Fall is the best time of year, it’s football season, hockey has started, and basketball is underway and the weather goes from hot all the way to an arctic tundra.

The Chicago Bulls are excited to have their team captain Derrick Rose back. Rose was hurt this summer in the team’s first practice when he took an elbow to the face and fractured his left orbital. Now Rose is known for the constant injuries to his knees and ankles, so it is no surprise that he got injured already this year. The Bulls seemed to be okay when they got eliminated last year in the playoffs to the Cleveland Cavaliers, losing the series 4-2.

Rose couldn’t carry the whole team on his back, so this year the team is ready to play. Rose is returning for the first pre-season game against the Cavs. In the past, the Bulls couldn’t get a grip of what winning a playoff round feels like. With Rose being injured in the past playoffs, the Bulls just couldn’t come together as a team and perform the way they do when all-star Rose is playing.

With the return of Rose, the Bulls’ only competition would be playing the Cavs or the Clippers. The starting point-guard played his first game against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Although Rose had blurred vision for the game, he pulled through with a lot of clutch moments with help defensively from Pau Gasol in the final seconds.

This year’s team is going to be like any other year, for any other team. There will be a hot streak, then there’s going to be a streak where the team can’t win a game to save their souls. If Derrick Rose somehow finds a way to get reinjured this season, it would be needed for the Bulls to release Rose as he is missing more games than he plays.

In a span of seven years, Rose has managed to get hurt each and every season, some lasting for only a couple days, and the others lasting till the rest of the season. 2012 was the worst year for him as he didn’t get to see a second of playing time the whole season. Each year from 2008-2015 have been seasons where the all-star led his team to playoffs, or with him being out for some of the seasons, it was up to some of Rose’s teammates, Joakim Noah and Jimmy Butler, to step up their role as players and lead the team to a winning season.

Although Rose hasn’t had a smooth rolling career, this season Rose has the capability to push his teammates to their limits and win an NBA title. Now, other teams that are really talented like the Golden State Warriors that have players like Steph Curry are going to be a rough battle for the Bulls as Curry is a phenomenal player. Curry and the Warriors won 2014’s NBA Finals Championship. If Rose and his teammates work hard this season, the Bulls have a good shot at winning a first title since 1998 when Michael Jordan played for them.

With the Bulls acquiring new head coach, Fred Hoiberg, the team has a new way of playing. Hoiberg was a former head coach of the Iowa State Cyclones. I really don’t have an opinion of Hoiberg yet because I haven’t seen him coach enough games to form such an opinion. Hoiberg used to play for the Indiana Pacers so I know he has a lot of knowledge of the game. When he coached Iowa State, he coached a team with winning records since 2011. In 2010, Hoiberg’s debut head coaching season for the Cyclones he brought the team to a .500 record, going 16-16. Then his last year as a Cyclone head coach, he brought the team to a 25-9 record. Now seeing those stats as a head coach for college basketball, I would hope to see a similar record as Hoiberg coaches a professional team.

If the team chemistry is up, and the player morale is high, the team can work with their new head coach and bring home a championship. The Bulls have the ability to have a winning season, but a lot has to do with way the team can work with Hoiberg and moving the ball around to other teammates. With ball movement, and chemistry, the team can easily be a contender for a championship as they took a first game win for the 2015-2016 season.

Do I think Rose is a key player to the Bulls? Absolutely, but I think if the team can come together, than they can be one of the top teams in both the Eastern and Western Conference with a record currently at 3-2.