo Ball in the offseason. All those moves have the Bulls thinking better days are coming.

Star Zach LaVine has never played on a team that made the postseason. It’s something he hopes to change in his eighth year in the league and fifth with the Bulls.

Playing on an Olympic championship team was an experience LaVine will never forget. The high-scoring All-Star hopes the winning doesn’t stop there.

He would love nothing more than to make the playoffs at long last, and the Bulls might be in position to do just that.

LaVine set career highs last season in points per game (27.4), field-goal percentage (50.7) and 3-point accuracy (41.9%) and made his first All-Star team. He followed that up with a gold medal playing for the United States in Tokyo, an experience he said was “incredible.”

Now, he has his sights set on making the Eastern Conference playoffs. And so do the Bulls, after four straight losing seasons.

The changes have the Bulls thinking they’re ready to make a big jump in the Eastern Conference after finishing 11th at 31-41 in their first year under coach Billy Donovan.

Their most recent playoff appearance was in 2017. They haven’t advanced in the postseason since 2015, when they beat Milwaukee and got knocked out by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals. Former coach Tom Thibodeau was then fired.

The Bulls open the season tonight at Detroit.