an open letter to the chicago bulls.
dear chicago bulls:
maybe it's time for you to look at scott skiles and the players that you have on the court and make changes.
i understand that skiles is, in principle, a tough, hard-nosed, gamer. i understand that he is widely respected for his coaching prowess in the league, and that he is not a bad guy.
i understand that he led the bulls close to the promised land last year, and that his ability to coach on the defensive end is unparalleled.
but it's time to make a change.
because this year, the bulls are 2 and 9, and they recently lost to the knicks.
because this year, ben wallace, an ALL-NBA player for five years in the 2000s, is only averaging 28 minutes per game.
because this year, skiles is arbitrarily calling out tyrus thomas, a second-year pro who is still learning the game.
in principle, john paxson has given the bulls enough talent to win. and in principle, they should turn it around.
but we should be worried. because the bulls haven't thought it would be good to get backcourt depth, ben gordon is now starting, and he has to shoot a lot. since deng can't shoot the three, and since duhon was never a good shooter, the bulls have had to depend on gordon all the time. and that can never work. thabo was supposed to be the answer, but he's been disappointing.
so the bulls can't score when they should be able to. and since ben wallace isn't playing, they're left with the undesirable outcome of trying to have ty thomas guard the four, and it hasn't worked. and thomas and wallace have been thrown under the bus by skiles since they've been there. noah will never score in the league, and so nocioni is forced to play too much D, even though he won't be able to start in the league with the way he gives up points to small forwards. thabo plays better defense, and he doesn't even know what he's doing out there.
and the bulls should be worried, because they haven't played the spurs, cavs, mavs, magic, or celtics yet. and that's dangerous.
and the bulls should be worried, because even though the bucks and pacers should be much worse than they are, they aren't, at least so far. and it looks like the bucks will be able to score all year.
and maybe paxson isn't the renaissance man we all thought. it's true that he drafted gordon and hinrich, but he traded aldridge, drafted noah over al thornton, didn't trade for kobe, etc. and the j.r. smith and pj brown deal for tyson chandler ended up with the bulls only receiving pj brown. with chandler, there's no need for wallace (or at least noah).
i'm all for acting rationally. i'm all for giving coaches an opportunity to make amends. and i believe that skiles is a premium guy, one of the better coaches in the league.
but the bulls had better start thinking now, right now about making changes. new players, new coach, new gm, something... because they're in the danger zone: we all thought that gordon/hinrich/deng/thomas/noah/wallace were near championship quality, but now i could easily recast that into "bosh/bargnani/ford," "jefferson/williams/kidd/carter," or "lbj/who cares." and i haven't even brought up detroit, boston, or orlando.
and there's a good shot that we simply overrated luol deng, although i'll be fair: he's been hurt. because we all knew that at some point, ben gordon would shoot under 40 percent in the league.
and considering the fact that the bulls have missed on two opportunities to obtain/keep dominant scorers (who recalls elton brand?) in the post, it's not inconceivable to believe that the bulls, young as they are, may be watching their championship window expire. because we all know that free agency is soon inevitable.
so think, chicago. think about making changes now.
maybe it's time for you to look at scott skiles and the players that you have on the court and make changes.
i understand that skiles is, in principle, a tough, hard-nosed, gamer. i understand that he is widely respected for his coaching prowess in the league, and that he is not a bad guy.
i understand that he led the bulls close to the promised land last year, and that his ability to coach on the defensive end is unparalleled.
but it's time to make a change.
because this year, the bulls are 2 and 9, and they recently lost to the knicks.
because this year, ben wallace, an ALL-NBA player for five years in the 2000s, is only averaging 28 minutes per game.
because this year, skiles is arbitrarily calling out tyrus thomas, a second-year pro who is still learning the game.
in principle, john paxson has given the bulls enough talent to win. and in principle, they should turn it around.
but we should be worried. because the bulls haven't thought it would be good to get backcourt depth, ben gordon is now starting, and he has to shoot a lot. since deng can't shoot the three, and since duhon was never a good shooter, the bulls have had to depend on gordon all the time. and that can never work. thabo was supposed to be the answer, but he's been disappointing.
so the bulls can't score when they should be able to. and since ben wallace isn't playing, they're left with the undesirable outcome of trying to have ty thomas guard the four, and it hasn't worked. and thomas and wallace have been thrown under the bus by skiles since they've been there. noah will never score in the league, and so nocioni is forced to play too much D, even though he won't be able to start in the league with the way he gives up points to small forwards. thabo plays better defense, and he doesn't even know what he's doing out there.
