Who Will Carry These Injured Chicago Bulls to the Playoffs?

If “ball is life,” then being a Chicago Bulls fan must be death.

The sucker punches keep coming. First, Derrick Rose is out four to six weeks with another knee injury. Then, Taj Gibson, who has already missed one week, is out for another. Now, you can add Jimmy Butler to the list for three to six weeks.

As if all that weren’t enough, it looks like this could be Tom Thibodeau’s final season as the head coach. 

And for good measure,  the weather sucks too.

It’s enough to make any self-respecting Bulls fan want to kick something.

Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

From almost the moment the Thibodeau era started in the summer of 2010—before there was ever even a practice—Carlos Boozer “tripped over a gym bag” answering the door and broke his hand. Ever since, it seems the team has been waiting to get healthy.

The chart below shows why there’s so much frustration from being a Bulls fan. The blu`e bar indicates the number of games the Bulls played. The red indicates the number of games the starting five was available. The remaining bars show the wins and losses in those games.

So on the surface, this year just seems like another year of the same old thing for the Bulls. But there is one big distinction: As of now, the whole roster is expected to be around for the playoffs. Admittedly, this could change, and it wouldn’t shock anyone if it did. But for now, the team could be healthy when it matters.

This year isn’t a matter of getting through the playoffs without its starting backcourt—it’s about getting to them. And that process could actually be a good thing for the Bulls. There are three reasons to not completely give up hope.

Reason One: Hello Snell, Goodbye Hinrich?

Thibodeau’s reputation for being stubborn is earned. But he’s not obtuse. He’s averse to change, not impervious to it.

In the 2012-13 season, when Richard Hamilton was making regular trips to the injured list and Butler started outplaying him in his absence, Hamilton finally got healthy but was out of the rotation by then. If anything, Thibodeau over-swung that pendulum. Hamilton played 68 minutes total in 12 postseason games.

Butler only became the starter over a healthy Hamilton with six games left in the regular season, but he played 40.8 minutes in the playoffs, which included one stretch of three straight contests without a blow.

This year, it’s pretty clear that Kirk Hinrich’s time has come. His player efficiency rating is 6.8. In the history of the earth, only three players have had worse seasons and played as much, per Basketball-Reference.com.

It’s not hard to make a case for Tony Snell to get more minutes in that light, and with Butler out, he will. Snell’s performance of late has opened some eyes. His PER in February was 16.8, per RealGM.com. That’s even higher than All-Star Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors. That’s not to say Snell is better than Thompson, but he sure is better than Hinrich.

Snell outplayed LeBron James against Cleveland right before the All-Star break. Snell was plus-29 to James' -27. Six of James' eight turnovers were forced by Snell, who also 9-of-11 from the field and scored 22 points. The four highest-scoring games of his career have come in his last nine contests. He is a player on the rise. Hinrich is clearly in demise. 

The four highest-scoring games of Snell's career have come in his last nine contests. He is a player on the rise. Hinrich is clearly in demise. 

The extended run Snell will be getting should be enough to persuade Thibodeau it’s time to make a permanent rotation change. It’s happened before and it can happen again. More Snell and less Hinrich in the postseason would be a good thing.

Reason Two: A More Diversified Offense 

Thibodeau also conceded to reality last year when Rose went down, and he had to rework the offense to run through the passing of Joakim Noah. It turned Noah into an MVP candidate and First Team All-NBA center.

This year, with Nikola Mirotic and Pau Gasol in the fold, the Bulls have a lot more offensive talent, even without Rose and Butler. Last year, Bulls players scored 25 points or more just 18 times, and 20-plus on 77 occasions. This year, those numbers are 36 and 92, respectively, and the Bulls still have 22 games to play.   

Gasol had a career-high 46 this season facing the Milwaukee Bucks. Snell's best of 24 came just before the All-Star break against the Sacramento Kings. Mirotic notched 29 against the Los Angeles Clippers on March 1. Aaron Brooks had a 26-point game this season and has a 43-point game on his resume. And they've barely scratched the surface with rookie Doug McDermott. 

And now they have more ability to stretch the court and run a modern offense. They have a team-record four players averaging 2.0 three-point makes per 36 minutes: Mirotic, Snell, Brooks and Mike Dunleavy. Last year, they had just one: D.J. Agustin.

That could pay dividends in the playoffs. Learning to trust in three-point shooting now should give Thibodeau more confidence to go to it in the future. For example, if they’re struggling against the Washington Wizards bigs as they have in the past, they could go with a lineup that includes Snell, Dunleavy and Mirotic.  

One of the strengths of this team is its versatility. The injuries may force Thibodeau to utilize it. And eventually, he could even come to trust it.

Who can carry the Bulls to the playoffs? Everyone. 

Reason Three: Rest for the Weary

For the last few years, the Bulls did everything they could get to the playoffs but then had nothing left in the tank once they got there. This year could be the opposite.

Butler is confident he and his backcourt buddy will return for the playoffs, telling K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: 

"

I think we’re both going to be back as soon as possible, but I think we both have to be smart about it. I’m not going to say that we’re going to come back on the same day because I don’t know. But I definitely think we both want to make it back before the end of the season.

"

They should return rested, and that has advantages. 

Rose has had an up-and-down season, but much of that has to do with how well-rested he was. In the second half of back-to-backs, he’s averaging 15.2 points on 35.7 percent shooting and 44.1 percent true shooting. With one day’s rest, those numbers are 19.8 points, 39.9 percent and 48.1 percent. On two or more day’s rest, they are 19.1, 46.4 percent and 56.2 percent.  

With Snell’s minutes going up, Butler’s were coming down a bit. After most of January saw his efficiency slipping, he averaged 20.5 points on 59.2 percent true shooting in a relatively moderate 36.2 minutes over the 12 games leading into his injury. That indicates his efficiency hit might have had some fatigue involved. 

A better-rested Rose and Butler is a good thing for the Bulls in the postseason, even if it is forced upon them. And per PlayoffStatus.com, their schedule for the remainder of the season is the ninth-easiest in the league, so the penalty shouldn't be that high.

The Bulls don’t have to really fight for seeding at this point. They are currently one game behind the Toronto Raptors for the No. 2 seed and 4.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks for the No. 6 seed. They’re not going to slip past that. And for a team that sports the third-best road record in the league, winning an away game in the playoffs isn’t an insurmountable obstacle.

For the Bulls this year, there’s not much difference between second and sixth. It’s more to their advantage to have a rested and healthy Butler and Rose heading into the postseason than going in beaten up and spent like they have the past few years.

Once the playoffs start, the reset button gets hit and all that matters is who wins the games in front of them.  The Bulls' starting five is 15-4. If they have everyone, and Thibodeau trusts them, a Finals run is still in this group.

All stats are provided by Basketball-Reference.com or NBA.com/Stats unless otherwise annotated.