At some point we really need to get over this...me included. It seems that many of us are still stuck on the experts preseason predictions and we can't get over these. The Bulls sort of lost out on the 2010 offseason sweepstakes and had to settle for Carlos Boozer. The Heat are the monster of the East and can't be beaten. The Bulls will be hard pressed to wrestle the 4th seed from the Atlanta Hawks. Yadda-yadda. Honestly, we've really gotta get over all the preseason shit. I understand that it sets our expectations, but at some point we need to let the sunshine of what's really happening come in. I mean, it's all different now. The Heat aren't winning 75 games or anything remotely close. Hell, we're 2-0 against them. The Celtics? Sure, they've beaten us 2 out of 3, but they just gave away their starting center in an attempt to rebuild on the fly. As for the other teams above us in the East Conference standings..oh wait there aren't any others teams above us...or anyone particularly close. Hey Bulls Fans, news flash...you've got a really good team that the rest of the NBA world hasn't quite woken up to, but can flat-out play with anybody. My suggestion is that you quit concerning yourselves with how on earth we can compete with these big hype boys and begin thinking about how they're going to deal with us. I can guarantee you that that's what the Bulls' players are thinking.
I see where you're going with this, but to me, the time we need to get over the inferiority complex is in the playoffs. At this point, everyone is unproven and none of it matters too much. It's still the pre-season!
Transplant, ignore the haters around here. They are going to bad mouth the bulls until they get rings. If you enjoy following this team and watching them grow like I do, then I don't think you'll be disappointed.
To explain the situation you describe, I like to use a hiking metaphor. I like to hike, and I've noticed most hikers fall into two groups. Some do it to get to the top of the mountain and enjoy the physical exertion and like the feeling of constantly moving towards a goal. They mostly think about what needs to be done to make forward progress and 'smell the roses' only when they need to take a break. The other group likes to hike so they can take in the scenery and engage themselves in a pastoral reverie and use hiking as a chance to get exercise of the philosophical kind, not the physical. Getting somewhere takes a firm back seat to leisurely enjoying one's surroundings. Either approach is fine (I'm the former type), but when the two get into a group there can be some dissension because the sense of enjoyment they get comes from maximizing over very different objective functions.
On a different note, I know what you mean. I think most Bulls fans don't group themselves with the Celtics and Heat. They see the Bulls as lacking the experience and pedigree of the Celtics and the top-shelf star power of the Heat. However, I think you ought to give our sense of expectations a little more credit for the following reasons: 1). For the most part, I think our expectations have creeped upward as the season has gone on. It's been gradual, but rational IMO. a). Our winning percentage has gradually increased throughout the season, so it makes sense that our expectations for the team gradually increase the same way. (We started off playing .600 ball) b). I really do think there is more unknown to this team than other contenders. This version of the Celtics has been together for 4 years. The Lakers won the title last year. The Heat have a new team, but everyone knew what Lebron, Wade, and Bosh were capable of before they joined. This team was new, and its best players are still in the midst of defining themselves as players. And as for Drose.....you can't know for sure that someone is going to be an MVP level player until they actually do it. As the unknowns with this team have gradually been made clear, I think the way we see the team has inched forward too. c). When dealing with an unknown entity, most people would rather temper their expectations initially and then change them gradually as circumstances dictate. It's a lot better than getting your hopes up pre-maturely and having them dashed. 2). I think MikeDC is right that the playoffs reveal another layer of insight about what a team is capable of. Our team (and its individual players) are not well established in that regard, so it really is hard to say exactly what we're capable of until we see it happen. Overall, I think most fans around here considered our team a good bet to win more than 50 games and make a second round playoff appearance at the beginning of the season. I think most see us now as a 55-60 win team with an outside but legitimate chance of making the finals and (gulp) winning it all. That might be a tad on the pessimistic side, but I don't find it unreasonable. Regardless, here's to an awesome season so far!!!
Not feeling inferior at all. We have a legit MVP caliber player. That wasn't expected in the preseason. Miami lacks productive size, depth and except for Wade heart. Watching Bosh wilt and Lebron clunk away another big shot, well, I like our chances against that team. Losing Perkins hurts the Celtics tremendously, and also helps destroy their morale. Last year the Cs turned it on in the playoffs. I can totally see age, complacency (they all pretty much already have rings) and the punch in the stomach the org trading Perkins must have felt like turning those celtics into a team like the Miami team the Bulls defeated in the playoffs during the Skiles years; ready to mail it in. I'm a Boozer fan and didn't consider us losing out by acquiring him. I preferred him to Bosh and the more I see from Bosh, I'm glad we didn't invest in him. We have a big three as well. One of them is a MVP level talent that should be a college senior (he'll likely get better than he is now!). The other two are all-star level talents, at the 4 and 5 no less. We have a solid supporting cast in Deng, Brewer, Watson, Korver, THomas, Omer and the gang. A great coach (yes, he's a great coach at this point) who has his team, and most importantly, his MVP behind him. The team plays tough D and our MVP steps up when a game is on the line to finish it out. I like our chances.
