At 35-28, the Bulls are 7 games over 500. They're struggling a bit, losing 6 of their last 10 games. To finish with 50 wins, they'd have to go 15-4 the rest of the way. Would the return of Derrick Rose tomorrow make you believe they could go 15-4? If the Bulls go 10-9, they'll finish with 45 wins. If they continue at the .400 winning pace of the last 10 games, They'll finish with 42 wins. At this point, I would be comfortable guessing the Bulls win 47 or less games. At 42 wins, though, it's barely better than Vinnie's last season with us. That was with a roster of cap filler and a healthy Rose that was a sieve on defense (with little help). At 42 wins, you have to wonder about the loss of the bench mob. What say you?
To expand on the above... The Bulls schedule the rest of this month: @ Sacramento @ Golden State Denver Portland Indiana @ Minnesota Miami @ Dallas Detroit In the prediction thread, I'd maybe pick the Bulls to win three of those games. We could go 8-2 in April if we're reasonably healthy. We play Washington twice and Toronto twice. Two tough games against teams we seem to beat are at Brooklyn and home vs. NY.
March (4-5): @ Sacramento - W @ Golden State - L Denver - L Portland - W Indiana - L @ Minnesota - W Miami - L @ Dallas - L Detroit - W April (6-4): @ Washington - W @ Brooklyn - L Orlando - W @ Pistons - W Toronto - W NY - L @ Toronto - W @ Miami - L @ Orlando - L Washington - W 10-9 to finish 45-37
The Bulls are playing to their talent level right now. If you had asked me in October what sort of winning percentage we could expect from a team of Nate Robinson, Marco Belinelli, Deng, Boozer, Noah, Jimmy Butler, Nazr Mohammed and Marquis Teague I'd have said somewhere in the .250 to .350 range. You can beat the drum on the bench mob if you want, but Asik is the only one I miss. Frankly, I've gotten to the point where you can wake me up when Rose returns. I'm not mad at anyone. I'm just tired of the relentless uphill climb.
Its hard to pick how this team is going to do on a game-by-game basis. I'll say 11-8 assuming Deng/Noah/Boozer remain healthy and Thibs keeps getting the team to try hard.
The Bulls made a habit of beating up on teams at the end of seasons to get to a record a few games over .500 (47, 49, their best two). The teams the Bulls beat were either in the playoffs and not willing to play so hard they'd risk injury (rest starters, recoup from nagging little injuries), or they were so far out of the playoffs and were mailing it in. Maybe we'll capture that magic again this season. Or maybe we're that team that is in the playoffs and not willing to play so hard. It wouldn't bother me if we shut down Deng for the season (get his surgery finally!) or otherwise coast into the playoffs. That list of guys transplant mentioned, even adding Kurt and Taj, isn't likely to get past the 19-straight-win Heat in the playoffs anyhow. Even adding a 100% healthy Rose.
I want the bulls to make it this conference finals. I've always been a rose fan and bulls are my favorite eastern conference team.
After this really bad 42-point loss in Sacramento... I don't believe that they can finish 45-37. Perhaps 43-39 with Rose playing again and 39-43 without Rose.
I get no joy from seeing the Bulls playing so pathetically. I like Thibs. I like Noah. I like Deng. I like Boozer. I like Rip. I like them all. Of the three games I said I'd pick the Bulls to win, this Sacto game was one. Though Sacto is a horrible road team and pretty good at home, I thought it might be a fight.
