Butler: Bulls hang out so much, you'd think we're a college team

With a handful of new cooks in the kitchen, the 2016-17 season was a potential chemistry time bomb for the Chicago Bulls - but Jimmy Butler says that hasn't been the case so far.

After the additions of Rajon Rondo, longtime Heat guard and Chicago native Dwyane Wade, and former Knick Robin Lopez, the Bulls are sitting pretty with a 10-6 record, good for third in the Eastern Conference. Chicago mainstays Butler - who's putting up MVP-worthy numbers - and long-tenured Bull Taj Gibson complete the starting lineup for one of only three NBA teams that ranks in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive rating.

"As much as you see guys around each other, you would think we live in a dorm," Butler told ESPN’s Nick Friedell. "The way we all leave the building at the same time, we're all going to eat somewhere, we're all at somebody else's house. You would think, I don't know (if it's) a good or bad thing, that we are a college team."

Having three players in the starting lineup who require the ball to be effective hasn't traditionally been a preferred route to winning basketball games, but the Bulls are defying that logic. The trifecta of Rondo, Wade, and Butler has posted a plus-25 point differential in 245 minutes on the court together.

The Bulls' chemistry issues last season were well-documented, and their success and camaraderie this year has been refreshing for Marquette alum Butler.

"We're always talking to each other in a group chat, competing in a video (game). Something about this group of guys, we just always want to be around each other," he said. "We realize we're all we have whenever we step out onto the United Center floor or an away game. It's us, it's these coaches, it's this organization."