The Chicago Bulls this season are 20-16 and enjoying a terrific season from Luol Deng. The 6-9, 220-pound small forward in his third year is averaging a career-high 18.0 points on fantastic 53.1% shooting to go with 6.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game. InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner recently met with Deng in Madison Square Garden for an exclusive interview.

InsideHoops.com: You've having a great season. Talk about the year in general and your progression.

Luol Deng: I've been playing well. Trying to be more consistent.

InsideHoops.com: Your role has gotten bigger, and you're doing more offensively even in ways that don't necessarily show on the stat sheet. Is that intentional on your part or the team's part, more from you?

Luol Deng: It's just the situation, and the way we play. Now I'm needed to score. Last year I came off an injury, so it took me a while, probably afte the all-star break, to feel healthy. But now you just go out there and play. We got so many guys that can score, on any given night it could be anyone.

InsideHoops.com: Is making the all-star team on your mind? You're being mentioned as a dude who might be on there.

Luol Deng: I know that, but, I can't think about that. That would take my main focus away. I got to think about winning, and playing out there for each game, just for the team to win, and let things take care of themselves.

InsideHoops.com: You guys are a real team unit, where lots of guys are capable of stepping up and performing big pretty regularly.

Luol Deng: We're a really exciting team. We got, like you said, so many guys that can step it up. And it's kind of fun. If I have a bad night, or someone else has a bad night, we're still capable of winning that game. While a lot of teams when the main guys don't play well they can't do it. It's really neat to be a part of.

InsideHoops.com: You guys struggled to start the season, and then went wild and won nonstop. What was going wrong early on, and then what started going right?

Luol Deng: In the beginning we knew were weren't going to be as good as we could be. We didn't know we were going to lose that many games, but I think the main thing was, being adjusted to each other and getting used to each other. We got so many new faces, us getting used to the new guys, PJ [Brown], Ben [Wallace], our rookies, their style of play. And we still really haven't played our best basketball yet. We've been able to win games, but there's a couple of things that we can improve on as a team.

InsideHoops.com: And your new big man, Ben Wallace, talk about getting used to playing with him.

Luol Deng: The thing about Ben, the hardest thing is for us not to relax knowing that he's behind you, that comfort zone. I think in the beginning of the season we were too relaxed. We got to help him out, and play, just trying to match his energy defensively, because he's a very smart defensive player.

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