The final preseason game is in halftime as I start this. There's actually a lot going on right now. There's a ton of rumors surrounding Joe Maddon becoming the new manager of the Cubs, despite the Cubs already having Rick Renteria as their manager, who had a very solid year this past year outside of a few questionable moves. I won't really bother with that much since this is a Bulls post, but it's not going to be a long one, so I will say that when it was first announced that Maddon had stepped down I didn't even think twice about it as far as the Cubs were concerned, and actually thought he might go to the White Sox since I really don't think Ventura is more than a bench coach type of guy right now. Anyway, I heard there were rumors linking Maddon to the Cubs and thought that there was about a 25% chance of anything happening, heard that there were rumors that the two sides were absolutely talking, and thought maybe 40% chance at that point. The silence from the Cubs front office has made me go to about 60% chance of it happening, since they could easily just deny it, and now there's even rumors that they just need to work out certain things, which puts it around 80% to me, that is, of course, assuming those rumors are true, which is far from a sure thing in itself.
Anyway, the Bulls are what this post is about. There's a lot of high expectations for the Bulls this season. They're deeper than they've been since the 2010/2011 season, and they look like they're even more balanced than they were that season. So what do I think will happen this season? In the end, I think it will be a successful season, but how will it play out? That's what the rest of this post is for.
I see a slow start for the Bulls. I don't necessarily think they'll lose a lot, but they will struggle. Despite a tough first couple of games (well, semi-tough and tough, I'm not incredibly high on the Knicks yet), the Bulls then have 6 straight games against teams they should be able to run over before going to Toronto for the 9th game of the year. So they should be able to weather the storm early while they continue to learn to work together. For those of you wondering, no, the preseason is not long enough for teams to learn how to play with each other, it will almost always take at least 20 or so games, sometimes even more, preseason is only 8. If the Bulls can get to the game against the Trailblazers at 8-4, then they'll be in great shape.
Matthew Brown has looked great lately in the preseason, but remember last preseason he looked great and then was buried in rust once the regular season got going. Expect this to happen again and expect Rose to take at least 10-15 games to work that rust off. Expect Mirotic and McDermott to eventually become productive players, but expect them to struggle early as well. The Bulls will be getting by early on Gasol, Noah, Butler, and Gibson mostly, and while I did say that Rose, McDermott, and Mirotic will struggle early, I see each of them having at least one, maybe 2 big games in the first 12 or so games, so it won't be like they'll be terrible, just not what we're expecting out of them yet.
Once the season gets going I see the Bulls really becoming a tough team to beat. I see this season having parallels to the 2010/11 season in that I see a winning streak of at least 10 games happening, I see them leading the east in wins (possibly the league, I want to see if a few west teams are still strong or if some of them will take a big step back), and I see them going deep into the playoffs. Unlike in that season, I don't see every Naperville player on the team going cold as ice in the conference finals. I really do think the Bulls can win it this time, although I don't see Rose being the league MVP again. In the finals, I'm not going to say yet, but the Bulls would really have a good shot against anyone. They're so balanced that I can't see anyone dominating them in a series without divine intervention.
This is obviously all speculation, just like any other season previews or predictions out there. I have no doubt that the Bulls have a very talented team this year that has the talent to go very deep, if not all the way. There are a lot of things that will have to happen for that to all work out, and many things that will not have to happen, such as the Bulls will have to stay relatively healthy, and Thibodeau will have to not run his team into the ground. Still though, this is a team that has a very good chance at making big things happen this season, let's hope that they do!
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