New Bulls Lineup This Season

Miller and Salmon's are in for the full season.  they were arguable our best players on a consistent basis last year.  We started the season last year with a bunch of malcontent's/non team players and we had inconsistent starting lineups for a large part of the season before they got here.

Deng was out for a large part of the season.  when he played healthy, he brought points and team defense.  He is stronger and (hopefully) healthier coming into this season.  In that second round playoff against miami a couple of years ago, he was not a star in either scoring or defending, but he was great as a team defender and off ball scorer.

Hinrich was injured for a portion of last season as well.  If he can stay healthy, and with a new defined role as the 6th man coming into the game, I think that he can play at a higher level against the other teams bench players.  I also think that he feels more comfortable in a support role.

Tyrus Thomas put in (a second) off season of serious work in becoming a basketball player.  From when I saw him playing his first season where he jumped as high as he could to dunk, to the second season, where he rushed his dunks because of his fear of getting stuffed,  he looked in this preseason to finally start to balance his timing to be most effective at finishing at the rim.   Watching Taj's footwork and shooting form as well as his shot selection, I see the gap in Tyrus' game, but he does look better.  In his first 2 seasons, he didn't look to have made much of a jump.  Last year he showed a marked improvement (finally).  This summer he worked on his outside shot and getting stronger.  Even if he doesn't become a star this year, I see him playing at a higher level then he has ever played before.

NOAH KIM JOAH went from a flop to a hustle player at the end of last year.  he has speed, length and after this off season some muscle.  Throw in some new (no fear) post moves that he showed in the preseason and he looks to be in for a much better complete season as well.

Derrick Rose is coming into his second season after a stellar rookie season that went beyond our expectations.  he showed his weaknesses as well,  bad defense, too many turnovers and not a great assist man ala Chris Paul.  But he did get that vaunted playoff experience that we spoke so much about last year.  And man was that some playoff experience.   He will be better this season as well.  He spoke about this off season working on his dribbling skills and working on communicating with his teammates better.

LESS IS MORE:  Nocioni is an undersized power forward whose best work belongs to a league slow in responding to the new hand check rules (and still keeping a lot of slow big power forwards) and right before the no flopping rules came into affect.   He is too nonathletic to keep up with small forwards and too short to defend against bigger faster power forwards.  He played waaaaaaay too many minutes last season on this team. 

Pargo fits better on this team in limited minutes then Duhon.  How can we forget that drama.

Ben Gordon, after his first season became something akin to a crack addiction.  He was totally manhandled in that first round playoff games against a bigger stronger Detroit team a few years back.  We became dependent on his outside shooting to win games throughout his time here.  I love his passion, but a team will never win a championship depending on his 3 on 1 shooting game.  He can't dribble and he can't take it to the hole (and he can't pass).  What team has ever won with that as your first option?  add to that his limited defensive skills against bigger/stronger guards and his non team offensive flow and his pluses become less effective.  Then you factor in his demand on a maximum contract effecting your team development options and he is NOT a good option for this team.

In Defense of pax:  He turned a maximum contract for tyson freakin chandler into a gamble for ben wallace, once that experiment failed, he converted that albatross contract into clown a and b from cleveland, then somehow managed to convince sacramento to take another of his mistaken contracts in nocioni along with clown a for two of our current best players in miller and fish.  throw in his dealings with new york for Curry "there is nothing i won't eat" to obtain his current starting forwards in Tyrus and Noah and cap flexibility next year and he has a very good body of work.

Prediction for this year: Yes Boston, Cleavland and Orlando appear to have upgraded their teams.  But we do not just play them throughout the season exclusively.  we will be playing a lot of teams that have not upgraded/lost good players against a bulls team that is better then what we had at the beginning of last year.  We are better prepared for the playoffs and with this team we should be looking at better position in the playoffs.

45 - 49 wins

4th spot in the playoffs

2nd round playoff loss

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