advertisement

Rose, Bulls raising the bar

There’s no way around it. The Bulls exceeded all expectations this season, and as the team with the NBA’s best record they are by definition a serious championship contender.

The idea still takes some getting used to. Ready or not, though, the Bulls will open the playoffs Saturday at noon against No. 8 seed Indiana at the United Center.

“We’ve just got to ‘D’ up and really be together, because there are going to be hard times in the playoffs and we’re going to have to stay together,” Derrick Rose said. “Our defense is going to have to carry us throughout the whole postseason and we should be ready for it.”

In some ways, this playoff run will be a grand experiment for the Bulls. There is no history of success with this group and the team doesn’t closely resemble any past champion. In general, there have been three blueprints for winning an NBA title during the past 20 years:

Formula 1: Dominant shooting guard.

This one should be familiar to Chicago fans old enough to remember Michael Jordan leading the Bulls to six championships in the 1990s. The Kobe Bryant Lakers are another example.

These teams were built around tall shooting guards who could create shots in clutch situations and explode for 40 points on any given night.

Formula 2: Dominant big man.

San Antonio has won four championships behind Tim Duncan. Houston won a couple with Hakeem Olajuwon while Jordan was on baseball leave. The difference here is simple — the offense goes through the big man.

Formula 3: Depth and defense.

The Bad Boy Pistons and the 2004 Pistons fit into this category, with a defensive mind-set and balanced scoring. Some might say the Detroit teams in 1989-90 are a good match for the current Bulls.

One thing the teams have in common is the point guard as the best player. But Isiah Thomas didn’t dominate the scoring the way Rose does. When the Pistons won the title in ’89, Thomas averaged 18.2 points, Joe Dumars was at 17.2 and sixth man Vinnie “Microwave” Johnson contributed 13.8 points.

This year’s Bulls backcourt has Rose at an even 25.0 points and two guard Keith Bogans at 4.4. Among the subs, Kyle Korver is averaging 8.3 points, Ronnie Brewer 6.2 and C.J. Watson 4.9.

If the Bulls reach the Finals, it will be with the lowest-scoring shooting guards in at least 40 years. Bogans doesn’t consider himself an NBA historian, but he understands why there may be doubters.

“The people here are used to seeing a guy at that position score,” Bogan said. “You’ve got three top scorers on our team with Derrick, Luol (Deng) and Carlos (Boozer). The other guys out there, there’s not going to be a lot of shots, anyway.

“I always said that from the jump. I’m a role player. I know that, and scoring really doesn’t matter to me, because I’m going to do things that don’t show up on the stat sheet.”

The funny thing is, the Bulls tried to sign a dominant shooting guard last summer and came up empty. Joe Johnson, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James turned them down in free agency. Even their play for Orlando restricted free agent J.J. Redick came up empty when the Magic matched the Bulls’ offer sheet.

So the Bulls went with Brewer, Korver and Bogans instead, and it’s hard to argue they would have won more than 62 games with a higher-scoring shooting guard.

“(Coach) Tom (Thibodeau) has done a terrific job in a lot of areas,” general manager Gar Forman said. “One of the areas he’s really done a nice job is I think he’s defined roles and got guys to buy into their roles on the team. The depth on our team and guys accepting roles has really been a plus.”

Actually, the best comparison for the current Bulls team might be the 2006 Miami Heat. That team was carried by Wade, a dynamic guard in his third NBA season, when it beat Dallas in the Finals. Center Shaquille O’Neal played a bigger role during the regular season, averaging 20 points, and that team was in its second year together, having lost in the East finals the previous season.

The Bulls haven’t been past the first round of the playoffs since 2007. But Rose and Joakim Noah are the only two players whose sole postseason experience are the first-round losses to Cleveland and Boston the past two years.

Kurt Thomas and Brian Scalabrine have played in the Finals. Boozer and Brewer went to the Western Conference finals with Utah in 2007. Deng is the lone holdover from the last Bulls team that got past the first round.

Nothing says the Bulls can’t get to the Finals with their current lineup. But it would be groundbreaking in many ways.

They share some traits with championship squads, particularly the superstar who can finish close games. These Bulls also excel on defense and are big inside.

“One of the things we’re excited about is I think we have a team that still has a lot of room to grow together,” Forman said. “We did have seven new players and a new coaching staff. A lot of our guys are still young. To me, that’s what’s exciting.”

Bulls vs. Pacers playoff schedule

Bulls’ playoff roster, stats

How Bulls fared against Pacers this season

Bulls’ Rose get a promise from the president

Mike McGraw’s NBA playoff predictions

Who has the edge?

Defense and experience key factors in NBA playoffs