CHICAGO -- The first thing you need to understand about the Chicago Bulls' woes is that they are not because of coach Tom Thibodeau.
If the seat he's on is warm, it's because he's been sitting on it all night watching tape of his team's bad pick-and-roll defense.
Whereas some of us wake up and try to survive life -- work, pay the bills, eke out a bit of happiness -- Thibodeau is part-Don Quixote, part-Rambo, continually fending off attacks both exaggerated and real.
While I wouldn't be surprised if I wake up one day, maybe not this offseason but perhaps the next, and find out he's the ex-coach of the Bulls, it's not happening right now.
The reason the Bulls are struggling -- losers of six of their past eight and presently unable to guard an AAU team -- is pretty simple on the surface:
Five guys aren't playing as one.
Whether it's trust issues or lack of time together due to injuries, the Bulls' defensive problems are festering and threatening to hijack the season.
Joakim Noah, the reigning defensive player of the year, has missed the past 3½ games. And ever since undergoing offseason knee surgery, he has not been the active, shot-changing center we have come to expect. His right ankle is hobbling him. His struggles have crippled the team's defensive concepts. Noah, even at 70 percent, makes an impact just by being on the floor.
Mike Dunleavy, the team's best 3-point shooter, has missed 10 straight games with a jammed right ankle. He gives the Bulls balance, and that helps the defense.
Get those two back and things improve drastically, provided the rest of the team is intact. But until then, the Bulls will continue to struggle.
In their six losses over the past two weeks going into Thursday's home game against the San Antonio Spurs, the Bulls have given up an average of 106.7 points.
But this isn't really a new trend.
The Bulls (27-16), known for their defensive intensity under Thibodeau, have given up at least 100 points 22 times through 43 games.
They are allowing an average of 99.7 points per game, which is 16th in the NBA, while scoring 102.1, which is tied for ninth.
Through 43 games last season, the Bulls were 22-21, giving up 92.9 points but scoring only 93 points.
I'll take the points, provided the team's defense gets just enough stops in the postseason. That's a big "if" right now.
Jimmy Butler's MVP start has faded, though he's still very good. While his overall game is still a work in progress, Derrick Rose's offense is finally coming together, as he told us it would. I like where Rose is trending. Thibodeau wants to see more from him, which is fair.
It seems like Rose is taking the losing personally, which is a good sign, even if he has some culpability.
After Monday's loss in Cleveland, Rose called the team's recent play "f---ing irritating." He and several veteran Bulls have made it clear throughout the season they don't need Thibodeau to tell them what's wrong or how to fix it.
"It's done with the team," Rose said after Saturday's loss to Atlanta. "Thibs can say whatever he wants to say; it's going to have to be done by us as a collective group. It can't be two or three guys on one possession. Or four guys on one possession and the fifth guy is, like, out doing whatever he wants to do. You got to be all five guys tied together, but I think we're going to figure it out."
"Five guys tied together" is a Thibs original, and you have to wonder if one guy in particular, Pau Gasol, totally gets that.
Not to pick or nitpick on the Bulls' big addition this offseason, because Gasol has been a success by most metrics. He will start this year's All-Star Game, and his per-game numbers are strong.
But when you hear Bulls such as Taj Gibson and Rose complain about guys not being on the same page defensively, they're probably talking about Gasol -- even though he has taken on a bigger role on defense, especially with Noah out.
For his part, Gasol knows he needs to improve.
"I need to pick it up," Gasol said. "I need to pick it up, I need to. Especially when Jo is out, I need to make myself a bigger presence in the paint, not allow layups or anything like that. Maybe pick up a couple more fouls early on, kind of establish that presence there. Try to challenge shots, but maybe I need to get a couple, like I said, more physical plays."
Brawn over brains? Whatever works.
For sure, his arrival has helped the team. Gasol is scoring (18.7 points per game), rebounding (second in the NBA with 344 defensive rebounds) and blocking shots (fifth with 84).
At 34, Gasol is averaging 35 minutes and has played 40 of 43 games. Like several Bulls, including Noah and Rose, who are on restrictions that are restricting the blood flow to Thibodeau's brain, Gasol has taken off practices to reduce his workload.
Opposing players are attacking him, averaging 10.6 field goal attempts (and making five) when Gasol is protecting the rim, the most of any regular player, according to NBA.com.
Is that on the perimeter defense? In part. But again, it's all tied together. And despite the many shots they face, the Bulls defense still leads the league in field goal percentage allowed within five feet at 55.1 percent. All is not lost.
While no one is picking on Gasol, advanced statistics tell a mixed story on Gasol's defense. While Basketball-Reference.com has him 15th in the league in defensive win shares at 2.1, ESPN's Real Plus-Minus rankings has him 58th among all power forwards (he's really a center) in its defensive RPM category.
Per 100 possessions, teams are averaging 103.8 points when he's on the floor and 100.4 when he's not, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Teams are shooting slightly higher from the field when he's in the game (44.7 percent) versus when he isn't (43.6 percent).
Ask Thibodeau about Gasol, or any of the new guys, including Nikola Mirotic, and he demurs. Publicly, at least.
"Nah, it's not like one or two guys, because it's also we have to get Derrick and Jo back to where they were," he said. "That's key for us, it's huge. We do have Pau, he's a veteran, he's been around, he's been very good, and so the young guys are going through what most young guys go through. There's going to be some good, some bad.''
Thibodeau's inability to get his entire team on the floor, during practices, which become scarcer and scarcer as the season rolls on, has been his main complaint all season. He blames some of that on players' restrictions, mostly Noah and Rose. But as he also says, that's the Bulls' "reality."
Gibson, who has grumbled about "trust" throughout the season, recently chimed in on the issue of practice time.
"We got to practice harder," he said after the Bulls' listless loss to Cleveland on Monday. "We can't be taking days off. We're going to go through rough stretches, but we got to practice harder and we got to play with some energy."
On Wednesday, Thibodeau was pleased that the full team was out there practicing, even though Noah was limited. Practice lasted 75 minutes from the announced start time until the media was let in.
What did they do?
"Mostly competition," Gasol said. "We just needed to get that edge back. We needed to get that aggressiveness back in our game, so we kind of went at it at each other. One-on-one drills, three-on-three drills, scrimmage, competing, which is not something that we can do or we do during practices at all. So, it was great to kind of have that opportunity to do that today."
The Bulls can win the East. They have the roster. They have the coach. They know this. Now we just have to see how bad they want it.