With two games remaining in the regular season, the Chicago Bulls have one less win on their resume than they did at this point in the season last year. And yet, the future for the Bulls seems so much brighter than it did just 12 months ago, for a number of reasons.

For one, Chicago was still running with the duo of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan last April, an experiment that had clearly gone stale by that point. Fans were waiting for management to wise up and pull the plug, and they finally did over the course of the last year. With the Sacramento Kings now playing both those guys instead, the Bulls have several exciting young players getting minutes in their place.

It’s of course been well-documented just how good Josh Giddey has been since becoming a Bull, with his game-winner against the Lakers being one of the top plays of this NBA season, not to mention his recurring triple doubles. Matas Buzelis continues to show why he’s an extremely promising young talent as well. But another player who has surprised a bit more has been Kevin Huerter.

Huerter’s shooting percentages have improved since becoming a Bull

Acquired in the trade that sent LaVine to Sacramento, Huerter has significantly upped his level of production since arriving in Chicago. The sharpshooter has averaged 13.3 points and 3.1 assists while shooting it at 44% from the floor and 37% from three-point range. All these numbers are up significantly from his first half of the season as a King, when he was scoring less than eight points a night and barely cracking 30% from three.

Huerter’s efficiency has continued to go up in the last few weeks as well. Through four games in April, he’s making 55.8% of his overall attempts and sinking 48% of his shots from three. It’s this level of play that lessens the blow from the LaVine trade. At the time in early February, the Bulls were getting crushed for not getting back more in the deal (the first-rounder they got was their own that they got back from San Antonio). But now that Huerter is looking like a legit guy once again, Chicago can feel quite a bit better about their decision.

This development will give the Bulls more options going forward. If they want to trade Huerter in the offseason, he will undoubtedly have more value after such a strong finish to the regular season. And if they want to retain him, it seems he is in much more of a position to succeed than he was in Sacramento’s system.