Chicago Bulls: Who said that there is no less life, and the water in front of the door can still be west

By Jonathan Tjarks

This season the Bulls have exceeded expectations. In today's three-point league-dominating era, the Bulls have done the opposite, bringing in Dwyane Wade, Rajan Rondo and Michael Carter Williams.

The Las Vegas betting market predicts the Bulls' wins this season at 38.5, tied for tenth in the East, while betting site Bovada shows Fred Hoyberg is most likely to be the first coach to be fired this season. After taking over the coaching whip from Tom Thibodeau, Hoyberg has been trying to change the rhythm of the team, and it seems that they are destined to go through a difficult run-in period and struggle through the ups and downs.

But in fact, there was a spark between them, the Bulls started with 3 wins and 1 loss, and the team scored 111.4 points per 100 rounds, ranking third in the NBA. The biggest highlight of this is the three-point efficiency of Wade and Jimmy Butler. Butler's career three-point shooting percentage is 33.1 percent, and this season he averaged 50 percent from four three-point ranges per game. Wade, who shot 28.6 percent from a career three-point range, averaged 3 shots per game and shot 41.7 percent from the field. It's hard to believe that the two of them suddenly evolved into a high-strength version of the Splash Brothers, but even after the hit rate began to decline, there were still many positive signs for the Bulls.

Offseason concerns about the compatibility of Butler and Wade seem to obscure the fact that they are among the best flank players in the NBA. The 27-year-old Butler is at the peak of his career and his physical fitness is extraordinary. His breakthrough does not require a lot of space, and he is not afraid of physical confrontation. Once he was knocked out of the basket, all the opponent could do was foul, and he averaged 7.5 free throws per game this season, a career high.

Although the Bulls after 2015 were almost out of sight, Butler did make James earthlings that season in the playoffs, averaging 31.7 points and shooting 42.5 percent in the other three series of the playoffs that year, but was limited to 26.2 points per game in the series with the Bulls, shooting 39.9 percent. There are very few people in the league who can resist James one-on-one, and Butler is one of them.

Wade is also basically misplaced in the same position, and it can be seen from last season's playoffs that he still has a lot of oil in his fuel tank. In the playoffs, Wade averaged 21.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, shooting 46.9 percent, leading the heat to the second round of the seventh-game game, and often the best player in the game.

Although the 34-year-old is not as explosive as before, he is very smart on the field, and he knows where he is on the field and the space needed to complete the attack. His 6'11 arm span allows him to play against taller players than him and contribute in other ways when he feels bad.

For the Bulls, at any point in the game, whether in singles, blocking or in the box, Wade and Butler can create scoring opportunities for themselves or their teammates. Although Wade and Butler will play together and need to accommodate each other's playing styles, they also have a lot of time to lead the team alone. This season Wade has 75 minutes of playing time without Butler, and Butler has 52 minutes of playing time without Wade. Hoyborg did a great job of allocating their playing time and rotating the squad, ensuring that at least one person was on the pitch at all times, so he could get the most out of some players with limited playing time.

Hoyborg usually substitutes Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott in the middle of the first quarter to give the team space on the pitch. According to statistics, Mirotic shot 8.1 three-pointers per 36 minutes of playing time, compared with McDermott's 4.9. Regardless of whether Wade and Butler's shooting percentages return to their original beginnings, the Bulls will have the three-point firepower of Mirotic and McDermott throughout the season, and both of them have the ability to shoot from different angles in the face of close defense. The opportunities hoyborg gave them seemed to unleash their potential and allow them to play at their best. Both are only twenty-four or five years old, in their third season in the NBA, so this offensive goal increase has the potential to become their new normal, especially when the ball can be constantly shifted.

Ty Gibson and Cristiano Felicio are the glue on the Bulls' roster, and they are destined to fade out of the spotlight this season. Gibson has been the most perfect big player in the Bulls squad in these years, and the departures of Joakin Noah and Paul Gasol have given him the opportunity to prove it. He did a good job of cutting outside after blocking, shooting from the outside and scoring on the inside, and defending inside and out. Felicio was signed by the Bulls from Brazil last season, and the 6'10-pound "mobile bowling" that weighs 275 pounds also gave a lot of surprises. He is a reliable positional defender, with fast movements and can pull out to cause trouble for the opposing ball carrier when the defense is dismantled. In the vast majority of games, Hoyborg will leave one of them on the field as an arrow in the transition defense, and they have improved a lot in this area this season.

The Bulls have two elite scorers, two well-rounded frontcourt shooters, and two big, athletic men. Throughout the game, they can be arbitrarily combined according to the situation on the field. The depth of the squad, made up of the team's various talents, allows Hoyborg to be more flexible in arranging rotations. That doesn't even take into account the potential stocks at the end of the team's bench, notably Bobby Portis and Denzel Valentine. Injury problems are sometimes unavoidable, and their presence allows the team to take some of the risk.

For the first time in all these years, the Chicago Bulls have played a stormy feel, and the team has played to its advantage. They continued to pound offensive rebounds, averaging nearly 15 offensive rebounds, which accounted for 33.7% of total rebounds per game, the best in the league. And they also put pressure on the defensive end, constantly moving the ball, expanding the outside line and reducing turnovers, doing what Hoyberg didn't do well in his first year in charge.

The Bulls have played more easily this season, but there have been gains and losses since ancient times. Derrick Rose and Paul Gasol did well after leaving. Rose and Gasol were both among the best players in the NBA early in their careers, and despite their decline in performance over the years, they still consider themselves All-Stars. But after they left, the bulls did miss something. Rose was reluctant to pick up the pace and always attacked the basket without making much fouls, while Gasol needed the ball, blocked the offensive end, and he didn't defend much. For the Bulls' most worrying shooting this season, it seems that the two of them can't help much. Sending them both away means two fewer stops on the offensive end, and on the defensive end, the Bulls can also line up a more comprehensive lineup with players who can defend multiple positions.

But it's too early to trumpet the Bulls' results, thanks to the easy schedule at the start. Their first game of the game was against the Celtics in back-to-back second game, then beat the Pacers and the Nets in turn, both of which currently look unstable. He then lost in his second encounter with the Celtics, and this time the Celtics did not have Al Horford and Jay Crowder (who suffered a serious sprained ankle in the second quarter of the game). By the timetable, teams will take weeks to play against the rest of the league divisions, and by mid-November when the Bulls embark on a West Coast trip against the Trail Blazers, Jazz and Clippers, we'll be better able to see if they can compete with the best teams in the league.

The Bulls' style of play requires a lot of physical exertion, and that can decline as the season progresses — especially Wade, who has played more than 70 regular season games in just one of the last five seasons. There's not much room for error for the Bulls, especially if the current high shooting percentage is about to fall.

The most important of these is the performance of Rajon Rondo, who has had the fewest dry goods in the "Big Three" in the past few seasons, and his shooting percentage since the opening four games is also the worst of the three. The Big Three is a rather ridiculous title, like Steve Martin's comedy "The Three Dragons", which tells the story of three older actors who thought they were going to make a movie to play the role of a gunfight, but unexpectedly fought with real guns. Wade and Butler are at least true star players, and any team with them won't be easy to get out of the playoffs.

As the season progresses, the Bulls still have a lot to worry about. But the mere presence of these two men could make the Bulls' final results exceed expectations, after all, they were in the bland East except for the Cavaliers.

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