Which is the better team, Bulls or Heat?

[Full Court]

I think the Bulls and Heat are the two dark horse teams in the East. I expect the Bucks and Nets to be the top two teams in the division, but I think Chicago and Miami will be fighting for third.

Bulls have a formidable offense with Lavine, Derozan, and Vucevic. They also have a good defender and playmaker in Ball.

The Heat have a pretty solid top three as well with Butler, Adebayo, and Lowry. I think the Heat have a little more depth too, and the Bulls don't have anyone on the bench that can score like Herro can.

Of those two teams, which do you think is better? They're close enough that I can't really pick one over the other.

[NBAGOAT]

It’s not impossible the bulls are better but this isn’t too close either. You would need butler/Lowry to decline quite a bit due to age and lonzo to breakout and become a borderline all star. Bulls offense is better but the heat have a significantly larger edge on defense.

Right now the heats big 3 is clearly better across the board and none of them are that debatable. Duncan isn’t as good as lonzo but compliments Miami’s big 3 very well. They have better depth too and not just herro, dedmon and markieff are veterans and Oladipo is a big X factor though Caruso is awesome. Prediction wise I had heat as the 3 seed don’t think they’re worse than 5. Bulls I had at 8 don’t think they’re better than 6.

[Manny98]

Bulls actually looked good in the first pre season game
They will definitely have a top 10 offense this season but there defense is kinda sus with DeMar,Zach and Vucevic who are all below average to down right bad defenders

I don't think Lowry is going to move the needle that much for the Heat, they'll be a 4/5 seed but they are not making it further than the second round.

[beasted]

Am I the only one who expects the Bulls to miss the playoffs?

Their defense should be horrible, and I still don't trust Lonzo's shooting to be enough in that starting lineup. Demar will have to have the ball because of his lack of shooting.

The Heat should be comfortably better or something major went wrong. They have the best player of the bunch (Butler) the better coach by far (Spo) and they have the winning experience. Lavine, Lonzo, Cody, Pat Will, even Vuc to a certain extent have been on losing teams the majority of their careers.

[insight]

The Bulls have improved and look good in the PRESEASON but alot of other teams have improved too.
The Heat were already a playoff team and improved thier depth and guard play. Barring injury they should be better than Chicago and competing for 6th seed and up. Placing Chicago in the 3rd spot is homerism, Hawks, 76rs are better than Chicago, Knicks, Celtics, Charlotte and Pacers could easily be better too.

[Wally450]

Heat. I don't see the appeal everyone's putting on the Bulls.

[fsvr54]

Heat

[pegasus]

Heat. I don't see the appeal everyone's putting on the Bulls.

This, and I'm a Bulls fan. Hopefully they've improved, but the Heat roster is clearly better.

[NBAGOAT]

Am I the only one who expects the Bulls to miss the playoffs?

Their defense should be horrible, and I still don't trust Lonzo's shooting to be enough in that starting lineup. Demar will have to have the ball because of his lack of shooting.

The Heat should be comfortably better or something major went wrong. They have the best player of the bunch (Butler) the better coach by far (Spo) and they have the winning experience. Lavine, Lonzo, Cody, Pat Will, even Vuc to a certain extent have been on losing teams the majority of their careers.

the bottom of the east isnt that good. Teams competing for playin are charlotte, indiana, and toronto. None of them have a star like lavine. The bulls dont have scorers off the bench besides coby so they can stagger their stars a bit which means those stars will get a good amount of touches still. Fair enough on lonzo but he's shot over 37% from 3 on high volume for 2 seasons now. Ft shooting is the best indicator of shooting ability, he shot 78% from the line last year. Finally lavine has had awful teams around him and vucevic has show he can be the best player on a playoff team.

I agree the heat should be comfortably better. Bam and Lowry>Vucevic and Derozan too. It would take some drastic decline or bad injury luck

[beasted]

the bottom of the east isnt that good. Teams competing for playin are charlotte, indiana, and toronto. None of them have a star like lavine. The bulls dont have scorers off the bench besides coby so they can stagger their stars a bit which means those stars will get a good amount of touches still. Fair enough on lonzo but he's shot over 37% from 3 on high volume for 2 seasons now. Ft shooting is the best indicator of shooting ability, he shot 78% from the line last year. Finally lavine has had awful teams around him and vucevic has show he can be the best player on a playoff team.

