Despite a 62-win season and a determined expectation for more success, hoop pundits are ranking the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder ahead of the Chicago Bulls in preseason power polls.

Here’s quick rundown of power polls that have been released so far.

CBS Sports: 1 – Heat; 2 – Thunder; 3 – Bulls; 4 – Mavericks; 5 – Lakers.

Fox Sports: 1 – Heat; 2 – Mavericks; 3 – Thunder; 4 – Bulls; 5 – Celtics.

NBA.com: 1 – Heat; 2 – Mavericks; 3 – Thunder; 4 – Bulls; 5 – Spurs.

NBC Sports: 1 – Mavericks; 2 – Heat; 3 – Bulls; 4 – Thunder; 5 – Lakers.

Sports Illustrated: 1 – Heat; 2 – Thunder; 3 – Mavericks; 4 – Bulls; 5 – Nuggets.

So hoop pundits generally agree that the NBA’s top four teams this season are likely to include the Bulls, Heat, Mavs and Thunder.

That’s a pretty good list, although, much like the experts, I’m having a hard time figuring out who that fifth team might be. The Celtics and Spurs are too old to withstand the rigors of the condensed 66-game schedule, and it seems like the Lakers are in a state of flux; maybe a New York or Memphis, or some other completely unexpected team, could sneak into the top 5.

I’m also not sure the Mavs will be as good as everyone is expecting.

If I were developing my own power poll, here’s how my rankings would look: 1 – Bulls; 2 – Thunder; 3 – Heat; 4 – Mavericks; 5 – Knicks/Grizzlies/???.

Be all of that as it may, the across-the-board ranking of the Bulls at no better than #3 or #4 is difficult to understand.

The Bulls are basically the same team as last year’s 62-win team, but with one big difference: They went out and got the shooting guard they so desperately needed. While it’s too early to know what the success of that acquisition might be, the Derrick Rose-Rip Hamilton tandem sure looked good in the team’s final exhibition game.

Meanwhile, the Miami Heat added Shane Battier and, lol, Eddie Curry, while the Mavs completely revamped their lineup. Only the Thunder remains intact from last season – all 10 members from last year’s rotation return – when they were pretty darned good.

Time will tell if the preseason power polls were accurate, but one thing is for sure: The Bulls will be in the thick of things, and are likely to exceed the pundits’ preseason power poll rankings.

Notes: Memo to whoever’s in charge of ESPN’s NBA home page – get rid of the Miami Heat Index already. What pathetic pandering…..Anyone watch the Heat-Magic game last night? The Magic looked a lot better than I expected, the Heat, not so much…..Jannero Pargo, who rode the pine for the Bulls last year after an earlier three-year stint with the team, signed with the Atlanta Hawks, while the Detroit Pistons are rumored to be interested in Keith Bogans…..K.C. Johnson’s Bulls Mailbag has returned for the season!

Sources: Power Rankings: Heat start at top, but it’s a new NBA from there, CBSSports.com; NBA preseason power rankings, Fox Sports; NBA Power Rankings: Mavericks start out season on top, NBC Sports/ProBasketballTalk; After preseason, Heat are on top, NBA.com; Heat, Thunder top preseason heap, Sports Illustrated.

YCN featured sports contributor Steve Merritt is – for better or worse – a lifelong Chicago Bulls, Bears and Cubs fan. Follow the Bulls’ 2011-12 season from a die-hard fan’s perspective on his blog, A Fan’s Take: The 2011-12 Chicago Bulls.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Despite losing to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, the Chicago Bulls enjoyed a great 2010-11 season. They achieved more than anyone outside the team expected, and were truly competitive for the first time since the Jordan era. By season’s end, they’d firmly established themselves as one of the league’s elite.

Yes, it was a phenomenal season for everyone involved, especially long-suffering fans who’d endured more than a decade of mediocrity – including, yikes, the Tim Floyd years – waiting for the team’s return to prominence.

The only problem with such a season is trying to pick the 10 best moments. With so many great plays and games to choose from, it’s going to be difficult, but here’s this die-hard fan’s best, and quite subjective, effort.

10b) Big Sexy Gone Wild: 17-year veteran Kurt “Fountain of Youth” Thomas had 22 points and nine rebounds in a 92-83 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on January 24. It wasn’t a defining moment, but it was pretty cool watching Thomas hit jumper after jumper; it was the most points he’d had in a game since 2005.

