Chicago Bulls: Complete Season Preview and Primer

After an extended lockout, we finally get Chicago Bulls basketball back on Sunday, Christmas Day. With the season coming up, it's time to look forward and predict how each team will do in the lockout-shortened season.

The Chicago Bulls are one of the most intriguing teams in the NBA this upcoming season. Last year, they had the top overall record in the NBA and had the youngest MVP in the history of the NBA in Derrick Rose. 

After the long layoff, Bulls fans are excited to see the progress the team has made and how great the team is. With a year together, there's no telling how high they can fly. 

Expected Starting Lineup

Point Guard: Derrick Rose

Key Stats: 25.0 PPG, 7.7 APG

There are few starting positions in the NBA more locked down than the Chicago Bulls point guard position. Rose is the star of the team, and will be the starting point guard from days one to 66, and should be an MVP-caliber player for the whole ride. 

Shooting Guard: Rip Hamilton

Key Stats: 14.1 PPG, 38.2 FG% 3PT%

Even though he is new to the team, you have to imagine that Richard Hamilton will come in right away and take the starting shooting guard role. Rip, even though he is not as adept defensively and is not as athletic, is a much better fit offensively next to Derrick Rose. He has the ability to create his shot to some extent, and he could really rekindle his career playing off one of the top point guards in the league.

Don't be surprised to see Rip score efficiently and average upwards of 15 points per game for this Bulls team. 

Small Forward: Luol Deng

Key Stats: 17.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG

The longest-tenured player on this Bulls team is Luol Deng and there's a reason for that: He is a very productive basketball player. For all the healthy years of his career, you have been able to count on him to score fairly efficiently off the ball, play great man-to-man defense and get you a few boards to boot.

Deng has also gradually improved his three-point shot, so we should look for that more this year. The one concern as always is whether he can stay healthy for the whole season, and that will be integral to the Bulls' results this season. 

Power Forward: Carlos Boozer

Key Stats: 17.5 PPG, 9.6 RPG

Even though Boozer ended the season, especially the playoffs, on the worst note you can imagine, people forget that Boozer was a very productive and very efficient player for the Bulls throughout the regular season. Even though his first preseason game was not what we're looking for, Boozer has the potential to be a great sidekick to Rose on the offensive end.

We just have to see whether he can stay healthy through a 66-game season, and whether he can be healthy and ready to play for the playoffs. 

Center: Joakim Noah

Key Stats: 11.7 PPG, 10.4 RPG

Quietly over the last two years, Joakim Noah has turned into a top-10 center, perhaps even top-five. He has been the backbone of the defense, a facilitator on offense and the heart and soul of the team. Unfortunately he has also been an injury-prone player who has missed 50 games over the last two seasons.

However, even though he has been susceptible to injuries, his injuries have rarely been related to each other, which gives us hope that he has just had a string of unfortunate injuries in a row. Either way, we hope that we can see Noah on the court for the Bulls. 

Key Bench Players

Bench Mob: C.J. Watson, Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, Taj Gibson, Omer Asik

Key Stats: 4.9 PPG, 2.3 APG 39.3 3PT% (Watson); 6.2 PPG, 48 FG%, 1.3 SPG (Brewer); 8.3 PPG, 41.5 3PT% (Korver); 7.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 1.3 BPG (Gibson); 2.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG (Asik)

You can't talk about one of the Bench Mob without talking about the whole rotation. The Bench Mob is likely the best bench lineup in the whole league. The lineup boasts Taj Gibson and Omer Asik, perhaps the best bench defensive frontcourt in the NBA. Defensive stopper Ronnie Brewer also adds to the rotation, making it dominant. Kyle Korver and C.J. Watson provide as much offense as is deemed necessary. 

Out of all the advantages the Chicago Bulls have on their roster, and there are a fair few, the Bench Mob is probably the greatest. Last season this group was the best five-man defensive lineup in the NBA—the whole NBA. This includes starters and bench players. 

Throughout last season, we saw the Bench Mob come in as a unit and get the Bulls right back into games, especially when the starting lineup did not quite come out and do their job. With the Bench Mob coming out, you never felt out of a game. 

The one question mark about this group was whether Ronnie Brewer would move to the starting lineup. Even though Ronnie is a fine player and likely a starting-caliber player in this league, I am glad that he appears to be staying on the bench. This rotation is just so good together and has so much chemistry on both offense and defense, I would not want to mess it up. 

Brian Scalabrine

Key Stats: Best Nickname on Team (White Mamba)

It kind of made me laugh when I went to the Chicago Bulls store and Brian Scalabrine was on the Bench Mob shirt...kind of generous for a guy who only played 87 minutes total last season. But either way, Scal is one of the best cheerleaders any team could have on its bench, and he is a guy who is a good mentor since he knows Coach Thibs' system so well.

