2014 - 2015 Eastern Conference

[Ohio]

You're under-selling them...a lot.



Who's gassing them up? That's a team that won 48 games last year without Derrick Rose. He's coming back this season and apparently he's still a pretty good player because he beat out Dame Lillard and Kyrie for the starting PG spot on Team USA.

They're a well constructed team and I'd have them as championship contenders even if they were in the West. Their roster looks that good.

If you want to rationalize why so many people think they'll give us a challenge then go ahead. But the truth is so many people think we'll be in close competition with them because we're both really good teams.

Don't believe the hype...

Their win total last year means nothing to me, in all honesty. Thibs killing his players and overachieving to a 48 win season and a quick playoff exit...whoopty doo.

Contenders in the West? That is asinine. But everyone is entitled to their opinion. They wouldn't even get homecourt in the 1st round over there.

Edit: To answer your question, "Who's gassing them up?" - anyone who says they are on par with the Cavs.

 

[Cashius X]

Don't believe the hype...

Their win total last year means nothing to me, in all honesty. Thibs killing his players and overachieving to a 48 win season and a quick playoff exit...whoopty doo.

Contenders in the West? That is asinine. But everyone is entitled to their opinion. They wouldn't even get homecourt in the 1st round over there.

You realize the last time that team was healthy (as in before Derrick Rose got hurt, 2010-2012) their record was good enough to be the #1 seed throughout the entire NBA, right? They would've had HCA regardless of who they played.

You're not being objective at all smh. They're a good team...contenders even. You'll find out when the season starts.

 

[Ohio]

You realize the last time that team was healthy (as in before Derrick Rose got hurt, 2010-2012) their record was good enough to be the #1 seed throughout the entire NBA, right? They would've had HCA regardless of who they played.

You're not being objective at all smh. They're a good team...contenders even. You'll find out when the season starts.

You realize Rose hasn't played basketball in 2 years right? Excuse me for not jumping on the MVP train because he made a couple layups in 20 minutes in an exhibition

 

[Cashius X]

You realize Rose hasn't played basketball in 2 years right? Excuse me for not jumping on the MVP train because he made a couple layups in 20 minutes in an exhibition

The Bulls won 48 games last year. This offseason the Bulls have: gotten rid of Carlos Boozer, added Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic, and Doug McDermott, and essentially they've replaced Kirk Hinrich as a starter with Derrick Rose. HCA was 54 wins last season in the West...you're telling me this Bulls team can't achieve that?

You don't have to be on the "MVP Train" to acknowledge that they're a really good team. I'm not. But whether Derrick Rose goes back to the MVP caliber player he used to be or the above average guard we saw at the beginning of last season, that Bulls team will be very competitive and a tough out regardless.

 

[Pioneer10]

I won't disagree with you on this. It's scary how deep they are. In terms of roster depth, they have a bunch of very good/versatile players.
It will be a great rivalry between those two teams in the upcoming years.

I don't want to go to deep right now in breaking down their roster... However, they have some big question marks as well:
Health, Age, Rooks, outside shooting.
While the first two points are pretty obvious (Gasol/Dunleavy/Hinrich are all 34+ years old come playoff time), let me explain the last two points.
They are relying heavily on good performances from their rookies a la McDermott/Mirotic. If the McDermott experiment doesn't pan out (who knows?), Bulls have a real big hole at the small forward position...not good for them.
Mirotic is unproven as well and on defense is where both players really struggle.
Now you might think that outside shooting isn't a problem at all for Chicago with the acquisitions of McDermott, Mirotic and Moore...
But: Their expected starting line up (Rose/Butler/McDermott/Gasol/Noah) is not good at shooting the 3 ball AT ALL. McDermott probably is the only player capable of draining 3 pointers on a consistent basis.
Of course, they have good flexibility with Mirotic, Snell and Moore. But the questions is: What are you willing to give up to get better outside shooting? And the obvious answer, in this case, is defense.
Snell/Moore for Butler and Mirotic for Gasol/Noah will certainly help their shooting but at the same time, it downgrades their perimeter and paint defense - their biggest strength...
Imo, our starting five is more well balanced in that aspect, which will help a lot.

Bulls and Cavs really are neck and neck right now, but we clearly are the more talented team. And in the end, talent is what wins playoff games!

I agree the Bulls are an odd mix: really dependent on 3 guys McDermott, Mirotic, and Gasol who are either really young/unproven or old. In addition, they have a lot of depth but most of their player are good only in one way. We have similar issues possibly with Irving but the Bulls really all go one way or other
-Noah and Gibson excellent defenders but I'm not really worried about them torching us in the post
-Mirotic and McDermott possibly will be good offensive players but their defense isn't going to be strong particularly as they are rookies who weren't known for defense prior to the NBA
-Butler is a good defender but not good on offense
-Rose: who knows
-Dunleavy: one way again.

