This may end up being one of the shortest fan posts ever, but I need to distract myself from reading Derrick news. (Speaking of which, how much his little smirk has been blown so far out of proportion...imagine giving one tiny look and having it become hundreds of news articles.)

Anyways, has anyone else been unbelievably excited by the (admittedly tiny) sample size we have gotten from Jimmy B the past two games? Honestly if anyone tells me they are not excited to see the below lineup play, you are lying.

Rose

Butler

Deng

Gibson

Noah

Here is a link to a lineup-matching analysis of the above (minus Rose + Teague) for this season vs. the Heat 5 of (Chalmers,Wade,James,Battier,Bosh). Stats are a bit wobbly, but I like the general idea if Derrick is in there.

Energy, rebounding, defense, athleticism.

I go in and out of these phases of thought regarding the (healthy) Bulls title hopes, mostly thanks to Freidell's lazy and monotonous reporting. Sometimes I buy into his whole 'over the top' bullshit, but when I see Deng throw down, and Jimmy hitting 3s, I start to think it may be possible. Call it hope, or whatever, but I like to look optimistically at our boys from time to time.