HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

In their first year under head coach Tom Thibodeau the Chicago Bulls made great strides and there’s no reason to think that they won’t continue to do so in his second year. The core of Derrick Rose, the league’s Most Valuable Player, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah went untouched through the summer. They are undoubtedly motivated by coming up just short of making a trip to the NBA Finals last year and will look to improve on that finish this season. They should once again be one of the league’s premier team’s defensively and easily win the Central, where nobody can really come close to competing at the same level as they ca.

1st Place, Central Division

- Yannis Koutroupis

The Chicago Bulls took the NBA by storm last season, and look to be even better this year. Derek Rose will come back better for his experience as the league’s youngest MVP and the Bulls will finally have the shooting guard they have lacked. If Carlos Boozer can stay healthy and live up to his enormous potential, the Bulls could be the team to beat in the East. They are deeper than the HEAT and more talented than the rest of the field.

1st Place, Central Division

- Bill Ingram

To call the two weeks leading up to the Christmas start of the season “training camp” is almost a joke; teams bringing in loads of new guys are going to have a heck of time teaching them a system and a playbook in so short a period. Chicago, however, essentially is bringing back every major player in their rotation (with the exception of a new shooting guard, which very well could be Richard Hamilton), and that means they’ll be a well-oiled machine while almost every other organization is working just to catch up. You’ve got the defending MVP and defending Coach of the Year, so the expectations are understandably high here. The biggest question is, of course, can they make enough progress in a year to get past the Miami HEAT?

1st Place, Central Division

- Joel Brigham

The Chicago Bulls won the Central Division by a resounding 25 games over the second place Indiana Pacers, roaring to the Eastern Conference Finals before succumbing to the red hot Miami HEAT. Led by the league’s youngest ever MVP Derrick Rose, there is nothing stopping the club from once again establishing its clear cut Central Division dominance in 2012. Now healthy, power forward Carlos Boozer expects to rebound from a disappointing playoff showing and Joakim Noah continues to establish himself as one of the best young centers in the game. However, outside of Rose the Bulls have had difficulty creating offense off the dribble, so the question is can Chicago successfully address their glaring need at shooting guard before its next postseason run? Expect the Bulls to once again rank amongst the league’s elite and contend for NBA supremacy.

1st Place, Central Division

- Lang Greene

It’s truly remarkable that the Chicago Bulls finished with the best record in the league last season. The Bulls had a first-year head coach, eight new players on their roster and won games even when Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer were sidelined with injuries. Chicago’s success was surprising, but now they’ll enter this year with high expectations. Rose and his teammates have made it clear that anything less than championship this season would be a disappointment. If they can add a starting shooting guard, such as Richard Hamilton, they’ll be extremely well rounded. Few teams have the weapons to take down the Miami Heat, but the Bulls have a shot with their balanced attack. They’ll only get better now that they’ve had a full season to play together and develop chemistry. Winning their division won’t be a problem, but they’ll have to beat a juggernaut to make it out of the East. The Bulls seem ready to take that next step, which would be very scary for the rest of the league.

1st Place, Central Division

- Alex Kennedy

Top Offensive Player: Derrick Rose. There aren’t many MVPs in the history of the game who wouldn’t be considered the best offensive player on their team, and Derrick Rose is most certainly that for Chicago. He was the only player in the league last season to average among the top ten in both points and assists, and with a three-point shot added to his arsenal he’s become almost impossible to guard for everyone outside of LeBron James. His scoring averages have gone up at least 4 ppg in each of his first three seasons, which means he’s on pace to score just under 30 ppg this year. That probably won’t happen, but a repeat of something in the 25 ppg range certainly is reasonable. Don’t expect his assist numbers (7.7 apg last year) to drop much, either.

