Chicago Bulls' Continuity Has Many Moving Parts

The postseason showdown between the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers seems like an inevitability to much of the league. And while the Cavs appear to be wealthier in talent than Chicago, one major advantage is often cited for the Bulls: their continuity.

With coach Tom Thibodeau in place for his fifth season in Chicago and Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Kirk Hinrich and Jimmy Butler alongside him for much of that time, there’s a lot to that theory. But the Bulls’ continuity is actually much less smooth than you may think.

The primary complication to the team’s supposed year-to-year consistency is its most important player, Derrick Rose. Reintegrating Rose after he played just 10 games over the past two seasons won’t be easy. Especially when the superstar’s fragile body continues to keep his organization on edge—he’s already missed two games in November with two sprained ankles.

The Bulls’ rotation and chemistry are further complicated by their bringing in a 34-year-old Pau Gasol, new backup point guard Aaron Brooks and two rookies who look to be getting solid minutes in Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott. All are good additions, to be sure, but they’re also more pieces the Bulls need to correctly shuffle over the course of the season.

Gasol’s presence and acclimation period, along with Noah’s slow-going recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery over the summer, mean Chicago’s frontcourt play is still far from where the front office would like it to be. The team’s rebounding deficit is the most telling sign in this category—after nearing the top of the league at getting boards for every year of the Thibodeau era, the Bulls are just No. 15 in rebounding percentage through their first five games.

The defensive end of the glass is especially worrisome. From Blog a Bull’s Kevin Ferrigan:

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The Bulls entire team has been pretty bad at snagging defensive rebounds and keeping their opponents off the offensive glass. This was most glaring in the Bulls lone loss of the season against LeBron's Cleveland Cavaliers, as Tristan Thompson snagged [twelve offensive boards in the game] as the Bulls just could not finish their defense by securing the basketball.

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Chicago optimists should hope Gasol’s adjustment to Thibodeau’s intense, principle-driven defense is a big part of his struggles to end defensive possessions by getting the rebound. Gasol wasn’t asked to defend the rim with this kind of fervor by his last Los Angeles Lakers coach, Mike D’Antoni, so it may take him some time to balance all his new responsibilities.

Just like it’s probably that the Bulls won’t know which Rose they have for quite a while. The explosive Rose everyone remembered appeared against Cleveland, but in Rose’s return game against the Milwaukee Bucks he looked to be bothered by his health, favoring a cerebral general’s role to that of the lane-penetrator the Bulls will eventually need.

They’ll also the need the volcano version of Noah, who stormed the league last year while grabbing a Defensive Player of the Year trophy, if they’re to compete for a title. After a summer spent resting his repaired knee, Noah has looked gassed early on—he wasn’t able to get into the playing shape he needs to be in to overwhelm the enemy. The Bulls’ continuity doesn’t mean much until their best player of the last two seasons starts looking like himself again.

And though Aaron Brooks' scoring has been encouraging thus far, his defense for the Bulls is definitely a work in progress. Brooks was torched by the Cavs' Kyrie Irving in both the preseason and regular season. He's undersized at a skinny 6'0", and despite athletic highlights like this block on the monstrous Orlando Magic big man Nikola Vucevic, Brooks could be a problem for the Bulls against bigger guards.

Mirotic and McDermott have also turned heads early on, displaying growth in each game they play. But they're still a long ways away from being defenders that Thibodeau will want to depend upon when the opposition gets tougher—the Bulls have had a soft early schedule, which has allowed them to develop both rookies a bit, but whether they can add to the Bulls' depth come springtime remains to be seen.

Noah and Rose's health, Gasol's adjustment period and Brooks, McDermott and Mirotic—three bench players looking to learn Thibodeau’s schemes while finding opportunities in a surprisingly crowded offense—add up to a Bulls formula that suddenly looks to hold a whole lot of variables. While we know we’ll always get tenacious effort from them, all their health issues and new pieces make it hard to say we can depend on much else being continuous in Chicago.