The Chicago Bulls had a busy offseason and preseason. When their season opener tips off against the Boston Celtics in the United Center on Thursday night, they’ll be fielding a starkly different starting five from last year.
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Trading Derrick Rose was a traumatic experience, but basketball moves fast that it seems like that was a year ago instead of just a few summer months. It’s fall now, and as the seasons change for weather, so too have the Bulls changed from preseason to opening night.
Rajon Rondo
Rondo was always going to be the starting point guard. He’s one of Chicago’s two big summer signings, along with Dwyane Wade.
He saw limited preseason action, the Bulls were focused on trying to develop Jerian Grant, Isaiah Canaan and Spencer Dinwiddie. Rondo’s contract and resume secured his spot so the Bulls wanted to know who else they were bringing with them out of camp.
In five games, he averaged 25.8 minutes with 8.2 points, 6.8 assists and 6 rebounds. Decent numbers for games that don’t count. He also shot 48.6 percent from the field. A lot of that came from Rondo’s ability to exploit soft defenses for attempts at the rim. He’s still a terrible outside shooter, 22.2 percent on less than two attempts per game from 3-point range.
The basketball IQ and elite passing is still intact, he repeatedly hit teammates in the hands through tight spaces. Often, his teammates were less prepared to receive the pass than defenders. Rondo will open the season as the starter at point guard and should play over 30 minutes per game. His assist opportunities should be consistent with players like Wade and Jimmy Butler sharing the court. Unless he finds himself injured or suspended, he’s got the starting job for the season assuming Michael Carter-Williams doesn’t transform his game dramatically.
Dwyane Wade
The man of the hour. Of course, you must start Wade, there is literally no other option for Fred Hoiberg. Wade played six games in the preseason and I pretty much nailed his 22.3 minutes per game in my preseason over/under predictions piece.
The highlight of his preseason was 3-point shooting. He shot 39.7 percent from the field, but was better than that from 3-point range, knocking down seven from deep for 43.8 percent. Those seven makes equal his total from the entire 2015-16 regular season.
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Wade is going to be unique, which isn’t surprising if you look at the arc of his career. He probably only plays 60-65 games, though he was over 70 last season. There is a high probability that he sits out the second game of any back-to-backs. He isn’t the most injury prone guard, but all the miles have added up and he’ll need a bit of luck to avoid any injury spells. If he’s healthy and not held out for rest, he’ll be the starter at the two spot.
Jimmy Butler
Butler is the Chicago starter. There are scenarios where both Wade and Rondo could find their way out of the starting lineup, even if briefly. That is not the case with Jimmy. He’s going to be the one Bull that will be in every starting lineup all season.
For whatever preseason numbers are worth, nothing stuck out about Butler. He didn’t shoot well from the field, didn’t take a lot of 3s, didn’t play a lot of minutes. He wants to be the ultimate team leader for the Bulls, but he could be trying to do too much. When he tries to take on a larger share of the offense, his defense slumps. If he’s consistent, he’ll have a big season. But playing alongside Wade and Rondo will be the biggest challenge of his career to date.
Taj Gibson
Finally. It’s time to #FreeTaj. Gibson has been jerked around about the starting power forward position in Chicago for what feels like a decade. It hasn’t been that long, but he’s definitely had the rug pulled out from under him before. He’s been the backup four to some mixture of Carlos Boozer, Nikola Mirotic, and the Pau Gasol experiment.
This is a bittersweet experience. He had to fight hard through the beginning of the preseason with challenges from Mirotic and Bobby Portis for the starting slot. By the end of the preseason, Hoiberg seemed to be signaling his starter as Gibson wasn’t even dressed for the team’s trip to Milwaukee.
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What this means for the regular season is anyone’s guess. He’s in the final year of his deal and surely intends to leave Chicago. That seems to make him a prime candidate for a trade at some point during the season. The best way to inflate his value is to let him play. He’s a good finisher with a knack for forceful slam dunks.
The trick will be keeping him in the starting lineup. As a player, Gibson is a fine starter and probably should have been a starter for years. Sadly, he isn’t a great fit for an offense that features Wade, Rondo and Butler – all poor perimeter shooters. Gibson shot 64.8 percent from the field in the preseason, but was 0-for-1 from distance. Six games and only one 3-point attempt is indicative of the difficulty that the Bulls will have with this starting lineup. There is no spacing. Gibson outplayed Mirotic and Portis, but he doesn’t offer any perimeter offense while the others guys do.
Let’s just enjoy Taj starting, however long it may last. He’s earned it.
Robin Lopez
Lopez makes it three first-year Bulls in the starting lineup. If you consider that Gibson was never the outright starting forward, that makes it four. The only returning regular is Butler.
Like the other players in the starting lineup, it was never in doubt. He was the main return in the Rose trade and was a great acquisition. He replaces Joakim Noah and represents a younger, cheaper, healthier interior defender with a significantly better offensive game. He’s not as fiery as Jo and doesn’t have the same passing ability, but he can also put the ball on the floor and hit shots from the mid-range if you leave him uncontested.
The drawback for Lopez will be his perimeter defensive work and that showed during the preseason. Lopez didn’t stray far from the paint. His self-awareness helps keep him out of trouble, but means the Bulls are devoid of perimeter help defense.
Lopez averaged 5.4 assists in the preseason. That is going to be a big number. He can’t match the production as an offensive facilitator that Noah provided, but he if he can produce at that same rate during the regular season it should go a long way to compensate for any loss Chicago was facing from their former starter.
The Bulls lineup feels volatile despite being filled with skilled, established NBA players positions one through five. Don’t be surprised to see a change if the Bulls fall out of the playoff race early or the offense proves too congested without a bonafide 3-point threat.