The Chicago Bulls are coming into the season with high expectations after getting back a healthy Derrick Rose and now Rose, Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol and Doug McDermott think this team can go all the way for a championship, but if Rose or another major player gets injured, the team may pick back up on those Taj Gibson trade rumors from the summer to add some support.
The Bulls have Rose back after he has missed basically two seasons with knee injuries and now he looks healthier than he has in quite some time. Rose played in the FIBA World Cup and has said that he feels ready to play the full season. According to Marc Stein at ESPN.com, the Bulls feel that Rose can stay healthy this year, but that they have backup ideas in case he goes down again. Taj Gibson came up in trade rumors this summer involving Kevin Love and Stein wrote earlier this month that the Bulls could revisit that if Rose is injured again.
The team signed Aaron Brooks this offseason and also traded for Doug McDermott to get some more offensive weapons and that should help if Rose goes down. Last season the team ranked first in points allowed per game, but they were last in points scored per game and that was one reason why they made a run at Carmelo Anthony in free agency. Adding Pau Gasol in free agency is part of that as well, as he is an offensive upgrade over what the team had in Carlos Boozer and he is also an elite rebounder on both ends of the floor.
The eastern conference will be tough this season after the way things went down last year with the Miami Heat and now everyone thinks that the Cavaliers will be the top team in the east. The Bulls have also been looked at as a pick for the finals and that obviously depends on whether Rose can stay healthy or not. This summer the team was in talks with the Timberwolves about Kevin Love, but they were not as close to a deal as the Warriors or the Cavs. The Cavaliers were the front runners from the start and the Bulls reportedly offered Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic and Taj Gibson to the Wolves in their package.
The Bulls feel that adding Gasol was a major move and he will be an upgrade over Carlos Boozer. The team had no choice but to amnesty Boozer, as he was getting paid a ton of money and was not playing up to his contract. Boozer is now with the Lakers and Gasol is with the Bulls in a nice little switch and both should have big impacts on their teams. Gasol is an upgrade over Boozer on both ends of the floor and he will take pressure off everyone else up front.
Joakim Noah and Rose spoke this month heading into the preseason that they feel the Bulls can win a title and it likely means going through the Cavaliers. The easily matchups this season between the two teams could be a playoff preview and that could be a very good matchup in the postseason.
