I picked the Cleveland Cavaliers to go to the NBA Finals, but one potential series that gave me pause was a match up against their division rivals, the Chicago Bulls. This season's Bulls team was more poised to make a deep playoff run than any Bulls team since 2011. Not coincidentally, this was the first season since the Bulls went to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011 that Derrick Rose was largely healthy.
Rose's injury woes are well documented. He missed much of the the 2011-12 season due to injuries and tore his left ACL in the Bulls' first game of the playoffs. He missed the entire 2012-13 season, and played in only ten games the next season before tearing his meniscus in his right leg. All in all Rose missed 197 games over those three seasons, but he managed to play 51 this season even after re-injuring his right meniscus.
Rose averaged 17.7 points, 4.9 assists and 3.2 rebounds this season- a far cry from his MVP season, but still very good for a Bulls team that regressed defensively compared to years past. A healthy Rose, in addition to a breakout season from Jimmy Butler, an All-Star return to form for Pau Gasol, and a typically feisty campaign for Joakim Noah, plus a good bench with guys like Taj Gibson, Aaron Brooks, Kirk Hinrich and rookie Nikola Mirotic made this team a real threat come playoff time.
If any team was going to knock off the Cavaliers, it was these Bulls. And they had a lot going for them- Kevin Love dislocated his shoulder against the Celtics and was ruled out for the rest of the playoffs. Kyrie Irving was also banged up going into the series. J.R. Smith was suspended for the first two games of the Bulls series after hitting the Celtics' Jae Crowder in the head. And again, this Bulls team was healthy for really the first time since 2010-11.
But even with all of those advantages, the Cavs still came away with a series victory in six games.
The Bulls only had one convincing win over the Cavs in the whole series- their 99-92 Game 1 victory. Game 3 and 4 ended after last-second baskets that were, for all intents and purposes, lucky shots, and were otherwise even games that either team could've won. That leaves the other three games, which the Cavs won in convincing fashion.
I'm not about to say that this was a shameful series loss. After all, LeBron James is really, really damn good. But while James is phenomenal, again, he's one guy. And also again, the Cavs' version of the Big Three was down to one-and-a-half for pretty much this whole series. And also, also again, the Bulls, by contrast were healthy for the most part (injuries to Pau Gasol not withstanding).
And, unfortunately, that also leads to speculation about the future of Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. In case you've been living under a rock for the last year or so, Thibodeau and Bulls' management have been involved in a rather public pissing contest with each other.
Management isn't happy about Thibs' prickly personality and his inability lighten up as far as working his players into the ground goes. Thibs' isn't happy, because he's been successful and those front office guys can go piss up a rope for all he cares.
And Thibs has every right to feel like his system is working- before he was hired, the Bulls were a complete mess. They went through four coaches from 1998 to 2010. They had a whopping two winning seasons in that same stretch. In that era's five postseason appearances, they advanced past the first round once.
With Thibs' arrival, the Bulls went from winning 39% of their games since their 1998 championship, to winning 64.7% of them in his full five seasons on the job. Like him or not, Thibs has made the Bulls one of the best teams in the NBA year in, year out. And this includes seasons where their best player missed 80% of his games in three years. But conversely, the front office deserves credit for drafting players like Rose, Noah, Butler and Gibson, to name a few, in the last decade to bring the Bulls back to relevancy.
Thibs is undeniably a good coach, but it is fair to question whether he's taken the Bulls as far as he, personally, can take them. They were so good defensively in the past, finishing second, first, third and first in opponent's points per game in Thibs' first four seasons, before dropping down to ninth this season. Obviously, finishing in the top ten defensively is still a major accomplishment, but that drop is disconcerting nonetheless.
The Bulls just seemed tired. Were they beginning to tune out Thibs, who has a well-deserved reputation for being a hard ass? They certainly seemed to in Game 6. After scoring 31 points in the first quarter, they only scored 42 the rest of the game, while losing to the Cavs by 21, the biggest margin of victory in this series for either team. All while on their home court in an elimination game. While Rose, Noah and Gibson all had Thibs' back after the loss, their and the rest of the team's actions sure spoke louder than words in that game, and really, the whole season.
I would be very surprised if Thibs was back in Chicago come October. I mean, hard ass coaches feuding publicly with the team's front office no longer being there the next year despite great success- where have I heard that before? I don't know who the Bulls would replace him with, but given the success of the Golden State Warriors this season under rookie-coach Steve Kerr, after firing player-favorite Mark Jackson, they're probably willing to try. Also, they really, really seem to want to get Thibs out the door as soon as possible.
I have no idea what the Bulls will look like next season or who will be coaching them. The uncertainty is the only guarantee for them all summer.
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