The Bulls Draft

Who should they take? I tend to look at things from the perspective of "what role is this player going to play on a championship caliber team. Let's look at the Bulls roster shall we?

• Gordon: Small SG, can't play D. His PER last season was 16.52 (average being 15).
• Hinrich: PG who simply cannot shoot. His PER was 13.13 - representing a monumental 4 point drop from the previous year.
• Sefalosha: good defensively, can't shoot
• Hughes: hasn't been average since his contract year. Can't shoot. Must get to line (and handle the ball) to be effective

None of those guys is particularly good at creating their own shot. Captain Kirk got maligned last year, but he's not a horrible player. If everything is going well around him, I think he can be a starting PG on a really good team as long as there are 4 players better than him on the floor. Gordon, from my observations, thinks his talent and production warrant a contract completely out of range with his skills, which are suited to being a Vinny Johnson type of a role. He can't run a team or play D. I just don't see how he's a starter on a good team.

Let's look at the forwards:

• Drew Gooden: Not particularly good. Perhaps a very good bench player, but marginal as starter.
  
• Tyrus Thomas: no post up game to speak of. Has an attitude issue. Incredibly athletic. Still has upside (at least for one more year). Fast.
  
• Noah: good rookie year. Good defensively, good passer. Better, cheaper, younger Ben Wallace-lite. Speedy for big man.
  
• Deng: In an off year, the best Bull.
• Nocioni: bad contract, over-rated player. Maybe a decent bench player, but likely his greatest value will be when he's in his walk year.

The only player there you really really want to keep is Deng. He's possibly a top 3 player on a championship team. Thomas has the potential to develop into a nice player, but he's really going to need to play at a faster pace to be fully effective. But keep this in mind, statistically speaking - Tyrus was a better player than Hinrich last year (based on PER).

Either way, I think Gordon has to go. His contract will not be in proportion to his game. Sooner or later his ego will come down to his production, but it won't be in this contract.

If they take Rose, they have to trade Thomas. If they take Beasley, they probably have to trade Thomas (unless they find a buyer for Nocioni).

If Paxson takes Beasley, he is doing it knowing that Beasley is primarily an offensive player. One with character questions (albeit small ones). One who might struggle with NBA double teams early on. Paxson does not have a team full of shooters who can capitalize off of the double teams Beasley will surely get.

Rose on the other hand is a good height for PG, a legit 6'3". He plays D, and is incredibly athletic and fast. He can create for other players exactly as the roster is comprised today. Once Rose is up to speed, I thin Thomas, Noah, and Deng will be big beneficiaries.

Surrounding Options:
Brand: Clips need a PG and scoring. However, he doesn't fit with the uptempo game I would envision with Rose. And besides, the Clips don't generally pay players top dollar in FA (Tim Thomas excepted).

Marion: They need a PG in the worst way. Marion is locked in for a long time, at a high price. I think it's within the realm of possibility that they deal Marion to the Bulls for a package surrounding Hinrich. Normally, I would think that's a stretch. But given that he was traded for a negative value Shaq, anything's possible.

Rose+Beasley: Think of the Heat with Wade, Marion, Hinrich, Gordon and Tyrus Thomas. That would be a pretty powerful, young team. Is it enough for Beasley? Probably not. Would it make sense for the Bulls to push back the plan a couple years? Hell ya.

One under the radar guy I would really love is Andris Biedrins from the Warriors. I don't see a good match between the two teams, but I would love to see him on the Bulls. He's under-rated and would really round out the big man rotation.

The Wisdom of Barney Fife

Alan Hahn is impressed with the Bulls players meeting and unanimously voting to force Joakim Noah to sit another game. Then again, he's a Knicks beat writer, so the Bulls season must look like cake and ice cream compared to the Blackhawk-ian mess the Knicks are.

The Knicks, if you recall, voted to sit Marbury after he left the team and went to NJ. Isiah let him play. That, apparently, was the wrong thing to do. I'm all for that, because Isiah is always wrong, even when he changes his mind.

But in this case, we have a guy who admitted the team quit on the last coach and who is being paid $15m this year and a guy who can't play running the team. As for the specific matter, it's Boylan's fault. Either he should have suspended Noah 2 games in the first place, or he should have told the team 1 game was enough. The main point being, he should have known that the players were that pissed and nipped it in the bud.

In a larger sense this is on Pax's head. He has a guy on his team that clashed with coaches, quit on his coach, and is now calling out rookies for clashing with coaches. The players that SHOULD be leading this aren't leaders (Hinrich) or are playing for contracts with no guarantee that they'll be here tomorrow let alone next year.

