6. Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls will win the NBA Championship......... IF somehow the NBA playoffs were to become single elimination march madness style. 

Imagine for a second the 65 team format applied to the NBA Playoffs. Take the 30 NBA teams, add the 12 NBA Developmental league teams, 10 foreign teams, 10 of the best college teams, the Harlem Globetrotters, Saginaw and Saginaw Arthur Hill. Selection Sunday comes around and here's how the one seeds would look. 

1. Miami Heat- The Kentucky of the field, bunch of young superstars never played with each other before besides AAU. 

1. Los Angeles Lakers- The Lakers are Duke. 

1. Phoenix Suns- The Phoenix Suns would get the overrated pac 10 team bid

1. Dallas Mavericks- Gonzaga having one of their really good years, incredible regular season can they finally get over the hump?

First round takes place no real upsets, maybe Madrid knocks off Minnesota T'wolves, but that's about it. Second round takes place and here's how the sweet 16 would look. 

(1) Miami Heat vs. (4) Memphis

(2) San Antonio vs. (6) Denver Nuggets (Carmelo gets hot and leads the Nuggets past a 3 seed Milwaukee) 

Miami beats Memphis, Denver continues their one man show past San Antonio and LeBron, D-Wade, Chris Bosh, Melo, and Chauncey take the court at once as a possible Olympic team preview. Unlike 2003 at Syracuse, the run ends here for Melo and Miami goes to the Final Four. 

(8) Detroit Pistons vs. (4) Chicago Bulls. Detroit would be like and underachieving Kansas or UNC team who goes about 20-12 in the regular season. Upsets the overrated pac 10 Suns team and marches to the sweet 16.

(2) Thunder vs (3) Rockets 

(4) Bulls beat Detroit, (2) Durant shows his FIBA single elimination mentality and leads team to victory. However, the Thunder are much more tired after Houston than Chicago is from their win over Detroit and thus is able to outlast Durant and march into the final four as a 4 seed. 

(1) Lakers vs (4) Jazz

(2) Portland vs (11) Golden State

Lakers move easily past Jazz, Golden State continues to be the cinderella story riding Steph Curry's lights out shooting, the shooting that allowed them to knock off the (6) seed Sacramento Kings, (3) seed Atlanta (the Pitt Panthers figure of pro basketball) and then over (2) Portland. However, Lakers end the cinderella run reach the final four. 

(1) Dallas vs. (4) Boston 

(2) Orlando vs. (11) Indiana Pacers

Boston is the dangerous UCLA team filled with senior leadership but battled injuries during the regular season otherwise would have been a 1 seed. Blows out Dallas. Indiana is the white Butler/Northern Iowa squad that makes it to the sweet 16 then finally falls to a solid Orlando, Georgetown esque squad. Boston beats Orlando and completes the Final Four. 

The Final four would then look like this: 

(1) Miami vs. (4) Chicago

(1) L.A. vs. (4) Boston 

The selection committee would have designed, just like Nike's puppet campaign, a collision course of LeBron vs Kobe for the finals. However, like so many times in March Madness, there's a spoiler to the perfect matchup. Last year's final four the ideal finals should have been MSU vs. Duke (in reality it should have been Kansas vs Kentucky but that's just my bitterness speaking), but Butler through fundamentals and defense snuck past. Chicago will do that to the Heat. Meanwhile, Boston vs. L.A. becomes an instant classic. Three overtimes, incredibly physical, Boston surviving and limping into the finals. Chicago once again will take advantage of a tired team and for 40 minutes outplay the Celtics and take home the NBA title. 

But that's not the way things are. I love the 7 game series because at the end of it, there's really not much left for debate. Could the Bulls beat anyone in the league in a single elimination game, absolutely. Could they beat the Heat, Lakers, Celtics, or even Magic 4 times out of 7, don't think so. The Bulls will give one of the big 3 of the East (meaning Celtics, Miami, Orlando) a great 6 or 7 game series, but nothing more than that. 

Point Guard

   Derrick Rose didn't bend over backwards in the LeBron sweepstakes. He wants this to be his team, and he's a good enough point guard to have that type of confidence. Rose will continue to rise to the top of the league next season. 

Shooting Guard

    The weak link of the starting five. Ronnie Brewer is good and I think in the Thibodeau system he could get looks like Ray Allen did in Boston, but don't look for Brewer to be a go to guy down the stretch in big games. 

Luol Deng

   Deng is quietly having a pretty solid NBA career. 

Power Forward

   Huge upgrade bringing in Carlos Boozer. Boozer gives them a legitimate scoring option down low to complement defensive specialist...

Center

    Joakim Noah. I hate so much that Noah has panned out and turned into a really solid center in the NBA but I have to admit that it's true. Look for Noah to play even harder now that he knows the Bulls believe in him and don't see him as just a way to get Carmelo. 

Bench

Kyle Korver will hit so many threes as the 6th man this season. Thibodeau's system is designed for him. Look for several 20 point games in 15-20 minute stretches. 

Taj Gibson will continue to improve in the more fitting role of back up power forward to Boozer. 

Kurt Thomas seems to float around the NBA but always give a team a good backup option at center. 

I think the Bulls definitely deserve your attention this year but its hard to see them going further than a second round playoff exit at the hands of either Miami/Boston/Orlando. Just imagine if LeBron had joined and the lineup was Rose, Deng, James, Boozer, and Noah. Doesn't matter if it were best of 7, single elimination, or first basket wins, that team would've been the best in the league by far. But for now the Bulls fans can enjoy a solid team just not a great team.