With the NBA preseason just over a month away, Taj Gibson will be without many of his Chicago Bull teammates from a season ago.

Those teammates -- including Omer Asik, Kyle Korver, C.J. Watson and Ronnie Brewer -- were members of the 'Bench Mob' last year. Said Gibson,

"I was just with Ronnie in New York. It's crazy to think he's a New York Knick now, C.J.'s a Brooklyn Net, Omer's in Houston, Kyle is in Atlanta. It was just so crazy because our bench was so talented. With so many valuable assets, we knew across the league a lot of teams would want these guys. It's sad, but things like that happen all the time."

With Derrick Rose expected to miss a significant portion of the season, and so many new faces joining the Bulls (Nazr Mohammed, Marquis Teague, Marco Belinelli, Vladimir Radmanovic and Kirk Hinrich), Gibson expects to take on a greater leadership role both on and off the court.

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