How did the Bulls fare in this season’s NBA GM survey?
The Chicago Bulls have become one of the title favorites in the National Basketball Association once again. Between Derrick Rose’s return to the hardwood (again) and some key offseason acquisitions, the Bulls are primed and ready to win the organization’s seventh NBA title. But, how do the other 29 general mangers in the NBA feel?
On Wednesday morning, NBA.com’s John Schuhmann released results from a 56-question survey on how the 30 general managers feel about the upcoming 2014-2015 season. The survey had a little of everything; from “Which team will win the 2015 NBA Finals?” to “Which team made the best offseason moves overall?”
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So, how did the Bulls fare?
In the first question of the survey: “Which team will win the 2015 NBA Finals?”, the Bulls finished third overall in the survey behind the San Antonio Spurs (46.2% of the voting) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (15.4% of the voting) with over 11 percent of the votes.
(Hard to be upset with that. Remember the clinic San Antonio put on in June?)
The second question asked, “Who will win the Eastern Conference Finals?”
And with over 70 percent of the votes, the winner was … the Cleveland Cavaliers. Chicago was second in results with just under 26 percent of the votes. The Washington Wizards, the team that eliminated the Bulls in last year’s playoffs, finished third.
Cleveland was also predicted to win the Central Division by the general managers, with 60.7 percent of the vote. Once again, the Bulls finished second with 39.3 percent of the vote.
(When LeBron James is on your team, you instantly become a contender to make The Finals. It’s just that simple.)
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One of the more debatable topics was the “best center in the NBA” question. With 42.9 percent of the vote, the general managers thought Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard was the top big man in the game. Bulls center Joakim Noah came in third (behind Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol) with 17.9 percent of the votes.
Noah did take the top spot in two of the survey questions on the defensive side of the ball. The NBA’s 2013-2014 Defensive Player of the Year was voted as the “Best defender in the NBA” and the “Best interior defender in the NBA”. The Bulls were also voted as the “Best defensive team in the NBA”, with almost 86 percent of the vote.
(As dominant as Dwight’s been in the past, what big man can give a team what Joakim Noah can?)
Other voting results:
- Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau was voted as the head coach “with the best defensive schemes”
- Bulls assistant coach Adrian Griffin was voted as the second-best assistant head coach behind Golden State’s Alvin Gentry
- Derrick Rose was voted as the third-fastest player “with the ball in his hands”. (Uh, that’s really debatable.)
- Kirk Hinrich received the third-most votes as the “Best player to make a head coach someday”
- Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler tied for the third-most votes in the “League’s best role player” poll
You can read the entire survey from NBA.com by clicking here.
Final thoughts
It’s just a simple preseason survey, but it’s clear that even the general managers feel that the Cavaliers are slightly ahead of the Bulls in the Eastern Conference, along with most experts.
The Bulls are primed for a big season. That part is extremely clear. The last time Derrick Rose was healthy throughout the year, the Bulls won 62 games and Rose won the NBA MVP award in just his third season.
But, three things come to mind for the Bulls:
- Can the Bulls (more specifically their star point guard) stay healthy through the year? (See Butler, Jimmy … sprained left thumb in the sixth preseason game)
- Will Tom Thibodeau turn down the stubborness and manage minutes to keep his stars ready for a playoff run?
- The Bulls are deep on the offensive end, but what about defensively? Can the second unit provide valuable minutes on the defensive end too?