BOSTON -- The Chicago Bulls are in the early stages of a chemistry project that has reshaped the tenor of an entire organization.After almost a decade of building around Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose as the stalwarts of a championship dream, Bulls executives Gar Forman and John Paxson changed course last summer. Rose was traded to the New York Knicks the day before the NBA draft while Noah joined him a week later after agreeing to a free-agent deal.As Noah and Rose make their return to the United Center on Friday night (8 ET on ESPN) to face off against the Bulls for the first time, its important to understand the decisions that led to this shake-up. After all, Noah was still beloved by a vast majority of the teams fan base after helping the group through some dark times after Roses multiple injuries.Six years ago, Rose was the most universally beloved athlete in Chicago, but after deciding not to play in the 2012-13 season after being medically cleared by the organization following an ACL injury in April 2012, Rose lost support from inside and out of the organization and was never able to fully regain it.When the 2015-16 campaign opened, the Bulls front office still believed it had constructed a championship contender. The feeling was that new coach Fred Hoiberg could unify what had become a fractured group in Tom Thibodeaus final season and help lift the Bulls offense to prominence. Not only did that not happen, the Bulls roster became even more fractured than it had been before.When asked recently if the chemistry within last years team had gotten stale, Jimmy Butler didnt sugarcoat his answer.I think everybody had been playing with one another for so long, maybe it was time for a new look for a lot of different guys. Not in a bad way. I just think sometimes thats the way it looked and felt out there on the court, Butler said.But its a new team now. As much weve as talked about last years team, I think we should start focusing on this years team a lot more.The early returns have been great for this seasons Bulls team. Before falling to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, the Bulls started the season 3-0 for the first time since the 1996-97 season. They are playing with more offensive cohesiveness than at any point in the past few years.But the biggest key of all, albeit in a small sample size, is that they actually seem to like one another on and off the floor. The unity that is paramount to success in the NBA has been on full display for a Bulls team that was openly mocked by many around the league after signing Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo to play alongside Butler and a slew of young, unproven players. As much as Butler may not want to talk about the past, hes smart enough to know that its not a possibility until after the Bulls see Rose and Noah for the first time.He doesnt want to slam last years team, but he wants people to understand how much better the chemistry is within the group. Both he and Hoiberg have gone out of their way not to disparage Noah, Rose or any of the other members of last seasons underachieving squad. But when both men discuss last season, it sounds as if they are talking about ghosts.Specifically, ghosts named Joakim and Derrick.People can say the whole coulda, woulda, shoulda, but it didnt because it didnt happen, Butler said, while discussing the lack of unity last years team had.But I learned so much from those guys in my last five years that I did play. I wouldnt be the player I am without them so Im not going to sit here and say I did all of this on my own. So I have a lot of respect for those guys on the floor because they helped me become the player that I am.But for right now, the group of guys that we have, if we keep playing the way that were playing, were going to be a really good team. But weve just got to stay bought in to the whole team aspect of it.Butler is at the center of any discussion surrounding the Bulls past and future because he is the most prominent player left on the roster. Veteran Taj Gibson remains the longest-tenured and most-respected player within the organization, but it is Butler who has yearned to be the face of the team and put in the work to make himself one of the games elite two-way players.?While many around the league wondered about a clashing of egos between Rose and Butler, multiple league sources insist that the larger issue throughout much of last season was between Noah and Butler. As much as Rose garnered headlines with his play and subsequent injuries over time, Noah affirmed his position as the leader within the locker room. He was the player that many teammates took their emotional cues from. But after carrying a more substantial workload and earning the first All-Star berth of his career, Butler wanted to take on more of a leadership role. He signed a max extension during the 2015 free-agency period and was growing into his own as a player.As his game evolved over the past two seasons, Butler tried to take a more vocal approach in the locker room. But it was that ascension that caused an even bigger rift within the Bulls locker room and throughout the organization. Nobody questioned Butlers work ethic -- he worked harder than almost anyone in the league -- but many within the organization felt as if his personality changed as his ego got too big to handle.As Butlers game started to blossom, those who had been around since he got drafted in 2011 noticed that he was no longer just a humble kid from Tomball, Texas, a line he used many times over the years. Butler felt he was a superstar player -- the superstar player -- on a team that could no longer rely on Rose and Noah the same way because of all their respective injuries.As happy as the Bulls were that Butlers game was growing, what irked many in the organization, including Forman and Paxson, was the way Butler was now carrying himself and trying to take a more assertive vocal approach. Young players on the roster viewed Butler as an example of what could be if you put in the work on your game. But several older players, including Noah, saw the metamorphosis taking place and shook their heads at times. Butler didnt always dress with his teammates last season, preferring at times to get himself ready in a coachs office.Butler discussed these questions in an interview with ESPN.com in May, saying at the time that while he felt everybody changes on some level after theyre born, he felt he was the same humble person he had always been.Butler believed he had earned the right to handle himself a little differently with the way he played and the status that comes along with being a max player in the NBA. Privately, according to league sources, one of the things that frustrated Butler