Chicago Bulls: The Giant Pretenders Of The Eastern Conference
The Chicago Bulls may appear to be NBA title contenders on paper and by name recognition, but don’t be fooled
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The Chicago Bulls made all the right moves in the offseason, even lucked away from Carmelo Anthony. Everything that the Bulls did was praised by the media.
It’s also the reason why they aren’t legitimate NBA title contenders. Not right now.
Sure, the Chicago Bulls roster looks great. I mean, who could deny a team on paper that consists of Derrick Rose, a very much improved Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson, amongst others, off the bench. On paper, the team looks for real, and great.
On the court however, they’re currently the fourth best team in a weak Eastern Conference. They haven’t been able to beat good teams lately, and have struggled against bad teams in this calendar year. Chicago started the year 10-5 against playoff teams. Since that point, the Bulls are just 2-4 against those teams in the NBA.
Specifically, the Bulls have lost six of their last eight games, including head-scratching defeats at the hands of the Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic. A team that has its sights on an NBA title has no business losing games against those types of opponents. Certainly not in a matter of five days, either.
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And right now, the Bulls aren’t a team that should be considered good enough to win the NBA title. Albeit, I’m not even sure there’s a team in the Eastern Conference that meets that criteria either. So there’s that.
What is truly masking the Bulls as a potential contender is those two things: the lack of a great team(s) in the Eastern Conference and the fact that the Bulls have a bunch of former names on their roster.
Joakim Noah
It wasn’t long ago when Joakim Noah was in the conversation as the best center in the game. That can no longer be argued. At least not this season. Noah, who is averaging 7.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game on a career-low 44 percent shooting from the field, is having one of his worst seasons of his career.
And while you can argue that he hasn’t been healthy all season long, shouldn’t Noah be at least more efficient with the addition of Gasol? When good players come together on a team, efficiency should go up even if production takes a minor shift down. In Noah’s case, efficiency and production has both gone down. That’s not ideal.
To pile on, Noah, who has always been viewed as the Bulls’ defensive anchor, is on pace for his worst defensive rating of his career (103). His player efficiency rating is the seventh best on the team, at 14.6.
Jan 19, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose (1) drives between Cleveland Cavaliers center
Timofey Mozgov(20) and center
Tristan Thompson(13) in the first quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Derrick Rose
Five years ago, Derrick Rose was arguably a top-5 player in the NBA. But this isn’t 2009 Rose. Heck, this isn’t even Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose, who shot 48 percent from the field. This is a Rose that is averaging a nice 18 points, but on and inefficient 41 percent shooting from the field.
This is a Rose that is healthy, but seems at times expendable. This is a Rose that simply isn’t even the best player on his team anymore. The name sounds nice, but Rose simply isn’t the player he used to be, despite what you may see occasionally on a SportsCenter highlight.
He’s a nice player, but almost surely shouldn’t be the best player on a team that is trying to win an NBA title. Not anymore.
The Others
The hope is that Pau Gasol can keep this rejuvenated career year (18.7 points and 11.4 rebounds per game) throughout the remainder of the season and into the playoffs, although at 34 years of age, averaging 35 minutes per game, I’m not sure if that’s fair to ask of Gasol.
Jimmy Butler, who raced out of the gate this season, has seen a dip in his numbers with every passing month. I’m not sure if he’s regressing to the mean, or if his 40 minutes per game has had that much of an impact on his body.
Nevertheless, the numbers speak for himself — his total shot percentage, usage rate, offense and defennsive ratings and plus/minus has all suffered with every passing month.
The bright spots for the Bulls this season probably has to be the flashes of promise that rookie Nikola Mirotic has shown this season, averaging nearly eight points and five rebounds per game in only 18 minutes of action per night, and Taj Gibson’s near double-double (11.1 points and 7.0 rebounds) that he’s averaging off the bench.
Overall, the the case can be made that the Chicago Bulls are close. I don’t think anyone is denying that, not even me. But they’ve been “close” for quite a while. Heck, since 2009 they’ve been close.
And that’s not changing this year.
The Bulls aren’t a bad team. They’re a really good squad. Just not a great one.
Chicago is 8th in offensive rating (105.7) as a team, right behind seven other playoff teams at the moment, and 12th in defensive rating (102.7). Nine of the 11 teams ahead of the Bulls in defensive rating are in the playoffs, the other two teams (Hornets, Pacers) could very well be playoff teams by the end of the year.
In addition, the Bulls are 14th in the NBA in bench points per game (30.5 per contest), per Hoopsstats.com. Good, but not great.
In other words, the Bulls are in good company. They’re just not on the elite side of that company. The Chicago Bulls are close, real close to becoming a very scary team in the NBA.
But as currently constructed, even with Noah, Rose, Butler and Gasol, the Bulls don’t scare anyone right now. They’re just fooling the heck out of people.
Could the Chicago Bulls make the NBA Finals? Sure, especially if the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t shape themselves up. After all, someone has to in the Eastern Conference.
Although, there’s still a huge gap between making the Finals and winning four games in the Finals for this team, and I’m not sure that missing space can ever get filled with this core group.
Next: Ray Allen is keeping in shape, waiting for that phone call