Last year in this preview section, I wrote that the Bulls could make the playoffs. This season I’m not so sure.
But the Bulls remain on the correct course for producing a perennial contender.
The question may be whether everyone can maintain patience in a season that likely won’t be as successful as the previous one.
Last season was magic. Those of us who believed the Bulls had a chance to make the playoffs based it more on the weakness of the Eastern Conference and the fact that new coach Scott Skiles in effect sabotaged the 2003-04 season after he was hired in November by playing minor-leaguers. It worked: Play hard, play defense and care, or somebody else will play instead.
The Bulls also had contract seasons for Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler, ending contracts for veterans like Othella Harrington, and rookie and free-agent additions with good character like Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni. That produced a magical run after an 0-9 start. The Bulls caught teams by surprise, but they also clearly outplayed many with a furious defensive effort.
But the chemistry is in the process of changing. Starters Curry and Antonio Davis are gone, though the hope remains the Knicks will release Davis at some time and he could return. In their place come Darius Songaila, Michael Sweetney and, to a lesser extent, Tim Thomas, who could be a problem with his lax attitude.
Can Songaila and Sweetney contribute the kind of defense played last season and mesh with the others? Also, much remains to be seen with Gordon and Chandler.
The assumption was Gordon would become a starter this season with Kirk Hinrich, at least on offense, returning to point guard. But Gordon, despite what the Bulls said was an impressive off-season of work, doesn’t seem to have improved much on defense or handling the ball. Those weaknesses likely will put him back in his sixth-man role, for which he is perfect.
Gordon says all the right things about it mattering who finishes the game and doing what’s best for the team, but young players tend to begin worrying about starting as they approach getting contract extensions. Starters get paid more. Sixth men do not get those eight-figure deals. Will Gordon remain satisfied in his role? It will be worth watching.
Also, life changed for Chandler in more than 60 million ways.
It was easy when Curry was the starter, the player most talked about by fans and media. Chandler could come off the bench, play against the second-line opponents and go unnoticed after poor games.
No more. He got a $63 million deal, which gives him the biggest contract on the team. He has to become the starting center despite a lack of bulk and offense. Can he stand up against the top inside players and handle the demands of being the big-money man? It has never been clear, especially when some around the NBA believe he’s best as a forward and a sixth man type.
The changes make the Bulls a small team with Chandler, the perimeter-oriented Thomas and Malik Allen the only players taller than 6 feet 9 inches, and questions remain about the team’s scoring ability without a true post player, especially with the East becoming a higher-scoring conference. It will put more pressure on the defense to be great every game.
The Bulls did the right thing and the only thing they could do in trading Curry.
More Top Picks About
It’s also questionable whether Curry is worth the kind of investment the Knicks made in him, given his history of indifferent defensive play and lack of conditioning.
But, more importantly, how could the Bulls let him play after a world-renowned heart specialist said there was a possibility without more testing that Curry could have a potentially fatal heart disease?
There was little doubt the Bulls were prepared before all that to pay Curry a maximum-dollar contract because they made little effort to trade him. If they had tried earlier, they might have gotten more in return. So it’s not like the team was trying to low-ball Curry or not pay him. But the distraction over the DNA testing would have become so intense had Curry not been traded, it would have hung over the team all season.
So consider this a transition season in which the Bulls still should make the playoffs, if much further down than last season.
In sports a team is judged on what it did last, so 47 wins becomes the bar, and for the Bulls that is artificially high. So something less this season should not be considered a failure. Even with Curry and Davis, the Bulls were not a championship contender.
But after this season, they could be close to $20 million under the salary cap to attract free agents or acquire players with other teams looking to avoid the luxury-tax penalties. They’ll have two first-round draft picks next June, and one, either theirs or New York’s, could be in the lottery.
The Bulls seem well prepared for the future. Now they just have to get these next 82 games behind them.