Chicago Bulls Need to Rediscover Their Defensive Identity

CHICAGO — “We’ve got to decide what we want to be.”

In the past, the answer to Tom Thibodeau’s question was easy. The Chicago Bulls teams he's coached have always been defensive juggernauts, teams that grind out wins no matter the personnel by slowing down the pace and taking opponents out of their flow.

Part of that has been by necessity—you have to find other ways to win games when Derrick Rose misses most of two years. But now that Rose is back and other players have stepped up offensively, the Bulls have hit a wall on the other end of the floor. They’re taking defense for granted after putting in so much work on that end for four years. They’re relying on their offense to carry them, and it’s not working.

“If we’re going to come in and just try to outscore people, we’re not going anywhere,” said Thibodeau. “I know that’s not gonna work.”

Just a week ago, the Bulls looked like world-beaters. Coming off a stretch of 13 wins in 15 games, they rattled off victories against the Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets, looking as dangerous as anybody in the league.

But they’ve lost three of their last four games, including losses at home to the Utah Jazz and the Orlando Magic. The schedule doesn’t get much easier, either. This week sees them taking on the Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks, and the rest of January features the Cleveland Cavaliers (presumably with LeBron James back in the lineup), San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns.

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After fielding a top-five defense in each of Thibodeau’s first four seasons in Chicago, the Bulls have dropped to 10th in the league, giving up 101.7 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com. On Monday, they gave up 121 points to the Magic, who have the NBA’s fourth-worst offense at 98.9 points per 100 possessions.

Things have to change, and everyone knows it. There have been injuries—Joakim Noah has been a shadow of the destructive force that won Defensive Player of the Year last season, and Mike Dunleavy has missed the last six games and may not return for another week. But there will always be injuries, there will always be mitigating factors, and the Bulls are done making excuses.

“We’ve given away too many home games against teams that we shouldn’t,” said Pau Gasol. “And that has to stop.”

The Bulls have become a much better offensive team this season, with the addition of Gasol and the emergence of Jimmy Butler as a 20-point scorer. But with their newfound offensive firepower has come a complacency on the other end, the end of the floor that has been their bread and butter for so long.

“We’re thinking that, ‘We’re the Chicago Bulls, and we can just waltz in and beat guys right away,'” said Taj Gibson. “And we have to understand, we have a target on our back. A lot of teams want to prove that they can beat a quality team, a great team like us.”

The Bulls have all the pieces to contend for a title. They have scorers, elite defensive personnel and a coach who has proved he can get the most out of whatever team he’s able to put on the floor. But they’ve lost their edge, gotten too comfortable with where they are. And everyone involved recognizes that a course correction needs to take place.

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“At times I think we forget, when we’re scoring the ball so easily, you get relaxed,” said Gibson. “I look at how teams are looking to push the ball against us, and we just get too high on ourselves instead of staying humble and low-key. We’ve got to have that [underdog] mentality again.”

In time, the loss to the Magic could come to be a wake-up call for this team, the point where all of the Bulls’ bad habits built up and spilled over until they could not be ignored anymore. The lazy transition defense, the shoddy rim protection, all of it. They’re coming up on a tough stretch of schedule, facing a quality opponent practically every night. But given the trouble they’ve had with the bottom-tier teams, projecting wins and losses is all but impossible with this team.

The Bulls already know what they want to be—a team with a chance to contend for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. To get there, they need to go back to their roots, lock in on the defensive end and trust that the scoring will come.

But knowing what they want to do is only half the battle. Now, they have to do it.

Sean Highkin covers the Chicago Bulls for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @highkin