Bulls at the halfway point of season Options

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http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...bulls-headlines

Now, comes the hard part
The up-and-down Bulls will face a tougher schedule in 2nd half

By K.C. Johnson
Tribune staff reporter

January 21, 2007, 6:45 PM CST


The Bulls' midseason record is five games better than it was last year.

But the expectations, though difficult to quantify, are so much higher.



So where do the Bulls stand with 41 games down and 41 to go in a season that can be termed a success only if a playoff series is won?

It's hard to say because the December sizzle has ceded to a January swoon.

In December, the offense flowed like drinks at a fraternity party while the defense—supposedly the team's strength—drew questions. Now the Bulls resemble the team that led the league in opponents' field-goal percentage for each of the last two seasons, but their offense has stagnated with too many turnovers and poor ball movement.

If they ever could put the two together …

"It wouldn't surprise me if we made the conference finals," guard Kirk Hinrich said. "I think the East is wide open. Obviously, we'd have to play pretty well and improve a lot. But I don't think that's a reach at all."

Indeed, the Bulls do reside in the Eastern Conference, which offers cheap rent on first-place property. Exhibit A: the Atlantic Division. The Bulls are just 1? games behind Washington and Cleveland for the conference's No. 1 seed.

But any team that goes 14-3 in December and is 4-6 in January entering Monday's matchup at Indiana, creates questions. The biggest is: Can this team be consistent? Another is: Has coach Scott Skiles mastered a team that began the season with eight new faces?

As usual, the first answer falls on the team's young core of Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni. As much fuss as the Bulls created when they signed Ben Wallace, those four players will determine their ultimate success—as would their replacements if one or more of those players is traded before the Feb. 22 deadline.

"You normally don't get in the playoffs playing rookies and we did [in 2004-05]," Skiles said. "So they came along that year. But they have put in summers. They're getting better. Are they the kind of guys who nine nights out of 10 you can pencil in and put a solid game in the book? I don't know that yet.

"But they're definitely getting better. And I always say the game-by-game consistency is the last thing that comes. And they're definitely moving in that direction."

The Bulls will be tested by a remaining schedule that features 23 road games, tying them for the third-highest amount in the league. Saturday's home game against Miami concludes a favorable stretch of 22 of 31 home games.

Seventeen of the Bulls' remaining games are against teams with .500 or better records as of Sunday. The Bulls also face Miami twice, which should start to improve with Shaquille O'Neal back from injury.

The Bulls have gone 23-18 and 25-16 in the second half of Skiles' two full seasons as coach. Under Skiles, the second half also has been when they have started to win more road games and play better defense.

But each season presents new challenges and nuance that a coach is paid handsomely to master. Has Skiles reached a comfort level with a roster that almost completely flipped from back-to-back playoff appearances?

"I'm getting there," Skiles said. "One of the things that has been good and bad is the two rookies. Trying to get them minutes and to a level where they can really help us sometimes has been at the expense of other guys. Working through that has been challenging. But we like both rookies. So it's not like it's a major problem or anything.

"The biggest thing has been trying to juggle minutes and trying to get them some quality work, not just in blowouts. Other than that, I feel I have a good handle on what each guy brings to the group and things like that. That did take awhile."

And it may still. Even though fans may want to see Skiles settle into an eight-man rotation, he more likely will continue to go 12 deep at times.

"We might have to search a little bit during the course of games," Skiles said. "You look for mismatches and some nights that may be a certain guy and other games that guy might not fit. The problem with saying the word 'searching' is people assume there's desperation with that. That's not what I mean as a coach. It's a feel thing."

kcjohnson@tribune.com