Top Defensive Player: Joakim Noah. Noah was the first Bulls player to make an All-Defensive Team since Kirk Hinrich in 2007, and did so despite missing 34 games due to various injuries. Slowly, over the course of the last two or three seasons, Noah has probably added 20 pounds of muscle to what was once a pretty slight frame, and that strength combined with amazing instincts and very smart team defensive skills make him the most valuable defender the Bulls have. Chicago was easily among the top defensive teams in the league last year, and that’s with sieves like Kyle Korver and Carlos Boozer playing alongside Noah. It’s got to be nice for Derrick Rose to know that if a guy blows by him, there’s another line of defense in the paint. Noah, who averaged 1.5 blocks and 1 steal per game last season, really has learned how to hold down the fort.

Top Playmaker: Derrick Rose. If you’ve seen Rose dribble a basketball and attack the rim, you know why he’s the guy here. Watch a YouTube video or two and it’ll become obvious pretty quickly. In fact, you could argue that Rose is the top playmaker in the entire league. That’s no slam dunk, but it’s at least an acrobatic, twisting layup.

Top Clutch Player: Derrick Rose. While Kyle Korver has the uncanny ability to knock down huge threes when the team seems to need them most, Rose is almost always the guy setting him up for those open threes with his ability to penetrate the lane. So many times last year, Rose took the ball to the cup and either finagled an impossible shot through traffic or drew a foul at the rim. As a jumpshooter he’s still not the best, but he’s even had his fair share of clutch deep shots late in fourth quarters. He’s got alligator blood this one, and he’s only going to get better.

The Unheralded Player: Omer Asik. It took a while for Asik to get his opportunity last year, but with minutes he proved to be an amazing rebounder and extremely solid defender. Offensively, all he’s proven able to do at this point is dunk the ball, but the coaching staff swears he’s made some major improvements in that area. Even without any offense, he’s one of the best back-up centers in the league, especially defensively, and too many people still haven’t heard of the guy.

Best New Addition: Jimmy Butler. We like Butler (see below), but he might not have been the “Best New Addition” if the team had any other new additions. But they don’t. Say for example the Richard Hamilton buyout was complete, and he had already cleared waivers and signed with Chicago as expected, he’d be the guy here instead. Hamilton averaged a career-low (if you don’t count his rookie year) 14.1 ppg last season in Detroit, but considering the team barely got 4 ppg out of last year’s starter, Keith Bogans, you’d have to call that a huge upgrade. He’s also an accomplished defender with championship experience, and he’s a hard enough worker to fit right into the Thibodeau/Bulls culture. Ideal signing, significant upgrade. If everything goes through, Hamilton could really be a difference-maker in Chicago this season.

-Joel Brigham

#1 – Taj Gibson – The expectations are as high for Gibson as they’ve ever been after his performance in last year’s playoffs, and he seems pretty motivated to keep up the good work. Gibson is an extremely humble young man, but his athleticism and defense (especially considering starter Carlos Boozer did not show much proficiency in either of those things last season) make a huge difference on this team. While Gibson would never ask for it, a bigger role seems inevitable for him, especially with Kurt Thomas officially having left for Portland.

#2 – Ronnie Brewer – Brewer was another guy who had some breakout games in the playoffs last year, and like a lot of the more unheralded role players on this team, his forte is defense. He’s better offensively than people realize because his unconventional jumpshot makes it hard for people to envision it actually going in. Still, with proper playing time he’s proven he can score, and even if the team does sign Richard Hamilton there’s a chance that Brewer could be the starter at shooting guard, particularly early on in the season. His role probably won’t see much of a bump with Rip in the mix, but he was solid all season when given the opportunity, and this year shouldn’t be any different.

#3 – Carlos Boozer – Chicago’s top 2010 free agency acquisition came into training camp twenty pounds lighter this year with a thin layer of hair atop his head. As a result, the guy looks about six years younger, and that coupled with the fact that he couldn’t possibly be any worse than he was last season means his contributions in 2012 should be quite a bit more significant. At Media Day, Bulls GM Gar Forman pointed out that historically, new free agents usually show the most growth from year one to year two due to the fact that they come in having learned the system and are familiar with the organization and teammates. It also helps that Boozer is coming into camp healthy and hasn’t recently tripped over any luggage. It’s certainly fair to expect a much better year out of Chicago’s starting power forward.

