As has become tradition for the Chicago Bulls(See Tim Floyd), John Paxson fired Scott Skiles this morning, on Christmas Eve. The fallout and repsonse from the media, fans and players has been overly predictable. "Skiles is an A to B type coach." "Skiles lost his players." "Skiles lost his job because Aaron Gray isn't getting enough tick."(yes, someone actually threw that one out there. Other speculation is that he was fired so the Bulls could trade for Jason Kidd.(Trading for a point guard a year after giving Kirk Hinrich 10 million per over five years, yeah, that really makes sense.) The fact of the matter is that this firing is no different than almost every other coaching change in any other sport. The coaches go, well, because someone needs to go and they are the only ones that can't be fired. How much has Rick Adelman done for the Rockets? Phil for the Lakers? Isiah for the Knicks? Some coaches are worse than others, but it is a bit ludicrous to think that Skiles is to blame for Ben Gordon's and Kirk Hinrich's severe regression.

To understand what Skiles has had to deal with, lets take a look at the challenges he has this season.

1) His guards: Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Thabo Sefolosha, Chris Duhon. 

 

            While Kirk has always been a favorite of Skiles and Paxson, i have never really been a big fan of his. He puts up respectable numbers in the traditional categories, but his defense is overglorified, his passing(for a point guard) is subpar and his shooting is as streaky as it gets. I say his defense is overglorified because with his trouble staying out of foul trouble, his defensive abilities, which admittedly are very good, are rarely able to be used. Ben Gordon is a sixth man, and anybody that has watched the Bulls consistently for the last few years should know that by now. His defensive effort is there, but his defensive abilities and size aren't. He can score in bunches but play no defense, and players with those skills are best utilized off the bench against the opposition's second wave. Thabo Sefolosha, although given very little chance to showcase his skills, has done little to impress. He is a strong defender and has good size, but he can't shoot a lick, has mental lapses way too often and seems to think he can do things which he clearly can't. I like Chris Duhon as a backup point guard and a floor general, but he isn't a starter. He is a smart player who was clearly taught very well at Duke, but he is physically challenged and is not starter material.  To sum it up, Skiles had a streaky, frustrating combo guard in Hinrich, a one dimensional bench player in Gordon, a defensive 2 guard(2 guards must be able to score in this league) in Sefolosha and a nice bench guy in Duhon.

 

2) Small Forwards: Luol Deng, Andres Nocioni, (Tyrus Thomas).

            This is the only position where the Bulls have adequate talent. Luol Deng is perhaps the only balanced and complete player on the entire roster. He can rebound, pass( a bit), shoot and defend. The problem is that although he can do everything pretty well, he does nothing amazingly well. I really like Luol, but he is not a centerpiece type player like The Carmelo's, Lebron's and Kobe's of the world(although there is no shortage of Bulls' fans that would argue vehemently against that.) Andres Nocion is a good player and has probably been the Bulls' second best player this season, but he is just a solid player. He is easily frustrated and often gets too trigger happy on a team with better outside shooters, although this year the latter is probably false. Tyrus Thomas, at this point, is more of an athlete than a basketball player. He clearly has worked on his shot and it has shown in some of the latest games, but he still is somewhat of an offensive liabilty and lacks the size to match up one on one against most of the better post players in the game. His help defense is very good, but i sometimes wish he would block balls into play instead of into the stands, which looks better but is not all that beneficial.

3) Power Forwards/Centers: Joe Smith, Joakim Noah, Aaron Gray, Ben Wallace, (Tyrus.) 

            This is probably the weakest unit on the Bulls. Only one of these players has performed well for the Bulls over an extended period of time, that being Joe Smith. He is scrappy, runs the floor pretty well, has an above average mid-range game and is a good mentor for the younger players. On the other hand, the trio of Wallace, Gray and Noah, for lack of a better word, sucks. Wallace is washed up, and even with the recent article on Fox Sports on his dicline, people that don't watch the Bulls really have no idea how worthless the 60 million dollar man has become in just over one full season. He isn't even starter material at this point, making him the most expensive one-dimensional bench player in all of sports. Noah and Gray were both very good in college, but they are both clearly overmatched at the pro level. They get their shots, and easy putback dunks/layups, blocked routinely and aside from scrappy play and decent size, offer almost nothing. They warrant no more than ten-fifteen minutes a night, but since the Bulls are weak at the position, are forced to play starter's minutes pretty often.

