Breakdown of the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Chicago Bulls Starters

The Chicago Bulls went beyond expectations last year, winning 62 games and climbing all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were ousted by the Miami Heat. 

Why did they achieve so much and why didn't they get past the Heat and go even further? I'll be taking a look at the Chicago Bulls starting five and the strengths and weaknesses of each player. 

Keith Bogans

Strengths: Glue, Defense, Open Jump Shots

Keith Bogans is arguably the weakest starter in the NBA. He doesn't play major minutes, and he honestly doesn't contribute a whole lot. That's not to see he has absolutely no strengths, though. 

Bogans offers a reasonably good jump shot, but he needs real space to hit it. He scores 1.05 points per play on the spot-up, which, while not great, is not horrible. 

His defense is solid, though not as good as some people would have you believe. He is exceptionally difficult to post up on, as he yields only .64 points per play against the post. 

Probably the most that he offers is "glue." Bogans does a lot of little things that aren't measured. If he contributes a little on offense, the Bulls tend to win. When Bogans hit at at least two three-point shots, the Bulls were 28-3 last season. When he scored nine points or more, they were 12-0. 

Weaknesses: Shot Creating, Ball Handling

Saying that Keith Bogans' weakness is ball handling is something like saying that Tiger Woods struggled with fidelity issues. It's way beyond a weakness; it's a borderline disability.

Bogans created a shot last year, and that was the appropriate article I used. It was singular. He made one shot off the dribble, and I remember it. It looked strange to see Bogans taking someone off the dribble. 

The United Center went silent for a moment, as though they'd just seen an unexpected eclipse or a black hole had opened up in the middle of the court.  Bogans ranks as the 65th  "best" shooting guard in the NBA in efficiency. No player with more minutes than him is behind him. 

To say that Bogans is not a starting caliber shooting guard is insufficient. On most of the NBA teams, he's not even the second best shooting guard. 

There's a reason that everyone in Chicago, including management, is looking for an upgrade. 

Joakim Noah

Strengths: Athletic Defense, Rebounding, Emotional Leadership, Scrap Scoring

Joakim Noah's greatest strengths are his defense and rebounding. When it comes to defending one-on-one, it's arguable that no one, not even Dwight Howard, is better than Noah, and I say that knowing full well how crazy it sounds. 

There are two plays which are primarily de hombre a hombre plays that a center is going to have to work. On those two plays, which account for about 30 percent of Noah's defense, he gives up only about .6 points per play and a field goal percentage of just under 30 percent. With Howard, those numbers are closer to .77 and 40 percent. 

It is hard to put that into perspective, but this might help. There were only 16 times all season, including the postseason, when opposing teams successfully converted the pick and roll to the roll man on Noah. 

Noah is also an excellent rebounder. Prior to his thumb injury, he was averaging over 15 rebounds a game. After he returned, his timing never quite came back and then he turned his ankle. When he's healthy, he's one of the two or three best reboudners in the game. 

There are two other things that are noteworthy concerning Noah, and they kind of go together. He's a hustle player. He gets the loose balls. He is an outstanding offensive rebounder. He gets a lot of "scrap" points, where he picks up the garbage from broken plays and manages to get the ball in the basket. 

In fact, that accounts for a huge chunk of his offense. More than a third of all his points come either in transition or off of offensive boards. 

Because of that, he is an emotional catalyst for the Bulls. His effort is contagious. His will to win is really something special. He doesn't have the talent of a player like Michael  Jordan or Kobe Bryant, but he does have the heart. He's able to spread that kind of enthusiasm to his teammates. 

Weaknesses: Strength, Offensive Sets

While Noah's athleticism makes him exceptional in defending against the pick and roll and in isolation, he can get victimized on post-up plays when the opponent presses him down and then steps back. Of the 167 field goals made against Noah last season, 123 of them came on either post-up plays or spot-up jumpers. Virtually all of those were with a player creating a step of space and scoring over Noah. 

Noah can get stronger to improve on that. He tends to steel himself against being backed down, and that bracing makes it harder for him to react when the player releases against him and steps back, which gives the opponent just enough time and space to make the shot over Noah. 

If he had more pure strength, Noah wouldn't have to push so hard against opponents to not get backed down, which would allow him to use his extraordinary athleticism for his size to react more fluidly against the step back. 

Admittedly, this is picking at nits, but this is Noah's biggest "weakness" on defense. 

Offensively, Noah is not a dependable player in offensive sets. He has a strange looking, but effective shot. Working more on becoming a reliable, planned part of the offensive game would be a big plus for the Bulls. Noah made only 97 field goals out of planned sets last season, including the playoffs. The Bulls need more from their starting center. 

Luol Deng

Strengths: Cuts, Spot-up, Defense, Glue

Luol Deng is probably the second best shot creator on the Bulls. The bulk of the shots he creates though come without the ball. Deng is extremely adept at creating shots on cuts, averaging 1.28 points per play and a 65.6 percent field goal percentage when he cuts to the basket. 

Additionally, he is very good in transition without the ball. Nearly 20 percent of his points have come off of such plays, and he's averaging 1.32 points and a 62.1 percent field goal percentage in transition. 

Defensively, he routinely draws the toughest defensive assignments. In spite of that, he averages only .81 points per play against and gives a lowly 37.2 percent field goal percentage. 

Deng is also the glue player in the league. If the NBA gave out a best glue guy award, it would be Deng. When his name came up in trade speculation, there's a reason that Tom Thibodeau hit the panic button and started telling the media how much Deng means to this team. 