I agree the heat should be comfortably better. Bam and Lowry>Vucevic and Derozan too. It would take some drastic decline or bad injury luck

I don't think all-star appearances for Vuc or Lavine really mean a whole lot. Their teams were horrible either way, and that was most evident last season after the big trade when they were together. They are good players not great players. The Bulls don't have one top 20 guy.

Vucevic in 10 years has had 3 playoff appearances. 1st was as a rookie where he didn't play, and 1 of the other 2 seasons with the magic they were 5 games under .500 and somehow scraped in. I don't think much of Billy Donovan, and I don't see the leadership on this team from a personnel standpoint. I see them in the hunt for a play-in, but one injury to a starter and I think that takes them out.

[PeroAntic]

Lavine is so underrated. Hes one of the most unstoppable players in the league, and now that he has help on offense, he will be a pest on D. He showed flashes last season but the load he had to carry was too heavy. The Bulls are going DEEP in the playoffs this year.

[NBAGOAT]

I don't think all-star appearances for Vuc or Lavine really mean a whole lot. Their teams were horrible either way, and that was most evident last season after the big trade when they were together. They are good players not great players. The Bulls don't have one top 20 guy.

Vucevic in 10 years has had 3 playoff appearances. 1st was as a rookie where he didn't play, and 1 of the other 2 seasons with the magic they were 5 games under .500 and somehow scraped in. I don't think much of Billy Donovan, and I don't see the leadership on this team from a personnel standpoint. I see them in the hunt for a play-in, but one injury to a starter and I think that takes them out.

lavine got injured after the trade and vucevic really started getting good the last 3-4 years when he got better on defense and developed a 3pt shot. I dont have a problem not putting lavine in the top 20. The hornets, pacers, and raptors dont have a guy even in the top 30.

[HylianNightmare]

The heat are proven

[beasted]

lavine got injured after the trade and vucevic really started getting good the last 3-4 years when he got better on defense and developed a 3pt shot. I dont have a problem not putting lavine in the top 20. The hornets, pacers, and raptors dont have a guy even in the top 30.

Agreed. I think it comes down to Chicago, Charlotte, Indiana, and Toronto for that 8th. I do give the advantage to Toronto in the coaching & chemistry department. But you're right none have a top 30 guy except Chicago.

The top 7 will be between:
Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, and Philly. After that it comes down to luck.

[Full Court]

Agreed. I think it comes down to Chicago, Charlotte, Indiana, and Toronto for that 8th. I do give the advantage to Toronto in the coaching & chemistry department. But you're right none have a top 30 guy except Chicago.

The top 7 will be between:
Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, and Philly. After that it comes down to luck.

I don't see Boston making the playoffs or even coming close. But we'll see.

[Jasper]

bulls will make some noise but the Heat could get to conference finals

[Axe]

The bulls will certainly be better than they have been in the past two seasons but the actual results matter more than these theories. Otoh, the heat have made the finals during the bubble.

[Rick Bottom]

bulls will make some noise but the Heat could get to conference finals

...based upon what, exactly?

[Rick Bottom]

It's impossible to say what Chicago will do. The rostre has played one pre-season game together.

Miami, however, did not improve rostre-wise over the off-season. They're likely a play-in team.

Chicago has one of the most athletic teams ever assembled, and an obscene amount of weaponry, on both sides of the ball, and they're also still a very young squad. They are going to outwork a lot of teams with their ferocious pace & ability to score from all over the court, at any given moment

[insight]

It's impossible to say what Chicago will do. The rostre has played one pre-season game together.

Miami, however, did not improve rostre-wise over the off-season. They're likely a play-in team.

Chicago has one of the most athletic teams ever assembled, and an obscene amount of weaponry, on both sides of the ball, and they're also still a very young squad. They are going to outwork a lot of teams with their ferocious pace & ability to score from all over the court, at any given moment


You can't be serious!