There is not just one problem with the Bulls. Rather, there are problems up and down the organization. The players do seem top have given up on Skiles, but could it be that they are just burnt out? The amount of effort this team has to exert to play competitve ball is greater than any other team in this league, and the last few years of intense work may have finally taken a toll on them. A team can only scrap and scrape for so long. John Paxson is also responsible for this, probably more than anybody else. The contract extension to Hinrich looks really foolish right now, but pales in comparison to the ontract Wallace got, which by the way will hamper the Bulls for another 2+ seasons. The draft day trade of LaMarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas looks terrible right now, as does picking Noah ninth overall just a few months ago. From the looks of it, either Deng or Gordon, or possibly both, will be gone after this year, leaving the Bulls in even worse shape than now, if at all possible.

Scott Skiles is a hell of a coach, and i highly doubt that any other coach in the league could have done significantly more with the Bulls than he has done. The Bulls simply are not that talented of a team, and it's a shame that Paxson hasn't come to terms with that yet.

PS- It appears that many fans that are happy with the firing seem to think that Skiles' biggest failure was his inability to develop his young players, Tyrus Thomas, Thabo Sefolosha, Aaron Gray and Joakim Noah. The idea that Skiles, while coaching a team expected to go to the conference finals, can afford to play severely underdeveloped players AND take his team to the next level is laughable. This isn't baseball people. To really develop a player, a coach must give him real time experience, and with a team only able to put 5 players on the court at one time, a coach of a team with championship expectations can not afford to put his lineup at a disadvantage to help bring along a specific player. Baseball has the minor leagues and even when a player comes up, he can be shoed in the seven or eight hole and learn from there, but in basketball, players and teams don't have such a luxury. John Paxson put Scott Skiles in an impossible situation. Teams that win champonships grow together and eventually reach their pinnacle together; championship teams usually don't consist of a couple of role players and first and second year projects. John Paxson will see that while the team he assembled in Chicago was decent enough to fight it's way into a second round exit, it was nowhere good enough to meet the expectations put upon it. You see, Paxson, and perhaps Skiles, were naive enough to believe that a team full of solid but not excellent players with great work ethics, good values and team-first mentalities could win championships. The idea is great and can work in the college level(see Duke), but the NBA is a big boy league with mean, grown-#### man that feast on the type of players that the Chicago roster is full of.

Oh, and to the inevitable "Well the Pistons won a championship" comment, please. In their championship season, the Pistons had four players better than any one on the Bulls right now. Rip, Chauncey, Sheed and Tayshaun are all all-star calibur players and would be superstars on any other team aside from the one they find themselves on. All of those players, aside from Rip(maybe), could create their own shots and take advantage of mismatches. Tell me one player on the Bulls that on their best day could hang with any of the  aforementioned Pistons.

The Chicago Bulls really progressed last season. If not for the regular season ending loss by the Bulls, they could have easily advanced to the championship. That being said, the Bulls lost that game and therefore had to play the Pistons in the second round and lost to an older, smarter and overall better team. Still, they made a mockery of the Miami Heat and won a playoff series for the first time since MJ was donning the red and black. But that was last season. This year is a new year, and the Bulls are a different team. Here is the Bulls breakdown:

Several players really improved over the course of the season, but none more than Luol Deng, who really made a name for himself in the playoff series against Miami. He really worked on his offense and now has one of the best mid-range shots in the game. He stopped shooting three pointers and therefore ended up with a really strong FG%. He fits very well into what the Bulls are doing, both on defense and offense. On defense he improved his man2man defense and worked on his reads and rotations. On offense he cut and sliced to the basket and more often than not put himself in positions to succeed. He has developed into a strong, smart player, but to all you NBA guys that think he will be a superstar, I would hold back that idea. He doesnt have the creativity, ball handling skills or speed to create shots for himself and will continue to rely on using screens and cuts to get open shots. That isnt such a bad thing. He wont be a really flashy player, but he is perfectly capable of being one of those rare players that can score 20-25 ppg without needing the ball most of the time. Luol Deng is the perfect player for Scott Skiled system.