and the bulls should be worried, because they haven't played the spurs, cavs, mavs, magic, or celtics yet. and that's dangerous.
and the bulls should be worried, because even though the bucks and pacers should be much worse than they are, they aren't, at least so far. and it looks like the bucks will be able to score all year.
and maybe paxson isn't the renaissance man we all thought. it's true that he drafted gordon and hinrich, but he traded aldridge, drafted noah over al thornton, didn't trade for kobe, etc. and the j.r. smith and pj brown deal for tyson chandler ended up with the bulls only receiving pj brown. with chandler, there's no need for wallace (or at least noah).
i'm all for acting rationally. i'm all for giving coaches an opportunity to make amends. and i believe that skiles is a premium guy, one of the better coaches in the league.
but the bulls had better start thinking now, right now about making changes. new players, new coach, new gm, something... because they're in the danger zone: we all thought that gordon/hinrich/deng/thomas/noah/wallace were near championship quality, but now i could easily recast that into "bosh/bargnani/ford," "jefferson/williams/kidd/carter," or "lbj/who cares." and i haven't even brought up detroit, boston, or orlando.
and there's a good shot that we simply overrated luol deng, although i'll be fair: he's been hurt. because we all knew that at some point, ben gordon would shoot under 40 percent in the league.
and considering the fact that the bulls have missed on two opportunities to obtain/keep dominant scorers (who recalls elton brand?) in the post, it's not inconceivable to believe that the bulls, young as they are, may be watching their championship window expire. because we all know that free agency is soon inevitable.
so think, chicago. think about making changes now.
posted by mike at 4:18 PM
9 Comments:
Skiles recording 30 assists in an NBA game will forever give him a free pass with me.
Aldridge is pretty much a Chris Bosh clone and his length, the way he runs the court like a deer, and his ability to score inside and outside the paint would have made this Bulls team a championship contender. I'm also of the belief that they should have drafted Sean Williams instead of Noah.
the bulls are now 2 and 10. at this rate, to get to 41-41 (a plausible number for an 8 seed) they'll need to go 39-31 over the rest of their games.
is this gonna happen?
don't know, but it sure seems unlikely.
and aldridge is amazing. there's a guy who got screwed by one game in the ncaa tournament (when lsu like quadruple teamed him and everybody mistakenly thought he sucked). people put way too much stake in individual playoff games when evaulating how good a college player is. this is why clowns like chris wilcox get drafted.
This comment has been removed by the author.
and why clowns like Joakim Noah get drafted so high too...
J. Noah should split his NBA check with Al Horford.
The Bulls are more than likely screwed.
Aldridge is the truth and I can't wait to see him, Oden and Roy together next season. I may move to Portland just to be a part of this.
noah should give most of check to horford. agreed. and he should cut chris richard a small portion.
if you move to portland to be a part of this, let me know, and i will spend a holiday in portland. if no holiday is available then i will invent a holiday to make it happen.
I've spent the last few days thinking about how great a lineup of Ben Wallace, Aldridge, Deng, Gordon and Hinrich with Nocioni coming off the bench would have been. Also, I've been imagining that the Bulls spent their money this past offseason on another guard instead of on Joe Smith and that they drafted Sean Williams (who is a beast) instead of Noah.
This team would have flat out dominated the Eastern Conference.
But yes, if I do move to Portland to experience the NBA's next great franchise firsthand then I will let you know so that you can visit.
I still think the Bulls are good for 45 wins in the East.
However, they are a franchise treading water. Someone needs to inform Paxson that he doesn't need to keep rebuilding at this point. You have to make a run at a great player when you have the pieces in place - they could have gone after KG - they didn't have the cajones to pull the trigger with Kobe. All of which baffles me because isn't Chicago the third or fourth largest market in America? They act like they're a small market team trying to stay fiscal.
Finally, do you think Joakim Noah texts Anderson Varejao encouraging messages during his holdout? I mean, what if someone give him 7 or 8 mil a year? Doesn't that become the Barry Zito contract of the NBA? I mean, now there's precedence for floppy haired energy with no discernible ability to handle a basketball to pull $10 mil and all bets on reasonable contracts are out. Oh right... someone gave Rashard Lewis a max contract...
I'm trying to work in a Varejao related joke involving the writers strike, but can't come up with anything... any suggestions?
I need some insight on the Matt Garza - Delmon Young trade
The D-Rays needed pitching in the worst way therefore they gave up a future stud (who had recently had a blow up with manager Joe Maddon) for a pitcher with some upside. The Twins get an outfield replacement for Tori Hunter. The other guys involved in the trade get to move to new minor league franchise cities. Win win win.
That's all I got.
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