I won't bore you with trumped up descriptions of how gritty Hinrich is or how improved Butler will be. I won't pretend Nazr is a solid replacement for Asik or that we won't miss Rose for most of the season.

What I will do is tell you one fact that trumps everything else: Money talks.

via i.imgur.com

That's right. We are firmly entrenched as the 2nd most likely in the East to win it all, and 4th overall. This is all despite our best player being out for much of the regular season (odds were updated today).

Now we can talk about GMs being bad and owners being cheap and the team getting worse, but the real question is: If the money says we're the 2nd best in the east, including injuries and transactions, then why the heck is everybody acting like this Bulls team will be lucky to make the playoffs?

- Bias from a terrible/fluke 1st round exit?

- Depression from our best player being injured?

- Anger that the always cheap owner found a way to be cheap while fielding his most expensive team ever?

- Worry that the replacements for the bench mob can't get it done?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not super optimistic or anything. But when the money says we're the 4th best overall, the 2nd best in the East, shouldn't there only be 2 or 3 other teams happy right now?

The money says we're not in the Heat's class, an opinion that is echoed around here all the time. But the money also says we're not in the Celtics class, the Nets class, the Knicks class, we're not at the same level as the Pacers as well. It says we're on a better level than all those teams, stuck between those teams and the Heat.

To put it another way, we're very clearly favored to be better than two New York teams next season, one that just signed Deron Williams, traded for Joe Johnson, and has Wallace/Humphries/Lopez to boot. The other has Amare, Melo, Chandler and a few other guys.

In any case, we can be critical, but must we all be negative and depressing about the current state (by all signs good) of this team?

Either that, or hordes of readers just decided to put their money where their mouth is and bet against the Bulls.