Holding Court – Are the Bulls the new East favorites?

The return of LeBron James to his home state Cleveland Cavaliers has really altered the balance of power in the NBA, particularly in the East where no clear favorites at this point have emerged unlike in recent seasons when it was the Miami Heat and whoever had the goods – and the gumption – to challenge them inevitably had to decide conference supremacy. 

This time, however, any number of teams can, as Pat Riley said, “get a grip” of themselves and under the right circumstances take pole position in the pecking order of things. There’s, of course, the Cavaliers, particularly if they get to acquire Kevin Love as many people expect (more on this later), the Heat themselves, the Indiana Pacers (despite the loss of Lance Stephenson), the Washington Wizards, and, finally, the Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls, without question, have improved themselves immensely this offseason with the addition of several players that have made them possibly the deepest team in the league. The Bulls lost out to New York in the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes (it was “always Chicago or New York,” Melo himself says) but they have added two-time champion Pau Gasol, highly-touted rookies Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks to a team that will be bolstered by the return of 2011 MVP Derrick Rose.

The Bulls are thus going into training camp this September with decidedly the greatest depth they’ve had since they paraded a loaded roster in 2011-12. This was the one that had Rose, then fresh from his MVP season and about to sign a five-year, $94.8 million contract extension, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and Rip Hamilton in the starting lineup and Taj Gibson, Kyle Korver, Omer Asik, Jimmy Butler, Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Watson coming off the bench.

This year’s team, on the other hand, would presumably have Noah, the center on this past season’s All-NBA First Team, Gasol, Mike Dunleavy (at least at the start of the season), Butler and Rose as the starters, with McDermott (who might eventually replace Dunleavy in the starting lineup), Mirotic, Gibson, Kirk Hinrich, Tony Snell and Brooks providing bench support. 

If anything, this gives coach Tom Thibodeau a problem in terms of how much each of his talented guys are going to play, particularly in the frontcourt, where Noah, Gasol, Gibson and Mirotic give Chicago perhaps the greatest depth in the league at the power positions.  

“I’m not sure on who’s starting and who’s finishing yet,” Thibodeau told the “Kap and Haugh Show” on 87.7 FM The Game last July 24.  “Here’s the thing, I know all three (Noah, Gasol and Gibson) are going to have a significant role. I have 96 minutes there and I look at all three of those guys as starters. We’ll see how it unfolds when we get to training camp and we let them play together. (But) we’re always going to do what’s best for the team and make us function at the highest level.”

Thibodeau, of course, wouldn’t have had this “problem” had Chicago not used the amnesty clause to release Boozer and his $16.8 million salary and waived Lou Amundson, Mike James and Brewer to carve out enough cap space to bring in Gasol and make other moves this offseason. 

With no trade partner willing to assume Boozer’s contract, the Bulls had no choice but to swallow up the remaining year of the five-year, $75 million deal the 32-year-old power forward signed with them in 2010. The amnesty provision is a condition included in the most recent collective bargaining agreement to help owners avoid burdensome luxury-tax charges, allowing teams to release one player who was signed before the previous CBA expired and have his cap number wiped away.

Teams that use the amnesty are still forced to pay that player’s salary, however, despite the salary no longer counting for tax purposes. With the LA Lakers later having won the blind bidding for Boozer’s services for a reported $3.2 million, Chicago would thus be able to use that amount as savings as it now just has to pay Boozer the balance of $13.6 million.

The Bulls’ frontcourt depth could indeed be the envy of the rest of the league, even if they can’t acquire Love as GM Gar Forman was earlier believed as intent on doing, true to his reputation of always looking to improve his team. Chicago is in fact considered to be Cleveland’s closest competitor for the Minnesota All-Star owing to its frontcourt depth and the presence of a player the Timberwolves covet, McDermott.

But Forman, who was named the Bulls’ top basketball honcho on May 21, 2009 after having been in the organization for 11 years as a scout, director of player personnel and special assistant to the executive vice president of basketball operations, will surely try to find out if the depth advantage the Bulls have acquired in recent weeks could be dissipated by a possible Love deal. That acumen was certainly shown when he won Executive of the Year honors, along with Miami Heat President Pat Riley, in 2011, the only time it was shared by two men in its 42 years of existence.Forman earned the honor that year after signing Utah free agents Boozer, Brewer and Kyle Korver as well as Turkish center Omer Asik and Kurt Thomas of Milwaukee and trading for then-Golden State guard Watson. And he topped this off by hiring, in perhaps the best move he has made thus far as a GM, Tom Thibodeau out of his assistant’s post in Boston to become the 18th head coach in Bulls history. That year’s team hung a league-best 62-20 record before losing in five games to Miami in the East finals.

