Chicago Bulls' System and Stars Are Transforming Each Other
The Chicago Bulls are winning, but they aren’t quite sure yet who they are this season.
Between their new-look roster and head coach Tom Thibodeau, they’ve been forming a new style of basketball for themselves. With added talent comes added organizational responsibilities, and while Chicago has played well for much of the 2014-15 season, the team’s identity is still only partially formed.
Recently, the Bulls’ defensive efficiency climbed into the league’s top 10. This came after an underwhelming start under the defensive tutelage of Thibodeau, who’s regularly led his team to the top of the NBA in that category since joining the franchise in 2010. While Taj Gibson indicated it was a lack of trust causing the slump, his coach disagreed, suggesting it was just a lack of a hustle (likely, the problems were a little bit of both).
Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah missing seven games hasn't exactly helped, either.
But, regardless, this is a different team now. While the Bulls defense could very well become tops in basketball again by the end of the year, it’s no longer essential that Chicago defines itself by its ability to get stops.
With Derrick Rose back in the lineup—and gradually becoming the show-stopping point guard he once was again—the Bulls can score in bushels. This is especially true, given that future Hall of Famer Pau Gasol has joined Rose in the starting lineup, and Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks make for a potent offensive duo off the bench—not to mention Jimmy Butler’s scoring explosion.
A new Chicago system has been forming in recent days, and its 115-106 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on December 12 put the transformation at center stage. The Bulls looked almost unfamiliar as a high-octane outfit, outscoring the hot hands of Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge (70 points combined) for the win.
The victory had a lot to do with Rose, who put up 31 points on 14-of-24 shooting. The most famous Bull put up a vintage performance, blurring around the court and scoring at will on many possessions. “He’s building,” Thibodeau said after the contest. “He’s stringing good games together.
“When he plays like that, there’s a thrust we play with—when he’s pushing the ball, we’re able to get some easy baskets. We get deep post-ups, we get to the penalty early and get free throws, a lot of good things happen.”
If Rose continues to re-blossom, it might be time to say goodbye to the plodding Bulls offense of old. It simply doesn’t make sense to run a grit-first system when you’ve got a Ferrari in your garage that is capable of zooming around the competition and freeing up teammates for high-percentage opportunities.
The emergence of Mirotic—another main story of the night—also makes for a Bulls attack that features a lot more flash than the fans are used to. Mirotic added 15 points and nine rebounds on the night, but his impact is better-stated outside the box score. Mirotic makes the court an exciting, unpredictable place with his authorial hold on possessions and strong, surprising instincts. This play at the beginning of the fourth quarter showed that:
As Grantland’s Bill Simmons describes it, he’s “a rich man’s [Vladimir] Radmanovic after three lines of cocaine.”
Brooks, too, was essential in the win, scoring 17 points on a scorching 8-of-10 from the field and sharing the court with Rose (for the first time all year) in crunch time. “It was fun,” Rose said of the pairing. “People forget that he used to be a starter in this league, and he can really score.”
It’s been standard fare for Thibodeau to go with two point guards down the stretch in seasons past, but one of those men is usually the trusty Kirk Hinrich, whose often-punchless offense is offset by his ability to take care of the ball. More of the Rose-Brooks, speed-and-scoring-first combo going forward might be another sign of an evolving "Bullsball."
It’s an exciting—if confusing—time to be a Bulls fan. The team’s stars and their coach are finding a happy, thrilling median between his iron-clad defensive concepts and a more freewheeling, skill-based scoring platoon that makes for a much more aesthetically enjoyable product. Watching Rose and Butler run in the open court—and seeing all these three-pointers go in—is a heck of a thing.
Who will the Bulls become in the postseason? Who they need to be is a team that can both score and defend better than ever. So far, they appear to be on their way there—rocky and clouded as that road may be.
Quotes acquired firsthand.
Advanced statistics courtesy of ESPN.
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