Bulls season preview

picture courtesy of bleacher report

The NBA season officially began tonight with a matchup featuring the Cavaliers and Celtics. This got me to write a Chicago Bulls season preview. I am a Bulls fan who rooted for the Bulls, not just Michael Jordan and have stuck with the team. Yes, I rooted for them through the Tim Floyd era, despite how ugly it was.  Anyways, here goes my thoughts on the 2009-2010 bulls.

key losses-Ben Gordon

The Bulls lost other players, but Ben Gordon is the only significant player lost from last years team.

New additions-Taj Gibson, James Johnson, Janero Pargo

It will be interesting to see if the two rookies drafted can make significant contributions on the offensive and defensive end.

Some key questions:

1. With Ben Gordon loss, who will replace Ben Gordon's production?

Ben Gordon seemed to be the guy Bulls fans never knew to love or hate. He took a lot of bad shots, dribbled too much, but also made lots of big shots. The common thought is Derrick Rose will pick up his production and be the guy who has the ball is his hands for the last shot, but who will help? John Salmons played a key role in getting the Bulls to the playoffs and it should be nice to have him for the whole year. The Bulls still do not have a true low post scoring option. If Joakim Noah can get some post moves, he could be an option, but that remains to be seen.Which Luol Deng will the Bulls get? The injury plagued player who missed most of the season last year? Or the 2006-2007 Deng who averaged just under 19 points per game? They desperately need the 2006-2007 Deng. If Deng, Salmons, and Rose play up to their talent level, they should do a good job of replacing Gordon's production.

2. Will this team play defense?

102.5(2008-2009),  100.4 (2007-2008)

Those numbers are the opponents scoring averages for the last two years.  Being a jump shot team the Bulls will have to lock it up because the jumpers are not going to fall every night. Derrick Rose, great offensive player, but he needs to improve his defense. This team as a whole gets lazy too often playing defense. The Bulls need to learn that good defense can lead to offense. The effort needs to come from both ends. Tyrus Thomas is one of those guys who needs to realize this. Thomas too often tried to make the spectacular defensive play. Thomas is a great athlete that needs to combine thinking and his athleticism. I expect Joakim Noah to keep up the effort he put in against the Celtics in the playoffs last year. Noah seems to finally be getting it and his his hard work seems to be paying off.

3. What kind of start will the team get off to?

The Bulls in recent years have gotten off to slow starts (2-8 for the 2007-2008, 5-5 2008-2009) and just struggling in general in the first half of the season. It would be nice if a Bulls teams post officially retired Jordan would have a good first half. It is a long season, but this again comes back to the effort on the defensive end. If the Bulls commit to the defensive end, they will not need that late push to get to .500/ a post season birth.

4. Starters/Rotation

This is my guess as to who the projected starters would be

PG-Rose

SG-Salmons

SF/SG-Deng

SF-Thomas

PF-Noah

Off the bench-Hinrich, Miller, Gibson, Johnson, Gray, Pargo, and Hunter

These are just the guys I expect to make some contribution to the team this year. One thing Vinny will have to do this year is to quickly figure out his rotation.  Hinrich is valuable because his defense will be needed. Not really sure what to expect of Brad Miller, who is a jump shooting big man. If Gibson and Johnson play well early on, expect them to get minutes, but Vinny limited Derrick at times.  Pargo will contribute if he can score, which at times he has proven. Expect Gray and Hunter only to get minutes only if needed. It is pretty clear that this bench, like this Bulls team has questions.

Predicted record

43-39. The record should be good enough to get the Bulls into the playoffs in the East. Without doing an NBA preview, this should put them in the 5-6 seed range.

-Mike Moreau