One nice thing I can say in that regard is it's also not very clear what most of our opponents are capable of either. Pretty much everyone has totally revamped, or at least made significant changes to their rosters.
I don't know. If you think your team is really increasing their chances to win it all by adding players like Lee and Battier, how inferior is your complex?
We have ,lost just 17 games and yet played just 12, 13 games as a complete team! Most of those games were with a hurt/rusty Noah! Dare I say we would be the #1 seed right now had we been healthy all season? We have lost some very close games to teams we should have not lost to! Had Noah played, getting two or three tips or 6 or 8 fts a game, who is to say we lose those games? That is not to say we dont have our weaknesses. Bogans is not a starting SG, although he is shooting much better as of late. Watson has been a disappointment to me. So has Korver. I never expected Allen type numbers, but expected a bit more than he has shown. I thought we would be good. At least #4. Shows what I know! LOL. We are 3 and knocking on the door being #1 We still need a good starting SG to be contenders for it all, however, since Boston traded away Perkins and Robinson, I am not afraid of them! Green,krstic do not instill fear in me! Do they you? Robinson is not being talked about as much as Perkins loss. IMO as far as the Bulls would have been concerned, Nate with his speed and his ability to hit the 3 would have posed problems for us! Look at the players the knicks traded away as examples of players giving us problems. I was fearful of the heat. Not anymore. When we play defense like we did in the second half of that game, we can beat anyone. True, James and wade will be a handful during the playoffs, but Bosh? What has he done in the playoffs? Miami may improve their team. Rumor is Murphy is interested in signing with them. The Magic and knicks do not scare me. The magic did until the trade. The knicks could have, but not not. They are giving up a ton of points since the trade! Actually lost to the Cavs! In the meantime, the players they traded away are 2-0 including a win over Boston! . No, the knicks dont scare me. Rose. What can I say. I never thought he would be leading in the MVP race at this time. When he brought it up during the summer, I loved his confidence! Why not talk about that as a goal, in let's say 2 or 3 years? I never expected it to be now!! And to be honest, I have never seen a player work on his game, on the fly and improve it so dramatically! He worked his 3 pt shooting and it improved. Some players, it takes years! He missed the game tying FTA against the Clippers! Since then he has been shooting(not for the season, but since the clipper game) 8-10% pts higher in FTA than he as prior to that game. Astounding! We have a top 5 team! No doubt about it and we could go to the finals. Can we win it? I would not bet against Rose and company.
Fair point. I have to semi-apologize for this thread. You may have noticed that the OP was directed at myself as much as anyone else. In fact, it was sort of a pep talk I had with myself that I decided to share. It was prompted by what I was feeling during the first half of the Heat game. Damn me to hell, but when Lebron and Wade were taking turns making our guys look like they were playing in cement sneakers, I was emotionally defeated. It felt like a tidal wave and I offered no resistance. When the Bulls came back and won, I was thrilled along with all my fellow die-hard Bulls fans, but I was also mad at myself. I realized that I'm holding back on my faith in this team and I'm asking myself why. Shit, I've been a Chicago sports fan for half a century. It's kind of silly to start trying to insulate myself from disappointment now. This Bulls team is clearly not perfect, but I don't think that's my problem since I'm one of the few people on the planet who doesn't have a serious issue with the Bulls most-talked-about imperfection...Bogans starting and playing about 18 mpg. I'm OK with that and I sincerely believe that if Bogans can hit about 40% of his 3s (he can) and continue to be virtually turnover-free (he will), he's not holding this team back. Anyway, this Bulls team deserves better from me as a fan than I gave them in the first half of that Heat game. I apologize for projecting my own dysfunctions on the rest of you.
I'm not negative on the Bulls, just don't want to get overly excited only to have my hopes dashed. Being a Chicago fan for decades does that to you. So I try to take a more realistic view of things. For example, we've had 47 and 49 win teams, but the best playoffs we had was almost beating the defending champs with a 41 win team. We've also seen Bulls teams come from terrible starts and losing records to break even or better by the end, by beating up on teams playing out the string. The regular season record is only relevant to playoff seed and match ups and that's about it. We beat a healthy Miami team in Chicago by 4 points. It has to leave us with the thought that Miami can win 1 of 4 in a 7 game series here. But we have to play the games to find out. I just don't want to go through another 1969 Cubs/Mets thing again, going in thinking it's a lock.
