Search For a New Favorite Team: The Chicago Bulls?

I’ve spent the last several years as a die-hard LeBron James fan, and by association a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, ever since I got a fist-bump from LBJ at a game. In the the wake of the LeBron Circus, however, I’m in the market for a new favorite team—and I’m chronicling my search. Maybe I’ll announce my decision on ESPN.

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The Chicago Bulls are in a great spot. Their roster is unbelievably loaded, and yet thanks to the Miami Heat they’re still going to start this season well, well under the radar.

Talk about a dark horse to win the Eastern Conference. If the Heat don’t gel, the Boston Celtics keep getting older and the Orlando Magic continue to not improve then the Bulls could swoop in and take the East when nobody’s looking. It sounds like a lot of if’s, except that all of them seem possible—if not probable.

We don’t need to say anything about Derrick Rose, right? Top five point guard, getting better each year, only 21 years old, blah blah blah. In these next couple years Rose is going to be informing us all whether he’s decided to become a real-deal superstar, or just a regular ol’ star.

He put in 20 points and six dimes per game last year, and is the undisputed leader of an offense in which he won’t be the only legitimate contributor this year. If he can parlay his athleticism into some frisky defense, he’ll quickly go from awesome-to-watch to just-plain-awesome.

You know what ups the ante on the Bulls, though? Joakim Noah. I hated the guy when he played at Florida, and figured his hustle game would never translate to the NBA.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Noah has a nose for the ball that is almost unmatched in the league, as we’ve seen his rebounds go from 5.7 to 7.5 to 11.0 per game in his three years in the NBA. He’s got the size for it, at 6’11”, but it’s his uncanny ability to get into position that translates into boards.

Throw in ten points, a block and a half, wicked cool hair and improved shooting from the stripe (74% last year—downright respectable for a center), and at 25 years old you’ve got a big man you can do business with.

What holds the Bulls back as a likeable team—not talent, mind you, just likeability—is a certain Carlos Boozer, who they picked up this summer on a sign-and-trade from the Utah Jazz. He’s a terrific upgrade at the 4 and will present a formidable front line next to Noah, but man, it’s hard to like a guy who looks that angry all the time.

When it comes the balling, he drops 20 points a game, gets 11 boards, plays solid low-post defense and will run a top-notch pick & roll with Rose. He’s had some injury issues, and Jazz fans will point to the much-shortened ‘06 and ‘09 seasons as reasons they’re not too sad to see Boozer go. But whether you like him or not, he’s going to make the Bulls better—and there’s no shortcut to my heart like winning, even if you look scary doing it.

Now an obligatory mention of depth: The Bulls still have Luol Deng and Taj Gibson, plus they added Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Watson. Solid stuff. They don’t run dry after Rose, Noah and Boozer.

You know who else excites me, though? The Bulls’ new head coach Tom Thibodeau.

Thibodeau has built quite the reputation for himself as the architect of the Boston Celtics’ stifling defense, and Chicago won the coaching lottery by snagging him. If he can inject some of that defensive intensity into this team—which already has some talented defensive players—the Bulls are going to be very, very scary off the ball.

There are probably a handful of reasons to like the Bulls that I’m missing, most of which I’m sure deal with Derrick Rose having super-human powers (just leave them in the comments). But the moral of the story is that here’s a team with one of the most complete rosters in the East, and yet they’re probably not going to get picked by anyone as finishing higher than 4th in the conference.

I think I could be a fan.