Weakness: Ball Handling, Isolation Defense

For a wing, Deng is not a very good ball handler. The problem is more about his confidence than his actual ability, though. When he just goes on automatic, he actually does fine. However he thinks too much, and when he does, he looks at the ball, and that slows him down and he doesn't play nearly as well. As a result, he only averages .73 points per play in isolation, which is really bad for a small forward. 

The good news is that he's working on this during the more and more extended offseason. During the Euro-League, he showed considerable improvement in that area. 

On isolation defense, he also gives up .82 points per play, which, while still above average, is the "worst" of his defensive plays. Still, there's always LeBron James to contend with at some point to get to the finals, and Deng could improve there. 

Carlos Boozer

Strengths: Post Scoring, Rebounding

Carlos Boozer is exactly what the Bulls to become a contender. Yes, he struggled in the postseason, but he played the majority of it with turf toe. The fact is, the Bulls were 47-12 in games that Boozer started during the regular season and 16-8 without him. On winning percentage, that means it's the difference between a 55-win season and a 65-win season. 

Boozer adds two things that are essential to the Bulls success. First, he's an outstanding scorer in the paint, and second, he's a very good rebounder. With Noah and Boozer together, they offer one of the NBA's best rebonding tandems, if not the best. 

Noah and Boozer combine for 21.2 rebounds per game, the most of any teammates in the NBA. That rebounding is a huge part of the Bulls winning strategy. The Bulls force the opponents to shoot from outside by sealing off  the perimeter, challenge shots to force misses, then grab the rebounds to limit second chance opportunities. 

All of that defensive work is pointless without the rebounding. 

Offensively, Boozer is the best roll man the Bulls have in the pick and roll, scoring 1.04 points per play on the pick and roll. It is important to their offensive strategy that they have a player who can score low. It force opponents to account for him, which means they have to spread the court, and that allows Rose to penetrate and beat teams off the dribble. 

Both offensively and defensively, Boozer is an integral part of the team, and that's why those that want to get rid of him are dead wrong. There are things Boozer needs to work on, yes, but that doesn't mean it's time to give up on him. 

Weaknesses: Conditioning, Defensive Effort

I say that there are different kinds of players who are deficient on defense. There are those who could play defense and there are those who can't play defense. An example of the former is Boozer, and an example of the latter is Kyle Korver. Korver applies himself on defense; he just doesn't have the athleticism needed to be a good defender. Korver works so hard to even get a foul that you almost feel for him. 

Boozer can't, but not because he doesn't have the ability, but because he doesn't have the conditioning. He's out of shape for an NBA athlete. If he were a well conditioned player, he'd have the ability to be a very solid defender. 

He'll be a bit slow, and as a result, he'll get called for fouls. It's not so slow, though, that if he shed 15 pounds, he wouldn't be able to make up that fraction of a second. He doesn't have the explosiveness he used to to recover. 

Even his health problems are largely due to conditioning. If he's a little lighter, a little more conditioned, he's going to be putting less pressure on those ankles and toes coming down. 

Boozer's future is up to Boozer. If he sheds some weight and gets some better cardio-vascular endurance, he could apply himself on both ends of the court, be a better defensive player and even get back to the rim on offense. 

Derrick Rose

Strengths: Too Big, Too Strong, Too Fast, Too Good!

There is  a reason that Derrick Rose is the MVP, and it's not just that he became the darling of the media or the feel good story of the year. 

Rose was the best player in isolation last year among all starters on offense. He scored an amazing 1.05 points per play out of isolation (compared to .92 for LeBron James or .97 for Carmelo Anthony). Rose is so big, so strong, so fast and so good that he's almost impossible to stop in one-on-one situations. 

As a result, no player in the NBA created more of his own shots than Derrick Rose did, with about 519 unassisted field goals last season. 

Rose was also extremely adept defensively. Only Tony Allen, with .63 points per play, defended the iso better than Rose's .64. The difference of .41 was far and away the best of anyone in the NBA. 

Put together on both sides of the court this means that Rose is always creating a mismatch or answering one. He can, and has, effectively guarded just about every guard in the league in crunch time situations, including the like of Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Deron Williams. 

Weaknesses: Passing into the Paint, Three-Point Shot

Rose is very adept at passing on the perimeter, whether it be from one side of the court to the other or passing it out of the paint to the perimeter. In fact, he raises his opponents' effective field-goal percentage about six percent when he passes to them, and has the highest percentage of his assists go for threes of any point guard in the NBA. 

However, where he struggles is passing the ball into the paint. He struggles because he passes line drive passes that are harder for the big men to handle. Then, he tries to take the juice off them, and they become too easy for the defenders to intercept. 

The best way around this, if you look at the great pick and roll point guards like John Stockton and Deron Willimas, is an effective bounce pass. The bounce pass can be a very good friend. it also would help him in terms of getting out of the traps like Miami used so effectively on him at the end of games or that Golden State used earlier in the year. 

He also needs to work on his three. He improved his percentage there considerably, but not enough to justify the number of attempts. Some of this is mitigated by the fact that Noah and Boozer are such effective rebounders.

Forty percent of his missed threes resulted in tip-ins, effectively meaning that a lot of his missed threes are essentially smarter alley oops. It's actually a smart play, and I believe one coached by Thibs. If you see you have a big man with position under the basket, why not stop and pop? If you miss, you get two; if you make two, you get three. 

If you account for those "missed threes" and substitute the alley-oop instead, he could raise his field goal percentage to .475 and his assists to 9.2 by making the more selfish play that would boost his stats but hurt the team. That's why I'm not as hard on him for his field goal percentage as some people are. Still, improving his three-point percentage to even the high 30s would make him virtually unguardable.