Ben Gordon: There are two things that separated the Ben Gordon in 06-07 from the Ben Gordon in 04-05 and 05-06: We all knew that he could score in bunches, but his inconsistency was utterly maddening. He only scored less than ten points ten times, while he failed to reach double digits NINETEEN times the year before. He also boosted his FG% by three full points and added 4.5 to his ppg. He really played very well last season and showed that he can really be a reliable scorer night in and night out. The scary thing about Ben is that he continues to work on his game endlessly and is always getting better. His work ethic is as strong as anybody's. Ben Gordon is a legitimate NBA stud.

Kirk Hinrich: Hinrich is a favorite of the coaches and management. He is a scrappy player that leaves everything out on the court, but he isnt short on talent either. While his ppg only improved minimally, his FG%(41.8 to 44.8) and 3PT%(37 to 41.%) both went siginicantly. His freethrow shooting also got better last season, in which he shot a very strong 83.5%. What Kirk needs to improve on is his fouling issues. He always seemed to be in foul trouble and that really prevented him from improving his offensive game as much as both Deng and Gordon did. I say offensive because his defensive game really hs no room for improvement. Hinrich is a marvelous defender, who despite defending the other teams top offensive guard, still did a good job every game.

Ben Wallace: Wallace is clearly in the declining phase of his career. Almost all of his numbers went down last season, but Wallace is still an elite defender. At a time in which there are not that many really good big men in the league, a guy like Wallace, despite not being the Wallace of old, is still more than enough to hold court in the paint. I commented on another blogger's(Gambitxxx's) blog that he is even more valuable because he offers veteran leadership for a number of young, talented, defensively oriented players like Tyrus Thomas, Thabo Sefolosha and Joakim Noah. I still believe that the Bulls overpaid in a big way for Wallace, but i dont mind having him in Chicago one bit.

Tyrus Thomas: This youngster really has potential, but in just his second professional season, i dont think he is going to be as good as some think he can be just yet. There are some questions regarding his work ethic, or lack thereof. Hopefully he can step it up and fill the one one position that i view as a weakness for the bulls, which is at PF.

Thabo Sefolosha: I absolutely love this guy. He hasnt really dazzled yet on offense, but his defense is lightyears ahead of where a 2nd year NBA player's should be. He may emerge as the best defender on the Bulls, and i think that in games where the Bulls dont have to worry about the opposition's big men, he should be worked into the starting lineup, playing the three and having Deng slide down to the four. I fully expect Thabo to make a name for himself in the 07-08 season.

Joakim Noah: Not much is known about the biggest wackjob in Chicago not named Carlos Zambrano. What is known about Noah is that he really loves to play the game and can help out with his defense and intensity immediately. He has size, bulk and more importantly the will to mix it up in the paint. Both he and Tyrus Thomas, despite being a few years away, will be huge fan favorites this year in Chicago.

Andres Nocioni: After an 06-07 season marred by plantar fascitis and other injuries, this Argentenian bulldog will return with a vengance. He is the ultimate Bull. He can shoot, drive, defend and is a scraper who wont back down from anybody. If he stays healthy and Deng shows he can play well at the four spot, Nocioni could contend with Sefolosha for first forward off the bench,

Chris Duhon: Duhon is the third guard in the Bulls. He is limited offensively, but he is a smart player(Kids from Duke have pretty high basketball iq's) that has filled in nicely for the Bulls the last few seasons. Yet, some charcter problems arose late last season as his playing time took a dip. I would place him behind my man Thabo on the depth chart.

Joe Smith: I really dont know much about Smith. The radio guys in Chicago have said that he is a scrappy player that can score a bit to. If that holds true, he will be a valuable player for the Bulls and may contend for some playing time at the four.

All of the aforementioned stuff is all individual stuff and doesnt reflect how the Bulls will mesh as a team. Everything the Bulls do starts with defense, and with the addition of Noah and Smith and the exected development of Thomas and the defense overall, the Bulls defense could emerge as the best in the league. On offense the Bulls already know what their bread and butter will be. Deng and Gordon will be expected to score around 22-23 ppg and Nocioni and Hinrich will be relied on for around 16 ppg as well. If Thomas, Wallace, Sefolosha and Noah can contribute a decent amount offensively, the Bulls should be able to have nough offensive output to hang with the any team out there.

My expectations are sky high for the Bulls. I see no reason that the Bulls shouldnt grab a top playoff seed and at least advance to the conference finals. They have the most comlete team in the Eastern Conference and for the first time since the Jordan era, the Bulls will, or should, be viewed as a potential powerhouse.

