For those who are worried that the NBA is turning into a league of superstar teams with players conspiring together, combining forces and stacking the odds in their favor, the Chicago Bulls are proving that contenders can still be built the old-fashioned way: through draft picks, then free agency.
If the rebuilding Wizards are looking for an inspirational model, they’ve got one in the Windy City, where first there was Luol Deng (2004 draft), then Joakim Noah (2007), then Derrick Rose (2008) and even Taj Gibson (2009). Free agents Carlos Boozer and Kyle Korver arrived last summer, followed not long after by words like “chemistry,” “character” and “championship.”
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“There’s no point of us even being in here practicing if we didn’t think we could win a championship,” Rose said at Verizon Center on Monday prior to facing Washington. “I think that we have a good team. I think that we got good guys on the team that’s winners, that’s basketball players that just want to play ball and win.”
With Rose (24.9 ppg, 8.1 apg) surging into NBA MVP contention — Wizards coach Flip Saunders, who also endorsed him for the NBA’s most improved player, said Rose has his vote — it was a blessing in disguise that the Bulls failed in a late attempt last summer to lure LeBron James right before he took his talents to South Beach.
But the Bulls don’t consider themselves underdogs to anyone.
“Expectations don’t help you win ball games,” Noah said, “and low expectations don’t help you win ball games either. At the end of the day, you have to strap up and win the game.”
Regardless of their result in Washington, the Bulls already have won so many times this season that they’ve pulled right alongside the Heat and the Boston Celtics, and they aren’t afraid to admit they keep track of how many games they need to overtake both to get to the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
“You have to,” Rose said. “We’re in the same little group where everybody’s comparing us, and it wouldn’t be bad to get that No. 1 spot.”
