We Shouldn't be Surprised by Chicago

[Fan from VT]

I had a feeling of dread heading into this series; with KG out I really thought this series was a total coin flip.

I think that many people laughed off Chicago because of their terrible season last season and some of their play earlier in the year; but what if last year was an aberration and this year they were just getting used to a new coach in the early going and are regaining the form from 2 years ago?

Don't forget, 2 years ago Chicago won 49 games. This was not an overachievement, as based on point differential they "should" have won 55 games. They advanced a round in the playoffs before falling 4-2 to a still very good Detroit team. Here is that roster:
Malik Allen
Andre Barrett
PJ Brown
Luol Deng
Chris Duhon
Ben Gordon
Adrian Griffin
Kirk Hinrich
Viktor Khryapa
Andres Nocioni
Thabo Sefolosha
Michael Sweetney
Tyrus Thomas
Ben Wallace

That's the team that won 49 games and a playoff series. Many many experts picked them to do just as well last year, where they shocked a lot of people by being terrible. Of course, it turns out they weren't bad athletes; they quit on a coach who is notorious for burning bridges and burning out teams. From that team, they've lost:
-Ben Wallace (already well on the decline once playing for Chicago)
-Duhon (okay player, not great at all)
-Sweeney (Basically already out of the league back then)
-Brwon (obviously useful in certain situations, but by no means a core player)
-Barrett (bencher)
-Allen (bencher)
-Griffin (out of league)
-Khryapa (out of league)
-Thabo (solid defender, nice player)
-Nocioni (good player)

That's all they lost from a 49 win team: a situationally valuable role player (Brown), a declining, overrated player (Wallace), a backup pg (duhon), and 2 good/solid wing players (Thabo/Nocioni).

However, since then they've added:
-Brad Miller (solid rebounder/distributer from the Center)
-John Salmons (good scoring wing)
-Joakhim Noah (10th pick 7 footer, surprisingly efficient PER)
-Derrick Rose (#1 pick, great PG)

Not only have they added better players than they've lost, but they added those players at valuable positions while their core was all aging toward their prime, rather than away from their primes.

All along, this is a dangerous team who had a down season last year as they fell out of step with their coach. Now that they're hitting their stride with a new coach and having implemented the new pieces, we should not be at all surprised they are giving a depleted C's team a hard fought series.

[Redz]

Rose and Gordon are scary. 

Rose was doing some pretty silly stuff today!

[Fan from VT]

yep, scary team.

my point was that this same core won 49 games and a playoff series 2 seasons ago, then laid an egg with 32 wins last year. I've kind of thought that the "real" bulls team was 2 years ago and last year was the aberration because they quit on their coach, in which case we should not be surprised that this same core, plus Noah, Miller, Salmons and Rose, are a good team.

[Quinn]

I think the key to beating the Bulls is just to not let Gordan get hot.
Game four he got hot at the right time, making shots at every single flipping ridiculous angle. Is fade away bank shot was incredible, and that three was insane.
When he's hot, he doesn't miss.
Give Pierce the memo that he needs to stop running like an old woman on the court; at this point Perk would be better defending Gordan, because at least he hustles.

[PosImpos]

The Bulls are honestly playing as well if not better than the 4 and 5 seeds in the East right now.  I wouldn't be surprised if they could beat the Hawks or the Heat in a 7 game series. 

We just got really bad luck drawing an opponent like this in the first round. If we were to lose to the Bulls in the second round when they are playing this way, I wouldn't feel so bad.  The Bulls could probably even beat Orlando.  So yeah...that's the way things go, I guess.

[brodes]

NBA.com has up a lookahead for game 5 that's definitely worth checking out--

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/playoffs/2009/04/26/nba_20090426_bos_chi_lookahead.nba/index.html?cid=playoff1

[guava_wrench]

Add to this the fact that our defense is nothing special with KG out, then our performance isn't surprising at all.

[BASS_THUMPER]

if kg is the reason why we cant make it then we wont make it with him

yall forget the hawks gave us problems...the problems we havin now we would still have if kevin was 100%

[Redz]

if kg is the reason why we cant make it then we wont make it with him

yall forget the hawks gave us problems...the problems we havin now we would still have if kevin was 100%

I don't know Bass.  I feel a whole lot different about this 2-2 than last year's 2-2.

Baby's been good, but KG's better (sorry for being master of the obvious  )

[BASS_THUMPER]

if kg is the reason why we cant make it then we wont make it with him

yall forget the hawks gave us problems...the problems we havin now we would still have if kevin was 100%

I don't know Bass.  I feel a whole lot different about this 2-2 than last year's 2-2.

Baby's been good, but KG's better (sorry for being master of the obvious  )

well master..im not one for making excuses when we got qualified ballas to get it done..lets say baby hit those 3 missed layups would it be a diffrent game?...if house hit atleast one 3pt would the outcome be diffrent?

[Redz]

if kg is the reason why we cant make it then we wont make it with him

yall forget the hawks gave us problems...the problems we havin now we would still have if kevin was 100%

I don't know Bass.  I feel a whole lot different about this 2-2 than last year's 2-2.

Baby's been good, but KG's better (sorry for being master of the obvious  )

well master..im not one for making excuses when we got qualified ballas to get it done..lets say baby hit those 3 missed layups would it be a diffrent game?...if house hit atleast one 3pt would the outcome be diffrent?

Oh, I agree we could have won the games if Baby wasn't dog tired and could make a layup, but I think we wouldn't have had such a slim margin of error if we had KG.

[PosImpos]

Yeah, with a 100% healthy squad there's no way the series is this close.  We'd be 3-1 at this point if not 4-0.  Hell, if Powe was healthy I think there's a good chance we'd be 3-1 now at least.  BBD has been playing great but he's not built to play 40+ minutes a game, and Moore is a real bust.

[bballdog384]

I think we lost last game because Perk fouled out. Not having him for the second overtime made our defense terrible. If Perk had been the recipient of a few of those passes down low, Perk would have made those buckets that Baby missed.

 We would be much better with KG, not just because of obvious reasons, but also so our biggest guy on the floor isn't Big Baby if perk gets into foul trouble.

[celticinorlando]

this series should be over or it should be at least 3-1...the bulls are scrappy but boston has played 3 out of 4 crappy games and allowed chicago to stay in the games with turnovers and poor shooting...the C's need to realize that their C game is going to cost them

[BballTim]

if kg is the reason why we cant make it then we wont make it with him

yall forget the hawks gave us problems...the problems we havin now we would still have if kevin was 100%

  If KG's even close to healthy we'd have swept the Bulls. Give him some of Baby's minutes and ALL of Moore's minutes and it's game over.