10a) Sweeping the Mavericks: The first time I knew the Bulls were for real was when they knocked off the Dallas Mavericks, in Dallas, on November 19. The Bulls got another win in January; they were the only team to sweep the eventual NBA champs.

9) Slow Start?: The Bulls, sans Carlos Boozer, got off to a shaky 8-7 start, but that may not have been a bad thing. Here’s my theory: The slow start and loss of a starter – i.e., adversity – helped the Bulls quickly develop the outstanding team chemistry that proved so beneficial throughout the season.

Sweeping the Heat: While the loss to the Miami Heat in the playoff still stings, there’s some solace in recalling that the Bulls swept the Heat, 3-0, during the regular season. Turns out the sweep wasn’t all that significant – other than reaffirming that the Bulls belonged with the big boys – but it was nice to have bragging rights for a while.

7) Winning Circus Trip: For the first time since the Jordan era, the Bulls posted a winning record (4-3) on their annual Circus Trip to the west coast. That may not sound like such a big deal, but it absolutely is, just ask any of the players who endure the grueling, two-week ordeal.

6) Taj Posterizes Wade: Comcast SportsNet game analyst Stacey King went nuts when Taj Gibson dunked on Dwayne Wade (see it here).

5) Rose’s First Triple Double: With Boozer and Joakim Noah sidelined, Rose put the Bulls on his back and carried the team to a 96-84 win over the Memphis Grizzlies with the first triple-double (22/10/12) of his career on January 17.

4) MVP Gone Wild: MVP Derrick Rose had a lot of great games last season, but none were finer than his 44-point, seven-assist performance on the road against the Atlanta Hawks in a May 6 playoff game. Rose’s outburst gave the Bulls a 99-82 win and a 2-1 lead in the series after the Hawks stole a win in Chicago to take home court advantage.

3) Clinching Eastern Conference: The Bulls cemented their place among the league’s elite by clinching the East’s top seed with a 97-81 pummeling of the Boston Celtics on April 7. Talk about peaking at the right time – the Bulls lost just four games in March and April, and closed out the season with a nine-game winning streak.

2) Rose Named MVP (May 2, 2011): In what was perhaps the most anticlimactic MVP announcement ever – some folks, apparently oblivious to the all the fan and media momentum, thought LeBron James had a chance to repeat – Rose was officially named MVP on May 2. See Rose’s MVP speech here.

1) Bulls’ Media Day: Rose set the tone for the entire season when, on Bulls media day in late September, he innocently asked, “Why can’t I be the MVP of the league? Why can’t I be the best player in the league?” Unlike Big Sexy’s 22-point game against the Bucks, Rose’s comments most definitely were THE defining moment of the season. See Rose ask the question here.

YCN featured sports contributor Steve Merritt is – for better or worse – a lifelong Chicago Bulls, Bears and Cubs fan. Follow the Bulls’ 2011-12 season from a die-hard fan’s perspective on his blog, A Fan’s Take: The 2011-12 Chicago Bulls.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Read More: Kobe Bryant (G – LAL), Orlando Magic, Dallas Mavericks, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Lakers, Dec 25, 2011 4:00 PM CST

CSNChicago reports that the NBA has finalized its opening day schedule, giving the Chicago Bulls a 4 p.m. CST tip off at the Staples Center on Christmas Day. The Bulls will begin their season facing Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on December 25.

There were concerns that the game might be scheduled during the Sunday night NFL football game between division rivals the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, but the NBA avoided that by giving the Bulls a late afternoon start. The Bears games will not begin until 7:20 p.m. CST, so the Bulls and Bears will only overlap if the Bulls go into overtime.

Also playing on opening day, the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks face off in Dallas, the Boston Celtics play the New York Knicks, and the Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Orlando Magic.

For updates on free agent moves, stay tuned to SB Nation Chicago. For in-depth coverage of the Bulls, visit Blog a Bull. For up-to-the-minute coverage of all of the key personnel moves, check out the SB Nation NBA free agency StorySteam.

Updated Jul 12, 2011 2:58 PM ET

CHICAGO (AP)

A person familiar with Joakim Noah’s decision says the Chicago Bulls center plans to play for the French national team in the European Championships in Lithuania.

The person spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss Noah’s plans.

Noah was limited by a thumb injury last season, averaging 11.7 points and 10.4 rebounds in 48 games while helping the Bulls to a league-best 62 wins. They came up short in the Eastern Conference finals, losing to the Miami Heat.

France begins play in the European Championships against Latvia on Aug. 31.