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CHICAGO -- Few who were deeply involved in the Chicago Bulls' pursuit of Carmelo Anthony last summer want to talk about it. Anthony told reporters in New York on Wednesday that he didn't want to second-guess himself regarding his decision to stay with the Knicks. Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and center Joakim Noah, both of whom tried hard to lure the All-Star small forward to Chicago, believe that their team is in good shape despite the fact that they didn't land Anthony. But as the Knicks star heads back to Chicago for the first time since spurning the Bulls in free agency, it's worth taking a look back at what might have been. It appears many fans feel the Bulls are better off without Anthony and should be happy with Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic and the depth and talent they provide. And that group is growing steadily throughout the season as Anthony and the Knicks struggle. The Knicks are 5-22 heading into Thursday's affair, while the Bulls are 15-9 and getting closer to hitting their stride. That's one of the reasons why the Bulls organization isn't concerned about Anthony's return. Veteran Mike Dunleavy, the man who would likely have been traded if Anthony had signed with the Bulls last summer, put a funny spin on things after Thursday's practice when asked if he ever pondered what his life would be like if Anthony had come to Chicago. "Not really," Dunleavy said. "I'd be playing basketball -- somewhere. Obviously, I'm really happy to be here, we got a pretty good team. Sometimes it's nice to have a Bentley, but a Honda Accord will get you there as well." But to expound on Dunleavy's analogy, can a team full of dependable Accords, led by a Bentley which has been in for several repairs over the past few years (Derrick Rose), take this team to a championship? That remains to be seen. The Bulls have talent and skill, and the core of Rose, Noah, Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler have been together for more than four years now. But as Anthony returns to Chicago, it's worth remembering why the Bulls went so hard after him in the first place: They know superstar players win in the playoffs. They knew that Anthony, despite some of his flaws, would be a great fit on this team because of his ability to score and create for himself offensively. After meeting with him on the first day of free agency, they came away even more convinced. For about a day and a half in July, there was a genuine feeling within the Bulls' organization that Anthony was coming to Chicago, a feeling backed up by Anthony's comments in an MSG Network documentary. Gasol has had a phenomenal start to the season and could be headed to another All-Star Game in February, but how much will the Bulls be able to lean on him in the playoffs to create if Rose still hasn't found the consistency in his game or is getting harassed by two or three defenders at a time? The Bulls have talented players -- but how many true superstars do they have on this team? Rose is a former MVP, but he has struggled to find his game at times after missing a majority of the past two years because of two serious knee injuries. Noah is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, but has not looked the same this year after offseason knee surgery. Gasol seems revitalized to be playing in Chicago, but at 34, does he have enough gas in the tank to continue playing 35-plus minutes a night until mid-June? The biggest wild card in this group, and in this particular discussion, is Butler. After turning down the Bulls' contract extension before the season, he has exploded this season to the tune of 20.9 points a game, almost eight more than he had per game a season ago. He looks more confident on the floor and is driving to the rim all the time. If Anthony had taken less to sign with the Bulls, Butler likely wouldn't have been able to make the huge ascension this season toward stardom. But as the season wears on, and Butler is asked to continually guard the opposition's best perimeter player, will Thibodeau be able to bank on getting 20-plus points from him every night? From a financial perspective, the path toward this reworked Bulls squad is a reminder of just how much the Bulls wanted Anthony. The Knicks made it clear they did not want to work out a sign-and-trade for the All-Star. If he were going to leave, he was going to have to take less money, in this case being the Bulls' offer of about $17 million a year to start, to do it. The same goes for the Lakers and Gasol. They made it clear they weren't interested in a sign-and-trade for the big Spaniard that would have included Carlos Boozer -- a player they ended up getting anyway after the Bulls exercised their amnesty rights on the final year of his deal. As Thibodeau and Noah noted on Wednesday, the Bulls are happy with the way things ultimately worked out. The team that Bulls GM Gar Forman and executive VP John Paxson built has a legitimate chance to win a championship this season. But if they can't win the organization's seventh title later this summer, they'll look back and wonder what might have been if Anthony had signed in Chicago. Maybe that's why, still many months later, several Bulls officials still use the same phrase in analyzing Anthony's decision: "He made a mistake."
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