Bullish or Bullsh*t?

The Chicago Bulls are good, there’s no argument there.

There is, however, an argument as to exactly how good. Bulls fans are beginning to convince themselves that their team might be the best in the Eastern Conference, possibly even the entire league.

Starting with the Eastern Conference; that’s a possibility. Going into Monday night’s game against the Washington Wizards, the Bulls are in third place in the conference. They sit two games behind the Boston Celtics and one and a half games behind the Miami Heat – though they are tied with the Heat in the loss column.

Essentially all pundits agree that the best team in the East resides in one of those three cities; Boston, Miami, or Chicago. In my opinion, though, one of these things does not belong…

The Miami Heat. So far this season against the Bulls and Celtics, the Heat are an uninspiring 0-5. They are a great team, to be certain. They have the best player in the NBA in LeBron James and another member of the league’s top-5 in Dwyane Wade.

Based purely on star power, the Heat have dominated mediocre, sub-.500 teams, and they will continue to do so. But, they are a team with many weaknesses. Chiefly, they have no center and no point guard. They simply cannot compete against teams who can score down low or have a talented point guard (Like, let’s say….Chicago or Boston).

That leaves Boston and Chicago. At this point, I’m not ready to say that the Bulls have surpassed the Celtics as the top team in the East. With a healthy Joakim Noah, it’s a possibility. Particularly since Boston traded away one of its big men – Kendrick Perkins – at the trade deadline.

But as of right now, the Celtics still have one big advantage over the Bulls; Ray Allen. Chicago is offensively weak at shooting guard and not particularly overpowering defensively. I’m just not convinced that anybody on the Bulls can consistently guard Ray Allen in a 7-game series.

Does that make the Celtics decidedly better? Not necessarily, but it’s also hard to prove that they’re not.

Then there’s the West – and that’s a completely different story. San Antonio, Dallas, and Los Angeles (Lakers) all have a better record than the Bulls. They also all have something that might still give the Bulls fits; a talented big man.

Noah has blossomed into one of the best centers in the league for the Bulls over the past year, however it still remains to be seen if he has come far enough to consistently compete with the likes of Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, and Dirk Nowitzki.

If he can, I have no doubt in my mind that they can not only consistently compete against, but beat all three of those teams.

So, back to the original query; how good are the Chicago Bulls? The answer is very – but they still have to prove it on the court, particularly out west.