The Bulls have been a pleasant early-season surprise for several reasons: Lonzo Ball’s return and his legitimately good minutes; Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic’s return to prime form; and, perhaps most of all, Chicago was briefly over .500 (3-2) for the first time in two years.

They immediately lost their next two games and are back in familiar territory below .500.

That’s a microcosm of how the Bulls’ entire season could play out. Up and down, sometimes exciting, sometimes hope-inducing, other times ugly and disheartening.

Three relatively basic stats already project how things will likely go.

Somewhat surprisingly, despite its lack of size and true interior presence, Chicago is second in the NBA in rebounding at 48.3 per game and leads the league in defensive rebounding with 38.4 a night.

Much of that comes from the Bulls’ guards. Josh Giddey (5.6 per game), LaVine (5.2) and Ayo Dosunmu are three of the team’s top four rebounders.

But that could end up being fool’s gold; it can’t mask what the actual problems are in Chicago. Head coach Billy Donovan’s squad is 28th in opponent fast-break points and gives up the most points in the paint (56.9) of any of the 30 NBA teams.

That’s exacerbated by the Bulls’ offense.

Chicago is purely a run-and-gun team

The Bulls lead the league in pace, are second in 3-point attempts per game and shoot them at a 38.1 percent clip, good for sixth-best in the NBA.

Will Chicago shoot better than 38 percent over the course of an 82-game season if it’s getting up more than 43 attempts per game? Unlikely.

The Bulls are also 28th in percentage of their points scored in the paint (36.3), 29th in percentage on the fast break and 22nd at the free-throw line.

In summation: Chicago takes tough shots and allows easy ones.

The Bulls are shooting a wild number of threes but not scoring much in the paint, in transition or at the foul line, yet they’re giving up a ton of points inside and on the fast break.

Unless they’re legitimately one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league, their offense will regress. There’s also no evidence pointing to them suddenly becoming even decent at defending the rim or cutting down on turnovers.

And as they play at one of the fastest paces in the league, there’s no way of covering up any of those flaws, either.