I don't know why experts rank Chicago that high?!
I mean Miami is an obvious selection, they're the best team in the league right now (despite wholeheartedly disprizing them).
But Chicago?
Yes, Derrick Rose is a fantastic player and their defense is top notch, but that's about it. They have no great scorer apart from Rose, they're not very athletic apart from Rose, they're quite injury prone and Miami took them apart in the East Finals last season...I mean it wasn't even close.
And people need to remember that we had their number all season long in 10/11, we won in Chicago, at the Garden - everywhere against them.
We also had them close to defeat this season, despite beeing in the midst of a losing streak - playing terrible basketball AND without Steve NOvak, J.R. SMith, Jeremy LIn or Baron Davis.
I think our chances would be 60-70% to knock Chicago out in a playoff series, making the Bulls the 30-40% underdogs.
Teams like Indiana or Boston might actually be a tougher matchup for us than Chicago, we just don't play well against those type of teams.