Even if the rotation will for sure be capped at 10, the White Mamba is good to have on the roster.

X-Factor

Without a doubt, the X-factor of this Chicago Bulls team is Carlos Boozer. 

Last year, Boozer was billed as the big pickup of the offseason, and he largely lived up to the hype during the regular season. During the season, Carlos provided fairly efficient offense and was part of the top rebounding group in the NBA last season. 

Of course, to go with the good was also the bad. Boozer missed 23 games last season, and has been thought of as an injury-prone player over the course of his career. He also struggled mightily when the playoffs came around; his points per game fell by six, his field-goal percentage fell by eight percent and his defense was as bad as we have seen it. 

If the Chicago Bulls want to be able to get past the rival Miami Heat, Carlos Boozer is going to have to play up to his potential. The Bulls have an advantage on the boards, but they cannot take full advantage of it if Boozer isn't playing well. Carlos putting pressure on the defense is also very important throughout the game because it makes Derrick Rose's job that much easier, and he needs all the help he can get against the Miami Heat. 

The Chicago Bulls need Boozer to have his head in the right place if they want to advance farther in the playoffs, or win a title. 

Key Storylines

Is Derrick Rose for Real?

He was the youngest MVP in league history, regarded by many as the best point guard in the NBA, and perhaps the best closer in the NBA already. This should be reason for only hope, but you have to take everything with a grain of salt. 

There are many players in NBA history who were one-year wonders. Even more so than that, you have teams who appeared to be on the verge of stardom one year, and fell off the next. Will the Bulls be like that? 

I doubt it. 

Derrick Rose plays such a unique and diverse game, it's hard to imagine teams "figuring him out." Especially with the development of Rose's jump shot and the acquisition of yet another scoring option in Richard Hamilton, Rose should be harder than ever to stop this upcoming season.

Will Derrick win another MVP award next season? Probably not. The media likes to spread the award around, and it's unlikely they would give it to a guy who is not the best player in the NBA twice in a row, because Derrick is not the best player in the NBA. Does that mean that Derrick is any less of a player than he was last season? Not at all. 

Player To Watch For

Jimmy Butler was the last overall pick in the first round of the 2011 draft, and only played 16 minutes total in the preseason. However, despite the limited sample size, you can tell that Jimmy just belongs in the NBA. 

Similar to Taj Gibson a few years back, Butler came onto the court with confidence and professionalism from minute one. Throughout game one, he shot 3-for-3 from the field and scored eight points, and also played smart tough defense against Danny Granger, a borderline All-Star. 

No one is saying that Jimmy will be a star, but I would say that he will be in this league for a long time. He is a guy who reminds me of a much more skilled Keith Bogans; he makes the right decision and plays hard from minute one to 48.

However, Jimmy is much more physically gifted and much more skilled than Keith. Even if he does not have much of a role this season because of the Bulls' depth, he has the potential to be a player who's in the league for a long, long time, and that's exciting coming out of a 30th pick. 

A 66-Game Season?

After thinking long and hard about it, I think that the Bulls are one of the teams that benefits the most from the shortened season.

They have three guys in the frontcourt who are known for being injury-prone: Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah. If we can limit the amount of minutes that they play, that's only a positive. 

In addition, this season is going to be conducive towards teams who have few changes and return similar personnel to last year, and Chicago is one of those teams. They did not lose much at all by not going to training camp for long, because they largely have their game plan in their heads. 

Compared to many of the other contenders, the Bulls are younger. With a team like the Boston Celtics, playing so many games may affect their roster before they even get a chance to get out of the gate. However, Chicago is relatively young and many of the players are before or in their prime, so they will be able to recover easier from playing so many games. 

However, the best part about the Bulls roster is that it is full of depth, perhaps even going as far as 11 deep. Because of this, they can rely on their bench more than other teams when the starters are fatigued, which they will be on the third night of a back-to-back-to-back, and that's an advantage that many teams don't have. 

I'm not going to say that Chicago is guaranteed the best record because of this, but they have a good chance of playing well throughout the 66-game season and beyond. 

Overall Prediction

With the lockout-shortened season, I think that starters are just flat out not going to be able to play the same kinds of minutes every night that they usually can. For most teams, especially Miami and Boston who lack depth, this could be highly detrimental to their team. 

However, the Chicago Bulls are known for their depth. The Bulls could legitimately run out an 11-man lineup every night! Twelve if you count Brian Scalabrine running out as a cheerleader. While the depth may not in the end be the key to victory in the playoffs, I think that it will help the Bulls out quite a bit in the regular season. 

With a target on their back and expected injuries from Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, you have to imagine that the Bulls' win totals will take a hit, but their bench should win them many games as well. Taking that all into account, I would predict the Bulls win...

Bottom Line: 48 wins (equivalent to 60 wins)