As it is, Chicago should have a capable player on the floor at the power slots at all times with Noah, Gasol, Gibson and Mirotic alternating at the “five” and four” positions.

Noah, of course, finally came into his own last season, earning All-NBA First Team honors over such proven stars as Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan. The 6-foot-11, 232-pound Noah was also named Defensive Player of the Year as he normed career highs of 12.6 points (on .475 floor and .737 free-throw shooting), 11.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.24 steals to go with 1.51 blocked shots. The French-American-Swede, the son of one-time French Open champion Yannick Noah, was hampered by a left knee injury he was allowed to play through in the playoffs, during which the Bulls unexpectedly lost to the Wizards in five games in the first round, but that has been remedied with arthroscopic surgery last May 2, and he says he will be “ready” for training camp.

Gasol, of  course, is the former Lakers big man who opted to join the Bulls rather than endure a rebuilding process in Tinseltown that will take longer than the time his window at adding to the two titles he won in LA might close. Now 34, the seven-foot, 250-pound Gasol is still potent when healthy, averaging 17.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.53 blocks in 60 games for the Lakers last year. Gasol can start at power forward for the Bulls or at center depending on the matchups, and his versatility, as well as ability to make plays from the high or low post with Noah, can only make Chicago all that much more formidable from both power positions.

“Pau is somebody who is very, very smart,” Noah gushes. “He’s somebody who comes with a lot of experience. He’s not just a great player. He’s somebody who cares about the community as well. I’m excited to see him help us as well in trying to slow down the violence and help the kids out here in Chicago. It’s very humbling to play with somebody who has won championships with his pedigree. He’s somebody I can really learn from.”

Gibson, on the other hand, is considered by some as the best defender on the Bulls (yes, despite the presence of Noah who won the league’s top defensive honors and Butler, another All-Defensive Team selection). Part of the Bulls’ objective in amnestying Boozer is to allow the 29-year-old Gibson more opportunity to play (28.7 minutes last season) and though the arrival of Gasol is bound to keep him at the same level, it will not necessarily deprive Gibson, who led Chicago in the playoffs with 18.2 points, the chance to earn more minutes during critical moments. Such is the luxury Chicago will enjoy in having somebody who normed 13.0 points, 6.8 boards and 1.37 blocks part of the rotation. 

Mirotic, a 6-10, 236-pound power forward, has yet to play his first NBA game but comes with great promise. Selected 23^rd by Houston in the 2011 draft, Mirotic was immediately traded to Minnesota, then to the Bulls on the same night. The 23-year-old Spanish-Montenegrin has five-year career averages of 10.8 points and 4.5 rebounds in an average of 24.2 minutes and 97 games with Real Madrid, shooting lofty percentages of .498 from the floor (.402 from three-point range) and .848 from the stripes, and many say he can’t only stretch the floor with his shooting but can also run, score inside and play with a lot of smarts.  

Mirotic signed a reported three-year, $16.6 million contract with the Bulls last July 18, giving him enough money to buy out his contract with the Spanish club for $3 million reportedly with a promise he won’t be traded by the Bulls. A two-time Euroleague Rising Star and All-Euroleague Second Team pick, Mirotic was the MVP of the FIBA Europe Under-20 tournament when he averaged a tournament-record 27 points and 10 rebounds, and was also the Spanish League MVP in 2013 and Spanish Cup MVP in 2014.

But Mirotic will not probably even be Chicago’s top rookie as that role has been consigned to McDermott, whose offensive skills are enough to make the T-Wolves entertain the idea of parting with Love. And it’s not as if that’s such a ridiculous idea either as McDermott, this year’s No. 11 pick whom the Bulls acquired on draft day by sending the 16^th and 19^th picks – center Jusuf Nurkic and guard Gary Harris – to Denver, has the most polished game among this year’s draft crop.  His Las Vegas Summer League averages of 18 points, four rebounds and 2.8 assists on 44 percent floor shooting (same from beyond the arc) and 96 percent clip from the line, which earned him an All-NBA Summer League First Team selection, would seem to suggest that.

