The Chicago Bulls grew up a bit last year. A team long on talent but full of youth, Chicago appeared to make a statement in the playoffs by sweeping the defending champion Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference's first round.
Then the Bulls went up against the veteran Detroit Pistons, and things turned sour. The Pistons went up 3-0, and Chicago's season appeared over. However, the Bulls showed some resolve by winning the following two games before fading in Game 6 at home. It was the first time Chicago had reached the second round of the playoffs since Michael Jordan left town.
Now this team is expected to contend for a Finals berth, and is +450 to win the East on WagerWeb.com, the fourth favorite in the East behind Boston, Cleveland and Detroit. The Bulls are +1200 to win the NBA title.
"Going from where we are to the next level is the most difficult step, and it's not a given that it's going to happen," Bulls GM John Paxson said. "I understand that as well as anyone because I saw it up close as a player. When I was playing, Cleveland and New York were two good teams that just couldn't get past us, and they didn't have anything to show from that era. I don't want to look back and have the same said about us."
If you look at the faults of the other contenders in the East, the Bulls appear the team to beat.
The Celtics have three superstars in Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, but no depth. One injury to one of the Big 3, and the Celtics are finished.
The Pistons appear on the way down, their championshipwindow closed. The Cavaliers exposed their "old” legs in last season's Eastern finals, and Detroit really didn't have a big offseason addition, instead re-gning Chauncey Billups and hoping some of its younger players can step up off the bench.
Cleveland, the East's reigning champ, looks to have taken a big step back. It was a bit of a fluke for the Cavs to make the NBA Finals last year, and Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic remain holdouts and could play in Europe.
So that leaves the Bulls among the realistic contenders in the conference.
First, let's examine their main negative: scoring in the post. Chicago didn't do much to fix this, signing veteran forward Joe Smith to replace P.J.Brown and re-signing forward Andres Nocioni (mostly a perimeter scorer). And the team drafted Joakim Noah.
But mainly Chicago will be banking on the maturation of 2006 top pick Tyrus Thomas to score down low.
That lack of a post game forced the Bulls to be mostly an off-the-dribble, jump-shooting team, with predictable results. Chicago finished last season ranked 20th in offensive efficiency, and scored 87 points or fewer in all four playoff losses against Detroit.
"We went into the off-season knowing that it was going to be quiet, that we were going to try to keep our guys together and maintain some continuity," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "We don't make any secret about it: We like our core group of players that have been here and we'll just try to add to it."
So while Ben Wallace, Thomas, Smith and Noah won't scare anyone offensively, they will block shots and rebound, making it tough for anyone not named Shaq or Duncan to get easy scores.
It's on the perimeter where the Bulls draw their strength. The starting trio of Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng is one of the NBA's best.
Hinrich is a stellar two-way player, Gordon can scorein bunches, and Deng exploded in the playoffs last season to become Chicago's best player and a rising superstar.
Deng set career highs in scoring (18.8), rebounding (7.1), assists (2.5), steals (1.18), field goal percentage (.517) and foul shooting (.777) during the regular season. Gordon averaged a career-high 21.4 points.
With long-range shooting aces like Gordon (41.3 percent on 3-pointers), Hinrich (41.5 percent) and Nocioni (38.3 percent), the Bulls were one of the best shooting teams in basketball (Deng rarely shoots 3-pointers). Chicago made 38.8 percent of its shots behind the arc, the second-best mark in the league behind Phoenix.
"Last year, we did great but we can do a lot better this year," Deng said. "We have a lot of experience now, and I think we're more mature in terms of how to handle games and in terms of knowing what we need to do out there."
The wild card in all of this is, of course, Kobe Bryant. The Bulls are reportedly in daily contact with the Lakers in hopes of getting Bryant, but Chicago will not trade Deng, a player the Lakers have been demanding. However, if Chicago could package Gordon and Thomas, perhaps, with a few salaries thrown in to make it work, Bryant easily would make Chicago the Eastern Conference favorite.
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