most about Noah was his propensity for being late at times.Whether it was practices or team flights, Butler knew his younger teammates still looked up to Noah and the freshly minted All-Star thought Noah was setting the wrong tone for an impressionable group. The pairs relationship deteriorated all season.Once Noah had season-ending shoulder surgery in January and wasnt around the team as much, the communication was almost nonexistent. The end of Noah and Butlers professional relationship wasnt the singular reason the Bulls stumbled all the way out of the playoffs last year, but it was one of the biggest on a laundry list full of them.Bulls personnel knew that Butlers ascension was starting to splinter the locker room, but all the angst hovering below the surface came to the forefront last December after a loss to the Knicks. Thats when Butler ripped Hoiberg, saying in part that the soft-spoken coach needed to coach the group harder.With almost a year full of hindsight, Butler admits now that he may have been too quick to judge.Hes definitely changed. For the better, Butler said recently of Hoiberg. I look at him a lot differently as well. You see he knows his guys a lot better now which is great. You can hear him joke around with us if youre in the locker room after games or before games, throwing the football. Its the littlest things that go the longest way because now we know hes in the fight with us. Hes one of us.And maybe I judged somebody too quickly last year but I know that hes here, hes working and thats all you can ask. When you work, everybodys going to go to war for you.It is early in the long grind of an NBA season, but the differences in unity between last years group and this years version are apparent. Since his appearance with Team USA in the Rio Olympics, Butler has been bringing a football with him on the road, a gift from Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown. Each day after shootarounds or practice, he and his teammates and coaches start throwing the ball around to stay loose. Its a subtle, but notable difference for a team that was fractured just a few months ago.Everybody in this locker room is playing for each other, Wade said. Everybody likes each other in this locker room. And we just enjoy playing together.Theyre also having fun off the court. Aside from the iciness of the Noah-Butler relationship, last seasons group just wasnt very close. They had no identity under Hoiberg and never found the togetherness that was a staple of the early years under Thibodeau. This season, that is not the case.I think everybodys enjoying each others company, man, Butler said. Even when were not playing basketball. Even if were throwing a football, if were playing cards, if were just sitting and talking. Its like everybodys locked in, everybodys having fun, everybodys listening and everybodys wanting to get to know each other a little bit better. I think thats what makes the difference. We actually spend a lot of time off the floor together. I didnt know it could help so much but it really does.The players understand that the camaraderie and goodwill can take them only so far. If they start losing the happy atmosphere isnt going to last forever. But the tenor of the season has been set early for a team that badly wants to prove it can be successful.Rondos watching film with Doug [McDermott] [Tuesday] night on the plane, Butler said, noting that the player-run film sessions didnt happen last season. Me and Taj are working out together every night and watching film at my house. Everybodys over at my house or Wades house, not only talking about the game, but just talking about life in general because if you could care about somebodys life off the floor, then whenever they get on this floor theyre definitely going to be bought in.After joking that the Bulls chemistry is based in large part on the fact that the group has been practicing for like 45 days straight, Rondo acknowledged that it is possible for a group to come together in short order if all the egos in play are on the right page. Hoiberg has been throwing plaudits toward Rondo for weeks for the way the veteran point guard came in before camp and worked with the younger players.It happened quickly in Boston when the Big Three came together, Rondo said. Unselfishness -- it started with the leaders. I think when it starts with the leaders the young fellas always follow.Theres the key for Butler and the new direction of the Bulls. As much as Wade and Rondo are setting the tone behind the scenes, both former NBA champions made it clear when they signed that it was Butlers team. Theres a clear pecking order on the roster, an understanding on who the biggest dog is in a room full of alpha personalities. That was not the case a year ago. The Bulls old guard was still in place. Noah was the leader, Rose was the face and Butler was still trying to find his footing in a room full of players who were trying to navigate the new era between Thibodeau and Hoiberg.The 3-1 record the Bulls bring into Fridays game is crucial, but the early numbers say that the Bulls have flipped an important page on and off the floor.Through four games last season, the Bulls had an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.09. That ranked 25th in the league (through Nov. 1). This season, its 1.68 and ranks 10th in the league, according to ESPN Stats & Information.Through four games last season, the Bulls had a total of 74 assists. Rondo alone has 31 through four games this season; the Bulls have a total of 106. After four games last season, just 50.7 percent of the Bulls field goals were assisted, good for 28th in the league. This season its 65.8 percent, good for fourth in the league.I just keep running the floor, Butler said. I know that Im going to get the ball. If youre open, the balls going to end up in your hand whether its from D-Wade, whether its from Rondo, Taj, RoLo [Robin Lopez], whoever its going to be. If youre open youre going to have your opportunity.As much as Butler and Hoiberg go out of their way not to speak ill of last seasons team, their answers make it clear that they are in a better place -- as a group -- than they were before.We cant go back and win a championship now, Butler said of last seasons group. As much as everybody wants to talk about it, I think its kind of dead. I think its over with. Obviously you see guys on new teams and theyre trying to help the team theyre with now. Same thing with what Im doing here. So I try to leave last year in the past.It doesnt hurt me no more because its a new season and I got to try the best I can to help this team win. So moving forward, this is the group of guys we have. Patrick Murray Jersey . 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