Why the Chicago Bulls CAN Succeed (A Response to TAB BAMFORD)

The Chicago Bulls are currently in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. 

They have won five of their last six games, including a 99-91 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night. 

I recently logged on to the NBA page of Bleacher Report to find any article on Chicago's recent success, only to find an article by TAB BRAMFORD titled, "Chicago Bulls: Why They Cannot, and Will Not Succeed".

In reading the article, I found it very interesting that a writer would choose now, of all times, to bash this basketball team.

It would appear that Chicago, who as recently as March 3, was on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs go, but now they find themselves with a two-game lead over Charlotte (of all teams) with ten to play.

I bring up the fact that they lead Charlotte because TAB pointed out that Ben Gordon made a comment about maintaining a lead over Milwaukee.

That comment may have been relevant last week or two weeks ago, but the guy couldn't even do any research and find the exact quote for his article.

He began his article by claiming that Chicago's mindset "sucks", and used Ben Gordon's comment as the sole reason. 

To associate a week-old (maybe older) comment with the entire team's mindset is absolutely absurd. 

Rebuttal: Chicago's mindset is stellar

For a team, led by a rookie point guard, to be playing their best ball in the latter part of March is astounding, quite frankly. 

Here is what the aforementioned Gordon had to say after Chicago's win over Detroit.

"Right now we're in the playoffs. A month ago we weren't," said Gordon. "We just have to keep this up, keep playing well, especially at home, trying to improve our seeding if we can."

Doesn't sound as though he is too concerned about Milwaukee now, eh TAB?

Not only is Gordon taking the playoff run to the next level, but newly-acquired shooting forward John Salmons thinks the team is focused as well, and despite the fact that the Pistons were without three starters, the Bulls still approached the game normally.

“No, I mean everyone stepped up. Guys played a lot of minutes and we got the win. It was a good win for us,” said Salmons.

A rookie head coach, a rookie point guard, and a red-hot trade deadline acquisition leading the way to a playoff berth. 

Sounds like the type of mindset you want your team to have heading into potential post-season play to me.

TAB then went on to criticize Vinny Del Negro's rotation, only to complain about two players—Tyrus Thomas, and the injured Luol Deng.

Rebuttal:  Chicago's rotation is better than it has been all season

Instead of addressing whether or not Tyrus Thomas should be playing the No. 3 or No. 4 in this segment of the article, and how he has 17 of his 24 double-doubles this season, I will actually address the topic at hand.

The starting five for Chicago on Tuesday night was as follows:

C—Joakim Noah

PF-Tyrus Thomas

SF—John Salmons

SG—Ben Gordon

PG—Kirk Hinrich

Normally, Rose is the starter at point guard, while Hinrich comes off the bench. At shooting guard, Ben Gordon is as capable a scorer as any in the NBA, and is the Bulls' best free throw shooter, which is often overlooked. 

For 35-plus minutes on an average night, Rose's blazing speed creates opportunities on the outside for slasher John Salmons and spot shooter Ben Gordon.

The Bulls' offense is based on the screen and roll, while off the ball, Ben Gordon, Salmons, and even Hinrich are freed via screens.

The sure-fire rookie of the year Rose is averaging over 16 points and six assists per game. When not on the floor, Rose is relieved by Hinrich who, aside from being the best defender on the Bulls, is averaging nearly 10 points and four assists per game.

Most recently, he shredded Detroit for 24 points and eight assists.

Gordon, meanwhile, is the perfect compliment to Rose at shooting guard.  He is leading the team, averaging 20.4 points per game.

Luol Deng has missed significant time due to injury, and the fact that he is not playing to the monetary value of his paycheck is arguably the only viable point BRAMFORD made in his entire piece. 

Still, Deng is averaging a respectable 14 points and six rebounds per game.

His 14 points will be a welcomed return, and an added bonus, after he recovers from injury. In his absence, the Bulls have gotten along just fine with Salmons, who was acquired from the Kings back in February.

With Chicago, Salmons is averaging 19.8 points per game, 5.1 rebounds, and is shooting 50.2% from the floor.  Most importantly, Salmons is connecting on 88% of his free throws.

He has been the driving force in Chicago's recent playoff run.

The Chicago big men are led by the young Tyrus Thomas, who recorded his 17th double-double of the season on Tuesday night. 

In addition to Thomas' new-found jump shot and confidence, the Bulls have also seemingly found a niche for former first round pick Joakim Noah, the team's starting center.

After an extremely slow start to the season, Noah has really come on as a defender.  He is contributing only eight points to the offensive effort, but is averaging over nine rebounds per game in the past two months.

Brad Miller is a great compliment to the center position in relief of Noah, joining the Bulls as the other half of the Sacramento trade. Miller is a very good passer for a big man, and is averaging 11.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists for Chicago this season. 

Also off the bench come the sharpshooting Tim Thomas, lockdown defender Lindsey Hunter, and the occasional contribution from Aaron Gray. 

It would seem as though the Bulls' rotation is just fine to me, especially for a team that wasn't supposed to do anything this season.

That actually covered both the rotation and coaching style comments by TAB, so I don't need to get back into Chicago's starting five. 

I do want to make the point that there is nothing more irrelevant than who starts in the NBA.  You can sub in anyone you want at any time. 

In fact, Tim Thomas started the game against Washington on Monday, and only ended up playing about two minutes.

Conclusion

Chris Bosh hasn't done anything for Toronto this year, so why would selling the farm to land him in the offseason do anything for Chicago? 

Thomas is coming on, Noah is finding his spot on the team, and Miller is a very capable, experienced backup.

The market is always good in Chicago, so the status of the team is irrelevant. 

Dwyane Wade coming to Chicago would be great, and he is from Illinois, but I doubt he'll want to play there. Even if the Bulls were the eighth seed again next season, I don't feel that Chicago would be a favored free agency selection for Wade.

Chicago can do things in the playoffs:

1. They may not be able to win a series against a fully healthy Boston or Cleveland, but it is wide open in the Eastern Conference this season.
   
2. Chicago is pushing hard to get past Detroit for the seventh seed, and could find themselves in a best-of-seven series with No. 2 seed Boston.

Was this article meant to say Chicago boasts the best team in the NBA? No.

It was intended to prove that now is not the time to hate on a team playing its best basketball, a team that has never looked better this season, and is not even fully healthy. 

No personal knock to TAB, but I think you wrote this article about two weeks too late.