As the NBA season continued to progress this year I continually thought about how similar the Chicago Bulls were to the Cleveland Cavaliers of the past two seasons. Their records are similar, the makeup of the teams is similar, and the outcome will be similar. Over the past two seasons the Cavaliers won 61 games (2009-10) and 66 games (2008-09). This year the Chicago Bulls finished the season with 62 wins. All three teams were also the No. 1 seeds in the playoffs each season. As I also mentioned the makeup of the teams are also similar. Each year the league MVP has been featured on each of these teams, with Derrick Rose winning it this year and LeBron James winning it the previous two years. The similarities between the team's rosters lie deeper than just having the MVP. The three teams all feature a respectable starting five and mediocre benches. This is the biggest similarity. As you look at the Cavaliers of the past two seasons they featured players like Antawn Jamison, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Mo Williams. While with this year's Bulls team we see players like Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, and Kyle Korver. When I look at these four players, who were the key players on these teams (excluding the MVPs James and Rose), I see basically the same four players skills wise, the only exceptions being that the Bulls are slightly younger than the Cavaliers and that Luol Deng is a better player than Anderson Varejao. Besides these two differences though these teams are almost exactly the same, and their records show it.
This is why I think the Bulls will come to the same fate that the Cavaliers did for the past two years, and all the other seasons they had LeBron for that matter, and will not win a championship. The Cavaliers ran into a well balanced Orlando Magic team in 2009 with Dwight Howard dominating the paint and guys who could shoot from the perimeter with Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. In 2010, last season, the Cavaliers ran into the Big Three (Four if you count Rajon Rondo) of the Boston Celtics and were once again overpowered by a well balanced attack. This year the Chicago Bulls have run into the Miami Heat, and although the series has not been determined yet, I see the same thing happening to Chicago that happened to Cleveland for the past couple season. The well balanced attack from the Miami Heat's Big Three will be too much for the Bulls to handle and they will fall to the Heat in six games, just like the Cavs fell to the Celtics and Magic in six games.
Another thing I find interesting about these two teams, is the amount of pressure placed on the MVPs. Sure as an MVP there is going to be pressure placed on you to perform to help your team win, but both Rose and James seem to need career games for their teams to win in the playoffs. When LeBron played in the series against Orlando, he scored 49 points in Game One, but his team still came up one point short, and we saw this pressure placed on him to perform at his highest possible level night in and night out when Cleveland was in the playoffs. This is why he left. He did not want to have to take the heat every night and know that when he showed up for the game that he needed to score 50 points for his team to win (by the way I used the word heat on purpose in this sentence). He wanted to be able to show up and no that as long as he played a solid game 20-30 points, his team would have an opportunity to win, and that is the situation he is now in with the Heat. Derrick Rose is under the same kind of pressure. On Wednesday night in Game Two Rose scored 21 points, and everyone seems to be talking about what an off night Derrick Rose had. Before I wrote this article I just read about what a great game Kevin Durant had for the Thunder, and he scored 24 points. Wow three more points, big deal. The difference is that the Thunder beat the Mavericks, the Bulls did not beat the Heat. Derrick Rose almost seems destined for a career identical to that of LeBron James. That is why the Bulls tried to sign James in the off season, because they saw this happening. The Bulls have a great young talent, but they do not seem to have enough around him to beat the best teams. Just like LeBron suffered to the Celtics and the Magic to some extent, Derrick Rose seems destined to suffer to the Heat.
There still is time though. Derrick Rose's career in Chicago is just beginning, and although I think Miami will beat the Bulls in this series, the Bulls can still develop a young star or trade for a star to complement their point guard. The Bulls best option is for Joakim Noah to become a star. Noah is a young player just like Rose who definitely has the potential to develop into an elite player and complement Derrick Rose. I think the key to Chicago escaping the fate that Cleveland just suffered, with coming so close to a championship, but continually falling short, is for Joakim Noah to develop into a star. If the Bulls can do this and win championships then they may be able to keep their MVP around and avoid him leaving to create a superstar team to compete with the Heat. You never know though, the superstar team might just land in Chicago.
Ryan Bothmann
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