Losing: A Bulls Blessing In Disguise?

I could feel the sense of impending doom (and probably defeat) in Chicago all the way from Carbondale when learning the Bulls would face the Boston Celtics after losing its season finale to the lowly Toronto Raptors, 109-98.

But without reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Kevin Garnett, beating the Celtics sounds like less of a pipe dream and more of a possibility that the Bulls won't get swept in four games.

While the defending NBA champs still have Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, each of whom are capable of carrying of their team all own their own, youngsters like Rajon Rondo and "Big Baby" Davis have taken giant steps of improvement.

Allow me to get this out of my system now because basketball analysts are going to shove this concept down your throat from now until the series is over: The Bulls are young and dangerous.

In fact, there is some truth to that. Derrick Rose is a man-child and will probably be your Rookie of the Year, and even though he doesn't have playoff experience, he does have the experience of taking Memphis to a national title game in his freshman year. Freshmen don't do the things he did last year. And most rookies don't do the things he did for the Bulls this year.

As for the rest of the Bulls, well, they're not as young as the media hype would make you believe.

Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich were here for the first go-around of the Baby Bulls, so they are no strangers to the NBA Playoffs. Brad Miller (10 years) and Tim Thomas (11 years) have plenty of NBA experience, so playoff basketball isn't an unheard of concept to these two. John Salmons is a six-year vet.

My main concern in this series is Vinny Del Negro. There is no need for me to go into the fact that he has never coached a playoff game at any level, and even though he "coached" a 41-41 playoff team this year, Mike D'Antoni would have had this team in a much better spot.

There, I said it.

My hope that this playoff experience is more of a gift than a curse. It should give the "youngsters" that much needed game experience, but a good series by BG7 might price him out of the Bulls' price range. A "good" series also might give Del Negro a false sense of job security, and the fact is as much as I like to see the Bulls succeed, I wouldn't mind if Del Negro bit the bullet so a real coach (Avery Johnson, anyone?) could come in here and deliver a championship to Chicago.

Well, it starts Saturday. Anyone seen TBDS' NBA expert? Eh, he's probably consoling himself as his Milwaukee Bucks prepare for a summer of good eats and mediocre baseball in the land of bratwurst.