What a mess.

They're just not that good

Last year the Bulls were inflated. Skiles got them to play hard and harder. They hustled and outworked their opponents, their guys were on the upswing. Good times ahead. Bring on the Celtics!

Not so much. Thing is, Deng hasn't progressed. Gordon is good, but not nearly as good as he thinks he is. And Hinrich and Gordon don't fit well in the backcourt. People are still talking about this season as if it can be rescued. For what? A first round playoff exit? Pass.

The Bulls overacheived last season. They might be playing slightly worse than they should be right now, but in no way are they constructed to be contenders.

In the game tonight, Aaron Gray and Tyrus Thomas were a combined +33 in 29m. Ben Wallace was -22 in 33.

Everyone loved the Ben Wallace signing at the time, myself included. You needed to see if the kids could step it up. Now we know they can't. It was a very bad idea to trade Chandler, which flat out was a money move, but that's almost beside the point now.

If Paxson is creative, he might be able to get Josh Smith from the Hawks who have too many people at 3/4. Gordon + Tyrus Thomas for Josh Smith and Speedy Claxton's bad contract? I admit it doesn't make perfect sense. But it comes close, which is more than Sam Smith can say half the time.

What about Ben Wallace for Andrei Kirilenko + Jarron Collins? Wallace has less time on his contract (which goes down year by year).

Paxson has to do something if he truly wants this team to contend.

It's a slam dunk

Tyrus Thomas is a villain. Why? Because he was honest. He was only going to go to the slam dunk competition to pick up a check. Now that's a stupid thing on at least two levels. First, it's stupid to admit that. We know what ESPN and the sports talk scene is going to do with that.

Secondly, the winner gets like $35k. Thomas is being paid $3.25 mil or so. And he's going for a check? Stupid.

However....that's not the real story here. There are two better stories.

The first one is that he was fined for saying it. John Paxson said how much of an honor it should be for Tyrus to participate. It reflected badly on Tyrus and the Bulls. But, the fine itself brought more attention to it than the actual quote did. The fact is that the NBA is very sensitive about it's image. They have a problem in that people think these guys are overpaid mercenaries who care more about style than substance and only do it for the money.

Thomas' comments seem to validate that image. But let's step back a second. The reigning dunk champ is noted turd Nate Robinson, who lost a game for the Knicks because he wanted to showboat. The dunk competition is a complete joke in the first place. It hasn't been noteworthy for 15 years at least. It is a problem in and of itself. It celebrates style over substance. Wait. Could it be possible that the NBA has made a bed selling style over substance and now has to face some small consequences?

The dunk competition should be scrapped for a 3 on 3 tournament featuring current players and possibly recently retired guys like Pippen, Malone, Jordan, and Shaq. Oh, wait, technically Shaq is still active.

The second part of the story is Thomas' relationship to the Bulls. Before the story broke he was a seldom used PF with huge upside and an incredible quick jumper. Today, if you read Sam Smith, he's a condescending jerk who the Bulls only drafted because it was a weak draft, and hey he has some talent.

There are hints that he doesn't fit the mold of what Paxson is putting together. Tie that together with the fact that the Bulls have a 3-4 year window with Big Ben, and the fact that Gasol (and Garnett?) are on the market, and I think there is a very good possibility that Thomas is gone before the trade deadline.

Thomas, Brown, pick + ?? for Gasol and Warrick anyone?

Photo @ ChicagoSports.com click for story




After winning last night, the Bulls have won 12 of 13 including 5 in a row. How long ago does Headband gate seem? That's what I thought.

The first half was ugly...check that. TCU/NIU was ugly. Bulls/Lakers was just not pretty. But that's ok, it's who the Bulls are. They will stay close with D, and if they can hit their stride on Offense, they'll be a very difficult team to beat. And it's clear that they aren't close to being as consistent as they can be on Defense.

After that horrible Circus trip, the team is still 1 game out of the division lead. That's pretty amazing. People think this team doesn't have a star. But Luol Deng is really damn close. All he needs is a little more consistent offensive aggression, and he'll be an All-Star.

The schedule in January gets tougher, so I fully expect several media reports of "what's wrong with the Bulls" and "Bulls not ready to play with the big boys."

I haven't changed my expectations. Assuming they are healthy, I don't see any reason why they can't make the Eastern Finals, and put up a good fight. Could they beat the Western representative? Doubtful.