Man am i steamed. With a bunch of really talented players around at the nine spot, the Bulls pull of a headscratcher by picking the 7 foot clown Joakim Noah. I had such high hopes for the draft and i had so much faith in GM Paxson to make a good move. With the Bulls frontcourt so offensively challenged already, they chose to bring in maybe the most offensively challenged player in the entire first round? HUH. In all fairness to Paxson, he still has plenty of time before next year to shake things up and acquire a potent big man, but i still am upset wuth the Noah pick. Ben Wallace, Loakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas wil  grab a bajillion rebounds and swat plenty of shots into the crowd, but how in the world will the Bulls get some points in the paint? Where are you PJ Brown, we need you???????

With so many talented players left, i would have either taken Spencer Hawes or gone after a swingman with size. Some may say why add another guard/forward to a Bulls team that has so many already? In my opinion, Ben Gordon would be more effective if he were to go back to coming off of the bench. I would hav liked to see the Bulls grab one of the Young ones, Thaddeus and Nick. Both can score and have the size to create matchup nightmares. Ben Gordon is too small to defend most of the other 2 gaurds in the league and can you imagine a player like Ben Gordon feasting on the oppostion's second wave of players off of the bench?

Earlier, maybe a few months ago, i posted that Noah would be a massive bust. While i have warmed up a bit to the idea of Noah in a Bulls uniform, i am still not that high on the big seven footer. His defense will help the Bulls who ARE a defense first organization and his hustle will not go unnoticed by the Skiles administration(I have a feeling Skiles will make Noah take a lawnmower to his head, can you imagine a bald Joakim Noah?), but is he the right choice for the young Bulls? I dont think so, but i will give Skiles and Paxson some time to make some moves before i really write this draft off as a blown one.

With the recent rumore swirling around superstars Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, i couldnt help but notice a large mistake that each franchise made while trying to "rebuld." The NBA is first and foremost a business and most owners are in the business of making money first and then winning later. ONe would think that both making money and winning are intertwined, but in certain situations thaye most certainly are not. That is where the Lakers and Timberwolves have made a large and costly mistake. Both farnchises have superstars that are good enough to bring fans to each game through their great play. Both the Lakers and the Wolves knew a few years ago that it was time to rebuild their respective franchise, but neither team was willing to suffer through the years of empty stadiums and lack of financial success that a rebuilding franchise must go through. So each team held onto their bic ticket player and tried, with litlle success, to rebuild their franchise successfully while alotting a large part of their funds to one player that would bring fans to the stadium for all 41 of his team's home games. THe idea of rebuilding AND filling the stadium is nice, but it is one that is very reality. Both teams succumbed to the temptations of having a star player and cashing in on ticket sales at the expense of having a good, young team a few years down the road. Not only has each team failed when it comes to rebuilding, but their star players also are starting to grumble and want to go to a team that can actually contend.

It would be unfair to only mention the teams that have failed to rebuild successfully. There are two teams in particular, one in baseball and one in basketball, that have gone through a few seasons of futility but now have a bright future ahead of them. The Arizona Diamondbacks, who have successfully rebuilt their franchise since tehir world series victory over the Yankees, have an extremely talented young core of players that figure to have the team in contention for the NL pennant for the next decade. In baseball, because there is no salary cap, it is very possible to rebuild and have success at the same time. Basketball, because of teh cap, presents a challenge. A superstar gobbles up a large chunk of a team's money and can really prevent a team from signing it's other players to large contracts and from going after the best free agents available.
The basketball team that has rebuilt well is my hometown Chicago Bulls. The Bulls, although it has taken a bit longer than it should have, have put together a great young core of players that looks to be a force to be reckoned with in the eastern conference for a very long time.

The main mistake that both teams' futility can be traced back to is the lack of oneness in the organization and lack of planning. A team has to be a team, meaning that one mission has to be carried out by the entire organization and any other idea that goes against that said goal is detrimental to the success of the organization. If a team wants to rebuild, it needs to rebuil all the way through. It can not afford to invest a large part of it's cap space in one player or it will jeapordize it's future. Other organizations would do well to learn from the Lakers and Timberwolves.

