Get ready for a steady dose of Kirk Hinrich while Derrick Rose convalesces. If Rose meets the optimistic timetable, 4 weeks, he’ll be back for the final nine games of the regular season. If it takes until the pessimistic mark, 6 weeks, he’ll return for the final three games, and the postseason.
Until then you’ll get a lot of Aaron Brooks, but there will be lots of Hinrich, with a dose of Tony Snell and then maybe a splash of E’Twaun Moore once in a great while. Hinrich might be emblematic of the new expectations (now with Derrick Rose out for 4-6 weeks) for the current Chicago Bulls.
That’s because Hinrich is the only link to the team, the 2006-07 Chicago Bulls, who’s final end result could mirror this season’s.
The ’06-’07 Bulls finished third in the Eastern conference and third in the Central division with a 49-33 record. Their offense revolved around Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, and occasionally Chris Duhon and Andres Nocioni. “Chapu,” along with Ben Wallace, were the main rebounders on that squad, who swept the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs.
They then lost to the East’s #1 seed, the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Semifinals 4-2. The current Chicago Bulls are 36-22, in fourth place in the East. Without D. Rose, it’s still very reasonable for the Bulls to go 13-11 down the stretch to match 07’s record.
Actually, it’s very realistic that they will play much better. And with Rose back at the end for at least a few, the Bulls could win 50-55 games this season.
You shouldn’t forget about all that the Chicago Bulls have aside from Derrick Rose.
Jimmy Butler, the team’s leading scorer, is a great two way player who can guard 1s, 2, 3s, or even 4s. This season, we’ve seen his offensive game develop from just a catch and shoot guy, a spot guy in the corner, into someone you can revolve your sets around.
Joakim Noah is still a player that you move the ball through in the half court, even though he hasn’t been himself this season. Noah has had some health issues to deal with, but he’s still the reigning defensive player of the year.
Pau Gasol has been better than expected; a very pleasant surprise. Remember, the two All-Stars this season on this Chicago Bulls team were Gasol and Butler; not Noah and Rose. So 50-55 wins is still very likely for Chicago. As for the postseason, well, we can speculate on that later. It all depends on how long it will be before the Bulls have to face Lebron on the Cavs.
As you know, the Cavaliers are like Hansel in Zoolander: “so hot right now.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
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