Chicago Bulls first-month grades: All those preseason predictions looking pretty dumb

The Bulls' success is somewhat deceiving, but it's success nonetheless

With the Chicago Bulls off to an 11-7 record and coming off an impressive win vs. the Cavaliers, let's grade at the first month (roughly) of play from the surprising Bulls, who were predicted by most to be mediocre at best coming into the year.

THE GREAT NON-SPACING EXPERIMENT: A

The biggest question with the Bulls was spacing. They had no shooters. Jimmy Butler? Career 33-percent 3-point shooter. Rajon Rondo, 29-percent 3-point shooter. Dwyane Wade, career 29-percent 3-point shooter. They were going to be a clogged mess that couldn't keep pace with the modern NBA's perimeter-oriented game.

And yet they are keeping pace. In really weird ways.

The Bulls aren't using the 3-point line. They're 30th in 3-pointers made per game, and 27th in 3-point percentage. That makes sense, right? Except that Butler (38 percent), Wade (37 percent) and Rondo (35 percent) are all shooting well from deep. The problems come down to Isaiah Canaan and Nikola Mirotic who have combined for 29 percent shooting on 8.6 3-pointers per game.

Wade and Butler, though, have helped space the floor effectively, along with Doug McDermott when he was healthy. It's not necessarily about their attempts, but the continuing threat which opens up the strength of their offense, attacking the basket. The Bulls are first in second-chance points, sixth in fast-break points, and fifth in points in the paint. They work to find easy buckets, and the threat that their three talented wing players can, in fact, make you pay from deep, provides enough spacing to open things up.

They're finding ways to make it work and the three non-shooter guards have been shooting well from deep. Imagine if they get Mirotic back up to career averages.

On the other hand, this team is 30th in catch-and-shoot points per game, and that makes you worry about their long-term sustainability. They're still a top-10 offense overall, but it's worth monitoring.

THE WADE SIGNING: A+

The Bulls are plus-3.5 with Wade on the court per 100 possessions. They are better with him on the bench (plus-6.2) but still good, primarily vs. starters, with him on the floor. What he's brought with leadership, however, is a whole other deal. Every night the Chicago Bulls take the floor knowing they have Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade on the court. That provides a confidence that just can't be completely quantified, and his locker room leadership enables a team with a young bench to play to its potential.

Dwyane Wade has been great for Chicago. USATSI

Wade is averaging 19 points a game on 47-percent shooting, along with 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, giving good production and all the while still deferring to Butler. He's managed his role on this team perfectly, and it shows why he's one of the greatest of his generation.

Knock on wood, Wade has played in 17 of the Bulls' 18 contests.

JIMMY BUTLER BEING AWESOME: A+

Butler is averaging a career high in points, rebounds and field goal percentage. He has the best plus-minus on the team. He is a complete player right now, able to make tough shots and routinely handle the offensive load for the team, play within a system and take over when it's called for.

Butler has been, quite simply, an All-Star and one of the two or three best players in the Eastern Conference. We need to make that clear, but it does not require explanation because it is simply a fact.

THE D-ROSE ROBIN LOPEZ TRADE: A

The Bulls made the Derrick Rose trade to start something new, and Rose has been good in New York, looking at least closer to his old self. But what the Bulls got back in Jerian Grant (who has been inconsistent but had good games) and more specifically Robin Lopez helps them in huge ways. RoLo is a mobile big who can pass, finish, set screens and contest with size, and all of this has made him a way better fit for the Bulls.

In pick-and-roll coverage, the combination of his mobility and seven-foot frame helps tremendously. Chicago drops the big in pick and rolls, the way a lot of teams do, having Lopez worry about containing. But he's also able to corral guards, or at least deter them for long enough to allow help to arrive. Here he helps cut off the baseline for Chris Paul, then after Paul's man recovers from the screen, rotates back over to box out on the rebound. That awareness to know when to switch and the mobility to move that way helps a lot.

And that size-plus-mobility combination is even more impactful as a weak-side defender when you add in his verticality.

With Lopez and Taj Gibson on the floor together, the Bulls give up just 98 points per 100 possessions, outscoring their opponents by more than eight points per 100.

THE BENCH: C+

Bobby Portis has taken the minutes many assumed Cristiano Felicio would absorb. The defense falls off a cliff with Portis, but he's shooting over 50 percent and 43 percent from deep on a tiny number of attempts. Portis continues to develop, but it's been an issue on the defensive end. Jerian Grant and Isaiah Canaan are wildly inconsistent game by game, looking good one minute and awful the next. Much of this is to be assumed with a young group. Nikola Mirotic has struggled offensively but has been at least decent defensively (just like none of us expected at all).

They're a shaky unit that has had some injuries, particularly Michael Carter-Williams who was playing well before going down. They've been good in certain combos, though. That's the weird part. Some of the bench with some of the starters are great, and some of the bench with some of the starters are terrible. It's a weird combination, which if you haven't noticed, is kind of the general theme of Chicago.

THE RESUME: B+

Good wins: Cavaliers, Jazz, Blazers, Celtics

Good losses (close vs. good teams, on the road, etc.): Clippers, Hawks

Bad losses: Pacers, Nuggets, Lakers

Bad wins (close vs. bad teams, unimpressive performance): Heat

They're dead last in strength of schedule according to Basketball Reference, but other metrics have them middle of the pack. The overall resume is good, with the Cavaliers game Friday their best win of the season, even though the champs were on a road back-to-back. The Nuggets loss was close, the Lakers game was a very-predictable "NBA team spent three days in L.A." loss. They've beaten bad teams for the most part and are sixth in net point differential, the best indicator of team strength.

The Bulls look like a high playoff seed, somewhere between No.2 and No.5 in the East, with a good chance of home-court advantage in the first round. As it is with any team that doesn't have an established history of success with the current roster, you have to be wary of steep fall-offs, and the offensive numbers above give reason for concern. But this team has shown it can hang with great teams, and beat bad ones, and more than all that, they have a great vibe to them, which was sorely lacking last year. Chicago may not be a championship contender, but they have done a great job of making all the preseason negative prognostications look downright foolish.