Pau Gasol: Bulls ready to 'learn from our mistakes of last year'

Windows of championship contention in the NBA can close in the blink of an eye - as the burned-out husk of the Portland Trail Blazers (to cite the most recent example) can attest - and there's no telling how much longer the perennially underachieving Chicago Bulls will feel the sweet breeze blowing in.

But big man Pau Gasol, who was signed last offseason and put up 18.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks on his way to All-NBA second-team honors in his first Bulls campaign, sees that window staying open for next season at the very least.

"We have a great opportunity. We have a very strong team," Gasol said, while speaking on a conference call from Johannesburg, South Africa, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. "We can build on what we had last year. We have all the tools to be a much stronger team and learn from our mistakes of last year."

Gasol, one of two players on last year's team to have won an NBA championship (along with seldom-used Nazr Mohammed), elaborated on what those mistakes were.

"We were an up-and-down team," he said. "Even though we finished third in the conference, we still had a lot of games we just weren’t ready to play. … We paid for that lack of sense of urgency.

"We played at a pretty high level in the postseason. But having the home-court advantage is a big deal, knowing those teams are so close to each other. Hopefully, we will learn how important each game is during the season and what difference that makes at the end of the year."

There were also, as ever, a number of factors beyond the Bulls' control. A core that once looked poised to challenge whichever Eastern Conference team employed LeBron James for years to come has found itself thwarted at every turn, and last season brought more of the same. A parade of devastating injuries, the robbed explosiveness of Derrick Rose, the steep and sudden decline of Joakim Noah, and a protracted soap opera involving the team's front office and now-former head coach Tom Thibodeau, helped land the Bulls in familiar territory - as second-round playoff fodder.

Gasol seems to have come to terms with Thibodeau's departure.

"It’s always difficult when you see a coach released, especially after Tom had invested a lot of years in the team," he said. "But you understand why it happened. The organization had to make a decision. It was a difficult one. We’re all trying to give the team a better chance of winning a championship."

And with Fred Hoiberg now steering the ship, Gasol is excited about what he anticipates will be a much-needed injection of offensive freedom.

"Offense wasn’t really too much of an issue last year, but we have to utilize and play with better flow offensively. With Fred we’re going to have more freedom to play in transition and explore our abilities as individuals and as a team. But we also have to understand that defense wins championships. We can’t neglect that side."