Most of the basketball world dismissed LeBron James' lavish praise of the Chicago Bulls last week as anything from the world's best player engaging in flat-out gamesmanship to his fattening the hogs for slaughter, as old farmhands used to say. Maybe, come spring, that will be the case, and LeBron will wink knowingly, having set up a rival for a playoff beatdown.

But to start this NBA season, all LeBron James said was the truth. OK, mostly the truth. He said the Bulls are a team "that's much better than us right now." Nobody is much better than the Cleveland Cavaliers right now. Nobody -- not even the defending champion San Antonio Spurs -- is capable of being much better than a team with LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and a posse of grizzled, battle-scarred role players. But to start this season, the Bulls are probably a hair better, and while that appraisal certainly is tied to the health of Derrick Rose, LeBron's observation isn't about matchups or strategies or, God knows, advanced analytics.

The return of Derrick Rose will ease Joakim Noah's burden and give the Bulls their best chance to finally win a championship. Jordan Johnson/NBAE/Getty Images

It's about suffering.

These Bulls have suffered. These Cavaliers have not.

Historically, it's a necessary ingredient in the NBA. Subtract Magic Johnson and Tim Duncan from the conversation, and heartache before reaching the NBA Finals has been pretty much a constant, even for the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons, for Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, for Hakeem Olajuwon, for Shaq and Kobe, for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, for Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki ... for LeBron himself. It's ongoing for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

These Bulls have certainly plowed ahead in this tradition, from a Game 7 loss in Boston to end Rose's rookie season, to the Eastern Conference finals loss to the Miami Heat after a 1-0 series lead in 2011, to Rose's devastating knee injuries. Suffering is no guarantee (Steve Nash, the two-time MVP, has plenty of wounds, both physical and emotional, but never reached the Finals), but it could be a prerequisite, and that's what has LeBron looking warily at the Bulls as this season begins. Yes, the Bulls have a team as deep as any in the league, which is perfect for a coach such as Tom Thibodeau, who will approach every single game, starting tonight in New York against the New York Knicks, as if it's Game 7 of a playoff series. They'll almost certainly be one of the three best defensive teams in the league. They've got versatile bigs, including perhaps the league's two best passers in Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol. They've got multiple wing shooters for the first time in Rose's career. They've got hungry youngsters (Doug McDermott, Nikola Mirotic, Tony Snell) pushing for playing time, which will surely help keep veterans from becoming complacent. They've got the league's reigning defensive player of the year in Noah and perhaps the best sixth man in Taj Gibson. (The one glaring deficiency is Rose is still the only player on the roster who can reliably create for himself against great defenses, and he can be/has been smothered by bigger, athletic players in the playoffs).

The core of the team has been put through the meat grinder. Rose, Noah, Gibson, Kirk Hinrich and Jimmy Butler have all felt postseason despair. So has LeBron. This is, very specifically, what he was talking about when he said this past week that "you have to go through something to create a bond -- that means for the worse. ... You've got to lose ball games you think you should have won. ... We have to get into an argument every now and then just to test each other."

"You have to go through something to create a bond -- that means for the worse. You've got to lose ball games you think you should have won." LeBron James

It's precisely what LeBron went through both in Cleveland and Miami, and he knows the process is organic. The 2008 Boston Celtics aren't analogous to this team of Cavaliers because Garnett, Pierce and Allen had each already endured a decade of basketball heartache before they assembled in Boston. Conversely, Irving and Love have yet to even participate in a playoff game, so they couldn't possibly know the despair of losing one or what it feels like to have to recover from a postseason loss under injury and duress. Neither has yet angered the leading man or disappointed his coach or had to work it out on the fly in an anxious or even quarrelsome locker room while trailing 2-1 in a playoff series. The Bulls have operated in every possible lab condition, won a Game 7 on the road two years ago, lost as the favorites just this past spring, been crushed and been triumphant. This is what LeBron was talking about when he said you "have to go through something to create a bond." And the loss to the Washington Wizards this past May probably did as much in that direction as beating the Brooklyn Nets the previous May.

Miami couldn't finish the job in Year 1 of LeBron/Wade/Bosh, even though Wade had lost a Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, then won a championship and Bosh had competed in playoff games. It's difficult to see running mates as untested as Love and Irving -- talented as they are -- having known enough or having been pained enough to win this first time around. It won't take forever, and the bet here is the Cavaliers will win multiple championships, but there's an opportunity this season, right now, to take the Eastern Conference if you're the Chicago Bulls.

It's not the weakling Eastern Conference of the past couple seasons. The Wizards have every reason to believe they're a better team, having added Pierce and suffered a bit themselves the past spring, when they had every chance to take down the Indiana Pacers in the playoffs but couldn't. John Wall and Bradley Beal are dynamic. Marcin Gortat and Nene Hilario can hold their own against any pair of bigs in the East, while Pierce brings the much needed know-how.

The Wizards are a dark horse, and so are the Toronto Raptors. The East is only half as deep as the West, but the Charlotte Hornets finally have the roster to act on some of their ambition, and Miami shouldn't be anybody's pushover.

Still, the top of the conference is Cavs-Bulls or Bulls-Cavs. It's the most complete non-Jordan Bulls roster ever, and it's ripe. Noah is 29. Gibson is 29. Rose is 26 but in his seventh season. Hinrich is 33. Mike Dunleavy is 34. Aaron Brooks is 29. Nazr Mohammed is 37. Gasol is 34. It's the definition of "veteran team." It's time for the Bulls to introduce some other team to NBA heartache, and LeBron's dozen seasons in the NBA have taught him to never underestimate the emotional makeup of a contender and the savvy necessary for championship-caliber teams to navigate the season and postseason.