DEERFIELD, Ill. -- "So," Bill Cartwright says as he walks over to you, "how many wins you got us down for? Sixty? Sixty-one?"

We would be less than honest if we'd put half that many Ws in Chicagoland's column this season. For, although the Bulls finally have some stability after three years of disappointments and turnover, they're still years away from competing in the Eastern Conference. But at least with Cartwright firmly in charge, the Bulls have a head coach that players respect and that has a plan.

	Bill Cartwright promises that the Bulls will get back to "hard-nosed basketball."

"My players, they know what to expect," Cartwright said. "I think they know I'm going to be fair. I think they know what I want. I'm not hard to figure out. If you play as hard as you can play, you're going to play. Simple as that. Work your ass off in practice. And we've been doing that. The guys feel that what we're doing is the right thing. I know that if we do what we need to defensively, we're going to be good. If we execute offensively, we're going to get great shots."

The Bulls should have stability this season. They likely won't fire their coach or make a midseason deal this year that changes half the roster. And for the first time since the end of the Jordan Era, just about all of the players in Chicago's camp actually want to be there. Jay Williams embraced going to the Bulls instead of trying to force a trade before the draft. Donyell Marshall took less money to play here than stay with the Jazz. And even those who would rather be competing for a title somewhere like Jalen Rose understand that they have a role to play, and are willing to play it.

But Cartwright's main task this season isn't to keep Rose happy. He has to continue developing the Bulls' two young bigs, Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry. Each had an up and down rookie season. It's still hard to tell whether the 7-foot-1 Chandler will be the power forward of the new millennium, or the old Brad Sellers; right now, he hasn't beat out Marcus Fizer at the four. Is Curry's future going to be more like that of Shaq, or Stanley Roberts? Still, who else has up-and-coming pivotmen in the East?

"Our two potentially best players are 20 years old," Cartwright said. "It's a real concern. We're going to be as good as we're able to develop those guys. They're the foundation of our team. If we can't control our paint and we can't rebound the ball, we're not going to win. Simple as that. We've got to be tougher. We can't let the other team dictate how we're going to play."

Their development is a work in progress. Curry still has to learn how to work every day and be the focal point of Chicago's halfcourt offense. Chandler has to continue getting stronger and learning how to defend in the low post.

When Rose came from Indiana last February, it irked him when players would be giggling during meetings. And then it dawned on him: that's what 19-year-olds do.

"The thing about being a young player is you've got to learn on the fly," Rose said. "You've got to learn on the court. You can't learn on no bench; you can't learn by somebody talking in your head all the time. You've got to go out there, you've got to learn from your mistakes, you've got to have the nights when you've got two fouls with 10 minutes to go in the first quarter, and you've got to live with the nights when you're all over SportsCenter because you had a great game. And I think when they learn how to deal with both, that's going to make them better players."

"Eddy and Tyson are not the same people they were when they got here," Cartwright said. "They needed a lot of work, a lot of fundamental work. They needed strength. They needed some experience. They didn't know how to compete consistently, play hard. And now we've got some guys who've done that."

Until two years ago, Marshall wouldn't have fallen into that category. But that's what a stint with the no-nonsense Jazz will do for a guy's reputation. Make no mistake: Marshall's preference would have been to remain in Salt Lake City. But when negotiations with the Jazz broke down during the summer, Marshall surprised everyone by accepting the Bulls' mid-level exception for three years and $15 million and a chance to play some forward in the Windy City.

	“	We don't have a guy out here that's going to get 10 free throws a game. We're not developed yet, so we don't have a Karl Malone or an Allen Iverson. Whatever we get, we're going to have to earn. ”
		— Bill Cartwright

Even more surprising: Marshall gives Jerry Krause props for his sales pitch.

"He told me where they were at, with the young kids, and pretty much what he expected out of me," Marshall said. "And the confidence he had in me. That was one of the first times that someone came to me from the start and told me what the expectations are, and had the confidence in me."

Williams also brings a pedigree from hard work. After two or three days of camp, he couldn't believe how sore he was. "It isn't any harder than Duke physically, but the two-a-days make it tough," he said. And the rookie is a rarity on the Bulls' roster: he actually won something in college. That is the kind of positive young attitude that is desperately needed on a squad that's won 60 games over the last four seasons.

Rose, though, is 29, and he's been used to pursuing the Finals the last few seasons in Indiana. He will get every chance to be the Bulls' star this season (he's certainly getting paid like one), but he admits it's going to be hard to get motivated looking so far up the standings.

"It's tough when you go into a season and you're not potentially one of the teams that's picked to either come out of your conference or at least to go to the playoffs," Rose said, "to a team that a lot of people pick to go to the lottery. It's a different mindset, it's a different mind frame. But being a veteran on the team and being a leader, I've got to be a pro. I've got to be somebody that they can rely on every night, 48 minutes a night, win, lose or draw."

It's just another challenge for Cartwright, who is at once bemused, excited and realistic about his young team.

"We don't have a guy out here that's going to get 10 free throws a game," Cartwright said. "We're not developed yet, so we don't have a Karl Malone or an Allen Iverson. Whatever we get, we're going to have to earn ... we're going to guard somebody this year. That's our focus in this camp. We're going to be the Chicago Bulls. When you think of the Chicago Bulls, what do you think of? You think of a tough, hard-nosed basketball team. We're not going to complain to the officials and cry about calls. We're going to be the team that gets up, pressures, dives on the floor and plays tough basketball."

David Aldridge, who covers the NBA for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.