Is it possible that the San Antonio Spurs will be the last real NBA dynasty. They wouldnt even qualify in a dynasty a few decades back, but they contend every season and grab a'chip every two/three years. In the present era of big money free agent contracts,players' inflated egos and superstars with me-first attitudes, great, long lasting teams may become extinct after the San Antonio Spurs finish their impressive albeit boring run.

For a team to win Championships consistently it needs a unique blend of a few superstars surrounded by great role players that accept their position as role players and do not in anyway resent the stars for being stars. One of the most successfully assembled dynasty teams that illustrates this point is the Bulls of the 90's. They had the superstars in Jordan and Pippen, who by the way does not get enough credit for some of the things he did while in Chicago. I recently was watching some highlights of the Bulls and remembered just how physically giftet and talented Pippen was. I firmly believe that if he was the "main man" on any other team he would have raised himself to a level just under the one where Jordan, Magic and Bird reside. For the first three chamionships they had the grinders in the paint in Stacie King and Bill Cartright along with 3 point sharpshooters John Paxson and BJ Armstrong. Horace Grant was vastly underrated and was an above average forward and produced greatly in a somewhat limited role. Many forget that Oakley was there too. He was somewhat of an enforcer and a great on at that. In the latter years, Jerry Krause surrounded Jordan, Pippen and Rodman with great role players again. Luc Longley, Bill Wennington, Steve Kerr, Ron Harper and Toni Kukoc were all very solid and had veteran savvy that helped them shine in the playoffs.

The point is that it is hard to see a team that has so many players willing to take the backseat to the Superstar team leaders. There are too many inflated egos floating around and too many guys who think they can play only to prove night in and night out that they are not much more than servicable(see Nate Robinson). I believe that the Lakers did have a great dynasty in te making built around Kobe and Shaq with their role players in Rick Fox, Robert Horry, derek Fisher, etc.

Let me know if you agree with me and if you dont explain why. There is nothing more frustrating than a comment with no explanation.

WIth the lottery just hours away, the idea of having to listen to draft experts on various radio shows and having mock drafts all over the internet is just plain frightening. The top two, barring an unforseen event, will most defnitely be Oden and Durant.(really stepping out on a limb there arent i?)

But one thing i have come to realize is that there are certain players that just dont really fit in well with the college game but happen to flourish in the NBA game. That mostly applies to players at the guard and small forward positions. The NBA is not as much a team oriented game like college is, and players with great individual talents can perform at a high level and be better at the NBA level than ever percieved from watching them play at the college level. In other words, i think the college game holds certain players from showcasing their talents, and i think Brandon Rush will prove to be an example of that.

Rush is a player that has a great blend of size, quickness and speed along with an abundance of talent. He shoots the ball really well and most importantly, with some slight improvements in his dribbling and some extra time in the weight room will have the ability to break the oppisition down in isolation situations, which is crucial in the NBA game. (For example, while Luol Deng shined in the postseason, i dont believe he can grow into a star player because his style of play is very team oriented and rarely can he score if placed in an isolation situation. The player that he was often compared to this postseason, Tayshaun Prince, has length, size, athleticism and the ability to score one on one. The best is yet to come from Tayshaun, but thats a whole different blog.)

I think that whatever team is able to snag Brandon Rush will get a player that over time will flourish and grow into a superstar at the NBA level.   

While listening to a local morning radio show this morning, i couldnt help but gag when Joakim Noah was a logical pick for my hometown Bulls if their pick(via knicks) is in the 8-10 spot range.

This is a bit rash, but i firmly believe that Joakim Noah has no place going in the lottery, and i wouldnt take him in the top 20 in the draft. The energy and heart he plays with is definitely admirable and many players would do well to follow suit in that department, but i hope that no team mistakes hard lpay for above average talent or bright potential. The player that Noah reminds me of is Anderson Varajeo, who i believe is slightly quicker and more athletic than Noah, but still is almost the same player. Noah will be a servicable backup center or power forward in this league and it will be a bonus if he can develop a bit in the offensive department, but to have him projected to go fifth overall, like NBA.com does, is ludicrous and warrants a firing of the respective GM that makes that pick.

It wasn't on national TV (even in Chicago it was on tape delay), but anybody that caught the Bulls/Bucks game was really lucky. Michael Redd may have tallied a few more points but was Ben Gordon (Or is it Ben Jordan?) clutch or what? Redd absolutely was beasting it for the first three quarters, but BG filled it up when it counted, carrying the Bulls for the entire fourth and overtime periods. 

