Season Preview: Chicago Bulls

I realized that, the season is coming (yay!), but I still have a good number of teams left (like 5 not including this one) to preview (not so yay). So I'll try to start cranking.

Starting 5
PG- Kirk Hinrich
SG- Larry Hughes
SF- Luol Deng
PF- Drew Gooden
C- Joakim Noah

Off the bench
Guards: Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Thabo Sefalosha, Darius Washington
Forwards: Tyrus Thomas, Andres Nocioni, Demetris Nichols
Centers: Aaron Gray, Omer Asik, Cedric Simmons

Forgive me if I'm not on the Derrick Rose bandwagon. I haven't seen a whole lot to impress me yet though. Regardless of how well the no 1 pick pans out, the fact of the matter remains that this team still needs a lot of work.   It's a young team, the veterens being the expendable Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, and Andres Nocioni.  I believe that to begin with Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden will get their starts, but if Vinny Del Negro decides to go young, I can see them benched with Derrick Rose and Tyrus Thomas picking up starting spots and Kirk Hinrich sliding over to the 2 guard position.

The thing I note with this team is that they're deep, however, their depth consists mostly of average level talent, and doesn't begin with any All-Star caliber players.  The center position is the weakest as I believe Joakim Noah to be little more than a young Ben Wallace, meaning, high energy and negligible on the offensive end.  Omer Asik is supposed to have a lot of upside, but I haven't heard or seen anything to tell me it's anything but upside right now.  All in all, Deng, Gordon, and Hinrich have not shown that they can carry a team unless they're all playing at their best at the same time, which hasn't happened in two years.  I'm not as optimistic about this team as most other people.

34-48