The problem I see for them is they are going to have a hard time isolating poor defenders as the Cavs have plenty of options to put a good offensive player basically at every spot if they want. Plus, unlike other teams the Cavs don't have to sacrifice rebounding by going small against the Bulls with Love on board. Guys like Waiters could have a field day going against the Bulls third best perimeter defender, particularly if the Bulls are trying to get some offense in there.

 

[amil99]

There's also no proof their best player, Drose, will be better than our 3rd best player, Kyrie, in 2015

 

[Pioneer10]

One other point: if you wanted to know why the Cavs wanted to guarantee getting Love right now instead of taking a chance later this it.
There was no way Lebron wanted to go into the season facing Noah/Gibson/Gasol/Mirotic with AV and Tristan Thompson (or if you want to kind throw in Hawes/Zeller and it still looks like crap)

 

[Superman]

Aside from the obvious Rose health issues, the Bulls still have the same issue they had in 2011 which is why they'll never be championship contenders imo. That issue is that Rose is still their only creator and penetrator and that's putting too much on one guy. They look great in the regular season (even when Rose is hurt) because they play harder than anyone else. But once the playoffs hit they underachieve every year because all the playoff teams up their intensity as well. That's why you need multiple shot creators, guys who you can give the ball to and make a play when things get tight. No team can win a championship with just one of those guys. Cavs have 4 assuming Love trade finalizes (James, Waiters, Kyrie, Love), Spurs have 4 (Parker, Duncan, Manu, Leonard). If you want to argue Gasol is a shot creator fine, but that's still just two when most championship teams that I can remember have several.

 

[Bandwagoner305]

Numbers don't lie. Shawn Marion was better defensively last season than Shane Battier. Both guys played for defensive-minded head coach, but Marion was just as good defensively for the Mavs as Dalembert was with a tied defensive win share of 2.1. Believe it or not, Kevin Love had his best defensive season last year with a career high in defensive win share of 3.7 tied with LeBron who had an off/lazy defensive season. Better than Bosh's defensive win share of 3.4. Another surprising twist is that Kyrie Irving is a better defender than Waiters. Irving was actually on Wade's level last season defensively. Wade had his worst overall defensive win share of 2.0, while Kyrie had his career's best defensive win share of 2.1.

 

[Simon]

There's also no proof their best player, Drose, will be better than our 3rd best player, Kyrie, in 2015

If Rose returns to MVP form, he could be.

 

[Bandwagoner305]

Let's keep it 100. If Rose is healthy enough to play 70+ games, he'll have a better season than Kyrie. He doesn't even have to play like the 2011 Rose to have a better year than Kyrie. Although, Kyrie's career best win share of 6.7 last year would be Rose's second best career win share. So in other words, Kyrie isn't that far behind Rose in terms of overall impact when both are healthy. He's only a few feet behind Rose instead of miles. I don't think Rose can have another season where he end with a 13.1 win share as he did in 2011.

 

[tn819]

Let's keep it 100 Kyrie hasn't lived up to his potential and could exceed his previous best season and drose has had two massive surgeries. Sadly his great season is looking more like an exception!

 

[Dungong]

There are so many unknowns at this point that its fair to say that the Bulls and Cavs will be close atop the East. For one, there just isn't another team out there to challenge, as the Pacers and Heat will be way off from last year and they with the Wizards I guess make up the next tier. Actually, Indy has a chance to be really bad but I'm going to give the rest of their team some credit here.

Theres going to be an adjustment period and it might not be prety. Blatt is new to the NBA, the two most important players on the team are new (Lebron and Love) and the top 3 (with Kyrie) have never played with each other. Ironically, they could be right now if they all opted into team USA, but they'll figure things out, it just might take a while. Then you wonder how much guys like Marion, Miller, and Ray Allen (I'm just going to go ahead and presume he's coming onboard). Also, if theres an injury to Andy or Kyrie, who knows what happens. You pretty much know what to expect from each player on the roster though as the rooks just aren't going to factor in much.

The Bulls have an equal number of questions, Rose, Gasol, McDermott, and Mirotic; all fairly unknown at this point. We do know though that they were a good team without any of those guys last year. You'll point to defensive inefficiencies but they got Thibs coaching them, who unlike Mr. Potato Head, does seem like an elite defensive coach and will get more bang for the buck on that end than you'd expect. Throw in Noah, Gibson, and Butler and lets face it, they're going to have a good team.

Yeah, I like our team better, but the Bulls are going to be good too, and I wouldn't be surprised if their record is close to ours.

 

[amil99]

If Rose returns to MVP form, he could be.

Not gonna happen.

 

[Cashius X]

Not gonna happen.

It's so obvious isn't it?