#4 – Jimmy Butler – Barring some sort of injury to Brewer or Luol Deng, Butler probably won’t see much more than 6-8 minutes per game this season, but as the 30th pick in the draft you’re not going to do much better than him. He’s a terrific all-around player, even if no single skill helps him to stand out, however it’s his personality that makes him such a perfect fit for the organization. Butler is humble, hard-working, and focused entirely on winning. That’s the culture of this team, and he fits into it like a hand in a glove.

#5 – Tom Thibodeau – Give credit to Derrick Rose for being amazing. Give credit to Gar Forman and John Paxson for putting together a roster of players that genuinely like each other, work their butts off, and don’t get too caught up in egos so they can play as a team. Give credit to those players, too, for knowing their roles and not getting caught up in the Disease of More. But at the end of the day you can’t give any one more credit for the success of this team than Tom Thibodeau, who is arguably the most organized and hard-working head coach in the league. Thibs is an animal when it comes to the film room, and the fact that he came into this organization with a vision that he’s absolutely carried out to the minutest detail has made all the difference in the world for the Bulls. All you have to do is look at how disorganized things were under Vinny Del Negro to know what a difference a real coach makes. The players buy into this guy wholeheartedly, and as long as they continue to do that and Thibodeau continues to work harder than everybody else, the Bulls will be contenders.

-Joel Brigham

There aren’t many teams that like each other as much as the guys in this locker room do, and that chemistry is a huge reason the team was so successful last season. Everybody buys into the system, everybody gets along, and nobody complains about playing time. There aren’t a lot of teams that can say those things, which is definitely an advantage for Chicago. They’re also returning the overwhelming majority of their rotation, which in a shortened training camp and preseason means they’ll gel quicker than teams with loads of new personnel.

However, the team’s greatest strength has to be their defense. Chicago was second in opponents’ PPG last year (91.3), first in opponents’ FG% (43%), and first in rebounding differential by a huge margin (+5.8; second place was Orlando with +3.5). Defense is where the Bulls have hung their hats as an organization, and as long as they remained committed to that, they’ll stay an elite team.

-Joel Brigham

This isn’t necessarily their fault, but the early schedule could prove challenging for Chicago. Seven of their first 9 games are on the road, and their first four of the season include a nasty West Coast swing that goes through Oakland, Sacramento, and L.A. (twice—once for the Lakers and once for the Clippers).

As far as the things that they control, though, the Bulls have got to find a way to score more points. While Rose is clearly an offensive phenomenon, the rest of the lineup is wildly inconsistent on that end, and as a result they finished tied for 19th in the league in team points scored per game. Hamilton would help, but what Chicago needs is for guys like Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng to find more ways to score. If they can do that and hold up their defense, they’re going to be a very, very hard team to beat in 2012.

-Joel Brigham

I believe the pieces to win a championship are in place. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind. However, things will be very different for us this year. We won’t be the unexpected party crasher, but rather a team that is constantly hunted. We will need to improve our conversion from great defensive possessions to scoring efficiency. We lost some of our edge in the last part of the season and playoffs last year: maybe that was the learning process and understanding how hard it is to maintain discipline for an entire season. Well, this year, we can play a shorter season and take care of business. Derrick, we will find ways to get you off the ball constantly and help you by getting easy baskets in transition so you don’t shoulder too much of the offensive load. My expectations are higher this year than any year I was with Boston: our level of achievement must meet those expectations. Let’s get it done.

- Anthony Macri

Was it all just a fluke?

Derrick Rose was the MVP. Tom Thibodeau was the Coach of the Year. The Bulls as a team won more regular season games than any other team in the NBA. Those were all great accomplishments, but what’s hard to determine is whether that was just a really, really good year in which the stars aligned just right for all those things to happen, or whether Chicago is en route to perennial trips to the Eastern Conference Finals and perhaps beyond. They seem like the real deal, but opposing teams are going to come into the United Center with guns blazing this season. How they weather that pressure, and how they follow up the greatest Bulls season since Jordan left, will speak volumes about where they’re headed for the next half decade or so.

-Joel Brigham