Editor's note: Welcome to NBA Insider Daily! Devoted readers familiar with the "Per Diem" column can still look forward to both Kevin Pelton and Tom Haberstroh this season, and they are joined by fellow Insiders Bradford Doolittle and Amin Elhassan. Every day, one of them will tackle the big topics in the NBA from every perspective including advanced metrics, scouting and reporting.
There's something interesting about the 57-win projection for the Chicago Bulls from my SCHOENE projection system: It's got almost nothing to do with Derrick Rose.
In fact, because of the injuries that have marred his past two seasons, the 2010-11 MVP is projected for just 4.1 wins above a replacement-level player, putting him on par with Josh McRoberts and John Henson. Yet Chicago is projected to finish behind only the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference and the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs in the West, and that's a testament to the roster the Bulls have built around Rose.
It's tempting to believe that Rose's absence was the difference between the Chicago teams that posted the NBA's best regular-season records in both 2010-11 and 2011-12 (tying with the San Antonio Spurs the latter season) and the lesser squads the past two campaigns. But while head coach Tom Thibodeau managed to wring the most out of limited talent to reach the playoffs and even win a postseason series in 2013, the Bulls weren't nearly as effective as they had been with Rose on the bench the previous two seasons.