BTW, the game on National TV didn't dissapoint either. Kobe did what he could, but he joust could not hide the rest of the Lakers as they lost again to a good team in the Pheonix Suns. The Lakers just dont have it. What is the it? No clue, but they dont have it. For the Suns, where did Amare go? He had a great first quarter and then STAT went poof and disapeared.

I know the blow the Tyler's face was brutal, but was he crying a liitle bit? In that replay they kept showing on Sports Center when he wiped the blood all over his face it looked like a couple of tears and/or sniffles escaped the otherwise massive and powrful beast of a man. No question in my mind, that was 100% intentional. Either way, Hansbrough and the Heels got the last laugh, sweeping the Dukies for the first time since the Dean Smith days.

What about that story with the two teammates bunmping eachother in Nascar? Thats gotta suck. Supposedly they just had a meetinmg about it too. The loser had a right to be upset and certainly voiced his pinion, calling it ".......Just bad driving......"

On the second (or is it the third) day of free agency, the Buccaneers' idiotic move of grabbing two free QB's (specifically ones that look older than their head coach) was already outdone by Jerry Jones's rediculous signing of Leanard Davis. The guy was on the worst line in the league and made no difference. Is he really going to make much of a difference on the second-worst offensive line in the league? Well either way, if he can be fat and bad at what he does and make 7 million a year, more power to him.

Didn't catch much of anything else, but if there was something else significant that occcured today, dont be a stranger and leave a comment.

While all of the elite teams in the league reside in the Western Conference the East will still send a team to the championship. Again, the best teams may be in the West but the conference with the closest races towards the end of the season will be the East. WIth that said, there are some interesting numbers when discussing the better teams in the East.

In my opinion, the top teams in the East right now in no particular order are the Pistons, Cavaliers, Wizards, Bulls, Raptors, and Pacers. Miami will be a favorite if they make the playoffs and Wade comes back, but until then they are not a team that can seriously threaten in the East.

To me, overall records are decieving. When looking to judge these team's performance so far in the regular season, i look at how well they perform against the good teams in their conference. How the teams play against the better teams in the West can be an indicator to how they can play in the Championship, but right now i am just focused on getting to the Finals.

So to see how these teams will fare in the playoffs, i looked to how they performed against eachother so far in the regular season, and the numbers were a little surprising.

The Bulls- Against the other five teams in the list, they have a five hundred record or better against each of them, with an overall record of 12-5.

The Pistons- The Pistons were next with an overall record of 8-5. 4 of their five losses came against the Raptors and Wizards, suggesting that maybe the Pistons dont play their best when facing high scoring and fast paced offenses.

The Cavaliers- The Cavs have performed very poorly when playing against the better teams in the East, carrying a 6-9 record so far this year. The Bulls already beat them twice, as well as the Heat and Detroit. Their loss today was particularly bad as well. Lebron seems to be their entire team.

The Wizards- They also performed rather poorly against the top Eastern Conference teams with a record of 6-7. The Bulls, Pistons and Raptors each gave them two losses apiece. A bright spot for the defensively challenged Wiz is that they have already beat Detroit twice.

The Pacers- While they can beat the good teams when playing well, they arent really a threat in the East. Against the good teams they fared 6-8. They hade two promising wins versus Detroit but really struggled with evryone else.

The Raptors- Again, like Indianapolis they are a solid up and coming team that can really put up some points but cant really contend in the East. They can score in bunches and shoot lights out, but they cant play a lick of D and that will probably result in a first round exit for the young but talented Raptors.

While the numbers favor the Bulls, there is no question that Detroit is the favorite to take the East. Although they say it isnt a problem anymore, they still dont show up for a lot of regular season games. They will turn it on when the playoffs come around, but if they are smart they wont wait that long. Either way, the East will probably come down to Chicago, Detroit, maybe Clevand and possibly a rejuvenated Miami Heat if Wade returns. 

