Oct. 31--It's a big game if Tom Thibodeau is offering big-picture perspective.
"When you look at this city, the franchise, the history, the tradition and what basketball means here, it's a big deal," Thibodeau said of Chicago's excitement for this Bulls season. "We're fortunate to be part of it and ... we understand how important the game is to our fans. We want to make sure they're proud of our team. And I think they will be."
Then again, minutes earlier Thibodeau had called Friday's home opener against LeBron James and the Cavaliers "just the next game."
Epic matchups in October are media-driven affairs, but Friday's at least will start the clock on what looks to be the Eastern Conference's next great rivalry now that James has taken his talents away from South Beach.
And to differentiate from a Bulls-Heat rivalry that never fully materialized thanks to Derrick Rose's injuries, size and rebounding no longer can be a given advantage as long as the Cavaliers still are paying Anderson Varejao, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson.
Depth must be. And while John Lucas III is no longer around to score over James, the Bulls' share-the-wealth mentality in Wednesday's blowout victory over the Knicks could be a blueprint for the season ahead.
"That's our goal," Pau Gasol said. "We have a well-balanced offense. We just want to find the open guy and make the extra pass. Things really work out when you play that way."
The Bulls feature offensive talent and unselfish mentalities. That helped place six players in double figures and register a 50.7 field goal percentage, albeit against a disorganized Knicks squad. Then again, nobody will confuse Love or Kyrie Irving with a defensive stopper.
The point is, with offensively-accomplished reserves such as Taj Gibson, Aaron Brooks and, yes, rookies Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic, the Bulls comfortably can use a nine- or 10-player rotation again.
The Bulls won't score 104 points every night, as they did Wednesday. But the NBA's lowest-scoring and worst-shooting offense from last season should be a bad memory.
"I think everybody saw how deep we are," Rose said.
The reserves received an extended run thanks to Wednesday's lopsided score. And when rookies are in the equation, that will equal occasional mistakes.
But Gibson assures that the opener only scratched the surface of what could come.
"Our firepower in that second unit is extremely good. I'm telling you," he said. "They're just young right now and they turn down a lot of shots early. But when we get out and run, we have so many different shooters and so many guys unselfish. Niko is so good. He doesn't even know how good he is yet. Doug doesn't even know his potential yet. So it's only going to get better. That's the scary part."
Scary segues nicely into Halloween and the Bulls no longer have to dress up to feature a big-boy offense. Rose is back, Gasol is here and the bench is full of options.
Friday night begins a new Bulls-Cavs rivalry for real. Given that the first rivalry produced Michael Jordan's The Shot I and II, that history and tradition Thibodeau alluded to worked out well the first time.
kcjohnson@tribune.com
Twitter @kcjhoop