While Dunleavy is expected to start for the Bulls as McDermott feels his way into the league, it’s just a matter of time before “Dougie McBuckets,” as McDermott is called, takes over the starting small-forward spot. The 6-foot-8 Creighton product, the consensus College Player of the Year and college basketball’s fifth-leading all-time scorer, simply gives the Bulls the commodity it most needs and missed in that first-round loss against the Wizards – great outside shooting and versatile all-around scoring. Dunleavy erupted for 35 points in a 100-97 Game 3 win to avert a sweep in that series, but it’s obvious the 33-year-old, 12-year veteran is not the long-term solution to the Bulls’ greatest weakness, which ranked them dead-last in the entire league in scoring last year, and No. 26 and No. 24 in three-pointers made and three-point percentage, respectively. 

McDermott can get off his shot from practically anywhere on the court, and has the savvy and the toughness to manufacture points. “I feel like that’s my biggest strengths right now,” McDermott told ESPN Chicago’s Nick Friedell.  “I feel like I’m trying to add things to my game every day. I feel like I’m a lot more than a shooter. I think I’m a complete player, and having a coach like Tom Thibodeau, he’s only going to help me.” Thibs would be able to do that particularly in what’s perceived as McDermott’s only weakness – perimeter defense – but the 22-year-old rookie’s high basketball IQ should enable him to at least become adequate in that area.

Dunleavy, veteran reserve center Nazr Mohammed and second-round pick Cameron Bairstow, a 6-foot-9, 252-pound physical specimen who normed 20.4 points and 7.4 rebounds for New Mexico last year, will likely round out the frontcourt rotation for Thibodeau.  

While the frontcourt figures to be the Bulls’ primary strength, the backcourt would not be a weak spot either, especially if Rose gets back to at least close to the MVP form he had before he suffered two debilitating injuries that limited him to 50 games (including playoffs) in the last three years. 

Rose, who averaged 15.9 points (on .354 floor and .844 free-throw shooting) and 4.3 assists in the 10 games he played last season before again being sidelined for the rest of the year after tearing his right meniscus, is currently training with the USA team that is set to play in the FIBA World Cup in Spain this coming August. How Rose holds up in this training camp and in the World Cup games would be a good gauge of how he would probably perform in the next NBA campaign.

If anything, this stint with the US team is a blessing for Rose, who would have the perfect venue to acclimatize himself to the game and get back to form after those career-threatening injuries that he found difficult to come back from, the first of which was an ACL tear in his left knee that effectively knocked the Bulls out of the playoffs in 2012. 

Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, who also coached that winning US team in 2010 that Rose quarterbacked, thinks the 6-foot-3 guard is getting there after seeing him in his first scrimmage with the US squad. “I was ecstatic about watching him today,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s better than four years ago. Four years ago, he was 21, and he was just on the verge of becoming who he was going to be. But he had a great practice today. You don’t practice like this (every day). He hasn’t been in practices like this. Now (we’ll) watch what he does for the next few days.”  

Even Thibodeau, who serves as assistant coach for Team USA, was impressed with his star guard. “We saw the quickness and the explosion in the summer league practices,” Thibodeau said. “And today, I think he was very patient, (and) he found the rhythm of the game. I thought he played well on both sides of the ball.  He pushed himself. He picked up full-court. I thought he had great technique, great effort, and he ran the team well. So it’s a good first step.”

Truth is, Rose doesn’t actually need to go back to his MVP form for Chicago to be a contender, but getting there would almost ensure that the six-time champion team, which has never come close to again winning after those pair of three-peats in the Michael Jordan era, has a shot at all the marbles. Rose’s ability to get to the lane and to create will give numerous opportunities for Chicago’s newly-arrived outside gunners to have plenty of open looks. This would actually be a two-way street of sorts as these gunners will also allow Rose, Hinrich and Brooks more room to operate, providing a bigger challenge to opposing defenses.

Butler, a 6-foot-7 muscleman, will team up with Rose in the starting backcourt. The three-year veteran, an All-Defensive Second Team selection, had a career year last season, averaging career highs across the board with 13.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.90 steals. Along with San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard, Butler is one of the very few players who can match up one-on-one with James on defense.

Rose and Butler will be backed up by Hinrich, Snell and Brooks.

Hinrich, an 11-year veteran on his second tour of duty with the Bulls, will be back after re-signing a two-year deal with a player option on the second. He averaged 9.1 points, 3.9 assists and 1.10 steals last season while serving mostly as a starter in lieu of the injured Rose.

Brooks, meanwhile, had norms of 9.0 points and 3.2 assists while splitting time with Houston and Denver. He serves as insurance for any injury that might affect Rose or Hinrich.

