CHICAGO -- The NBA's general managers have spoken and the Chicago Bulls are being thought of in high regard for the 2014-15 season.

In a poll at NBA.com, the league’s general managers were asked about a wide-range of topics, including who will win this year’s title (San Antonio), who will be named MVP (LeBron James) and who made the best offseason moves (Cleveland).

While the Cavaliers are considered the most likely team to face off with the Spurs in the NBA Finals, the Bulls were the second choice to win the Eastern Conference, holding 25.9 percent of the vote. The Cavaliers got 70.4 percent.

Joakim Noah was not only selected as the league’s best defensive player, with 35.7 percent of the vote, he was also voted the league’s third best overall center behind Dwight Howard and Marc Gasol.

As for coaching, Tom Thibodeau was easily voted the coach with the best defensive schemes, earning 92.9 percent of the vote. The Bulls were obviously selected the league’s top defensive team, getting 85.7 percent of the vote.

As for what current players would make the best future coach one day, Kirk Hinrich and Steve Nash were tied with the third most votes behind Steve Blake and Chris Paul. Nazr Mohammed also received votes, but Mike Dunleavy was not listed.

Hinrich’s father was a high school coach in Iowa so he has the bloodlines for the job, but it isn’t something he’s focused on at this moment.

“I don’t know right now,” Hinrich said. “I want to play right now.”

Did he ever think about coaching when his father was guiding him as a third grader all the way into high school?

“No, I was thinking about playing,” Hinrich said. “People have asked me about that before and I say I don’t know. Me, right now, I’m a player, and I think of myself as a family man. I miss so much with my family when I’m playing that I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make that sacrifice again to coach.”

Noah did not receive any votes to be a future NBA coach, but Thibodeau suggested to not sleep on that idea.

“I’d love to see that,” Thibodeau said with a grin. “He actually would be pretty good, I think. He has a good way about him. I don’t know if he’d want to give up all his time, but he’d be good at it if he chose to do it.”

Noah, though, thinks otherwise.

“No way,” Noah said. “That’s the last thing I’m thinking about is coaching. I’m a basketball player.”

Maybe when your career ends?

“No, no,” he said.

If Thibodeau had his way, all of his players would end up being coaches, probably so he could sit back and watch them struggle with the same things he had to deal with. In some ways, it would be a coach’s ultimate revenge.

“It’s funny because when you ask them now, they say, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that,’” Thibodeau said. “When the time comes, they realize the commitment is so great as a player, the toll it takes and you’re away from your family. But usually after a year or so, there’s an itch because their love for the game comes back.

“Oftentimes guys you might not think a guy would ever be interested and ultimately do it and love it. I hope all these guys, whether it’s coaching or management or whatever, I think we have the right type of guys that if they chose to do it would be very good at it.”