The Bulls' Third Quarter: Lost Causes

This update marks a somewhat sad moment for the Bulls because, for the first time since I started doing the little quarterly graphics in 2010 as part of the regular posts about the team, Chicago is not a first place team. The only real surprise is that it took this long. Hell, even I picked the Pacers to win the division this year. This was a season the team was going to be without Derrick Rose for a majority of it, after all.

While I entirely regret (for now) having also picked the Lakers to get to this year's Finals, I have not seen anything outside of, say, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that might dissuade me from still thinking Miami is going to repeat as champions in the end. As soon as news broke, of course, that Derrick Rose's doctor cleared the star to play, there was not only hope, but an actual belief being expressed that the Bulls are suddenly contenders again. Which is ridiculous—and not in a Devin Hester sort of way.

While I'm as much of a fan of No. 1 as anybody else, and I know there's amazing recoveries from torn ACLs, I'm also reminded that experts agree "there's no such thing as a full recovery from an ACL injury." Some people seem to believe the Rose returning to the court is going to be the exact same Rose he was before he tore the damn thing. Let us get real though. If Derrick Rose never steps on the court once this year to play a game, it should be seen as more time he gets to heal. I'd rather have him be as healthy as possible for the opportunity to play all of next season than risk that by having him come back sooner than he's ready to join a team that will be lucky to get out of the second round of the playoffs.

Even if Rose plays phenomenally upon a return this season, the Bulls will still be hard-pressed to hang with the Indiana Pacers in trying to win the division, let alone the defending champion Heat. As I've said, I don't know that there were high hopes to begin with this year, but injuries were an issue for this team at the beginning of the year and have only gotten worse with Rip Hamilton and Kirk Hinrich missing several games while Joakim Noah and Luol Deng playing through injuries. Miami, meanwhile, has now tied the record for the longest winning streak in the league this season as LeBron occasionally plays out of his mind. Indiana looked strong even without Danny Granger, and there's some belief that they could be the best bet to exploit the lack of a frontcourt presence for the Heat.

So where does that leave Chicago? Hoping to come back stronger and healthier next year. At best, this year's Bulls prove to be scrappy underdogs. I'd be happy to get an entertaining playoff game or two this year, but I'm not getting my hopes built up about Chicago having to throw two parades this summer.

NOTE: Photo taken from here