It’s Snell, however, who gives the Bulls a lot of optimism for the future with his development. The 20^th pick by Chicago in the 2013 draft, the 6-foot-7, 200-pound swingman, who once teamed with Leonard to lead Martin Luther High to a No. 7 national ranking in 2009, should provide Butler capable relief.  Snell averaged just 4.5 points as a rookie last year but made heads turn when he made it to the All-NBA Summer League First Team by averaging 20 points, four rebounds and 2.8 assists. He will be reunited with Bairstow, a former Lobo teammate.

Obviously, the Bulls are pleased with the roster that they now have. Even Noah is already excited at what this bunch can potentially do. “I’m really excited,” Noah says. “I think Gar and (executive vice president John Paxson) and everybody did a real good job.  I’m really, really excited about the Bulls. It just makes you want to work hard and be as ready as possible for the upcoming season…  I think we’ve had a lot of very solid additions. I think Tony Snell had a very good summer league. He’s somebody who I expect to contribute for us, and the rookie as well, McDermott. Then you see Pau and Mirotic and all those guys, even Aaron Brooks. Everything that (the front office) did, and bringing our guys back, I think is going to be great.”

Still, some oddsmakers are touting Cleveland as the favorite in the East if the Cavaliers do acquire Love, raising the Cavs’ chances of winning from 11.78 to 18.03 percent if they’re able to trade for him in exchange for Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, the top overall picks the last two years. This is based on predictions made by ESPN’s forecast panel. The Bulls, meanwhile, just have a 7.84 percent chance as it is, a percentage that rises to 18.63 percent in the event it’s Chicago that’s able to obtain Love, a double-double machine who had the highest player efficiency rating in the entire league last year next only to Kevin Durant and James, in that order.

Don’t tell that to Noah, however. He thinks that despite the return of James to Cleveland and serving as magnet for other stars to play alongside him, his team is not by any means a shoo-in to win. “He’s the best player in the game, but that being said, I think we have a chance to beat them,” Noah says. “And that’s the goal. We want to beat LeBron James, we want to beat the Miami Heat, we want to beat all those teams who are in our way.  He’s obviously one of the big obstacles. (But) it’s not about him. It’s about us. It’s about our team and being the best team that we can be.”

Winning the title he says is what drives him despite the setbacks he and the Bulls have had to endure.  “Every day I work out, that’s all I think about,” he says, “is just how great that party would be after we win the championship. But I know to get there there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs. It’s always a rocky road. It’s never smooth in the NBA. But I love our team, and now it’s on us to get to work.”

SHORTSHOTS: Byron Scott has agreed to a four-year, $17 million deal to become the new coach of the LA Lakers, replacing Mike D’Antoni who resigned April 30. Scott becomes the 25^th head coach in Lakers history… A judge has ruled against Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s attempt to block the $2 billion sale of the franchise to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas sided with Sterling’s estranged wife Shelly Sterling, who he said had negotiated a good deal for the Clippers and had the authority to remove her husband as a trustee of the trust that owns the team after two doctors determined he had signs of Alzheimer’s disease and was incapable of making business decisions. Also under the ruling, the 80-year-old Sterling can no longer delay the sale from going forward as he appeals the case. The ruling was tentative until the judge’s final decision is filed in writing by August 13… Did you know that New York offered Amare Stoudemire, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Iman Shumpert for Kevin Love? The T-Wolves rejected the proposal… Minnesota has signed guard Mo Williams to a $3.75 million deal. Williams will serve as a veteran backup for Ricky Rubio… LeBron James is going back to No. 23 with the Cavaliers. James had earlier asked Cleveland fans to help him choose which number he will wear this time with the Cavs, the No. 6 he wore with the Miami Heat or his original No. 23 with his home state franchise. It was an apparent effort to milk every ounce of marketing potential out of his return to his original ballclub. – Rappler.com

 

Bert A. Ramirez has been a freelance sportswriter/columnist since the ’80s, writing mostly about the NBA and once serving as consultant and editor for Tower Sports Magazine, the longest-running locally published NBA magazine, from 1999 to 2008.  He has also written columns and articles for such publications as Malaya, Sports Digest, Winners Sports Weekly, Pro Guide, Sports Weekly, Sports Flash, Sports World, Basketball Weekly and the FIBA’s International Basketball, and currently writes a sports column for QC Metro Manila Life and, until this summer, a weekly blog for BostonSports Desk.  A former corporate manager, Bert has breathed, drunk and slept sports most of his life.