I think it is safe to say that all were shocked when the news came out that the bulls signed Ben Wallace for 4 years and 60 million dollars. People tried to defend the signing, but looking back at it at the midway point of the season, the signing was not nearly worth the money. His stats are an underwhelming 9.9 rpg and 6.6 ppg, and the Bulls defense is still trying to adjust playing with him. Before Ben Wallace came to the Chi, the BUlls already had the #1 rated defense in the L, and the core of Hinrich, Nocioni, Deng, Chandler, and Gordon have all learned to play with each other and then Ben Wallace comes in and now the Bulls have to adjust to his game. How about this? Why didnt the Bulls make Ben Wallace adjust to their style of play?

I called it a bad signing from the minute i heard about it and i still stick by that.

As is in the NFL, the NBA contains two very different conferences, one which seemingly is all powerful and one which doesnt seem to measure up. The Eastern conference may have won it all last year, but overall the West is just so much stronger than the East. But if you look closely at the East, the teams with a chance to represent their conference for the title is limited to the Pistons, Heat, Cavs, Wizards, and the Bulls. People may not consider the Bulls or the Wizards as potential conference champions, but they better start thinking about those two teams.

When you look at the Heat, there is no guarantee that Shaq will be healthy for the Playoffs, Wade has been getting dinged up as of late, and Zo and the Glove have to start looking into retiring soon.  

The Cavaliers have Lebron James, but aside from him and Larry Hughes, who has vastly underperformed since coming to Cleveland, they arent that balanced, and they dont seem to enjoy playing much defense either. Illgauskas is a decent big man, but he is as soft as a marshmallow and shoul do a much better jopb on the boards and D if the Cavs want to go far.

The Pistons are still the Pistons, albeit minus Ben Wallace, who is not as big of a loss as people may think. He Chauncey, RIp, Tayshaun, and Sheed are all very solid players, and pose a legitimate threat to any team in the East. But they are getting a little older and if they follow up last year with similar playoff fatigue this year they will not be their at the end.

The Wizards are a type of dark horse team. If when the playoffs roll around Gilbert and company are on a roll, they can be tough to stop. But mainly, for the Wiz to do damage they must have very strong play from Arenas night in and night out. If he doesnt play well, it will be hard for Jamison and Butler to pick up the slack. But their biggest issue is defense, very much like the Mavericks of a few years ago. If they dont play very well offensively, their defense will more often than not give away the game.

This leaves me with a team that I believe is the strongest all around team in the East. The not so baby bulls. Now a may be from Chicago and have a bias, but this opinion is not influenced by my bias. The Bulls are a team that at almost every position offer legitimate scoring threats, as well as above average defensive players, and also posess more than a few key players off the bench, some which can score and defend and some which offer a veteran presence for a pretty young team. Ben Gordon has seeminglt turned a corner and is not a feast or famine player. He now is consistly scoring in the twenties. Kirk Hinrich is a very scrappy player, much in the mold of a John Paxson or Scott Skiles, both of whom influence his game directly. On offense he will give you 15-20 per and on defense he can stick with the best of them. They also have very underreated players in Andres Nocioni and Luol ####, and either can light up for 25-30 points on any given night, and are both above average defense. And playing aside Hinrich is Chris Duhon, who doesnt get enough credit for doing all the little things and playing within his limitations, but when he needs to, can get into the lane and create for himself or others. Of course the Bulls have Ben Wallace, but everybody alreafy knows what he offers. But where the Bulls are stronger than many others is their bench. Their bench consists of Adrian Griffin(who started last year for the Western Champs Mavericks), Ben Gordon, PJ Brown, Tyrus Thomas, Michael sweetney, Malik Allen, and Thabo Sefolosha. 

Another thing to point out is that in the past few years the Bulls improve as the year goes on, a result of the great job done by Scott Skiles with a lot of these young players. The Bulls are not yet at the top of their game, but yet they find themselves a game out of the top of the East. They have a rare blend of young athletic players, good shooters, and veteran big men who offer insight to the younger players, all of which have not reached their potential. All of this adds up to a team that will be contending this year and for many years to come.   

(I realize i didnt discuss the other teams in depth, but the oint of this article was just the bulls.)

After 8 weeks of football and just two nights of basketball, it seems like their is a common theme between both sports. The right to chose the winner of the games has been given over the referees. Being from Chicago, i get to watch a defensive team in the bears week in and week out, and evrye game there is at least one or two calls that are just so ticky tacky that you just dont understand where the refs are coming from.

From the absurd amount of calls that are made to protect the quarterback and kickers, to tiny passing interference calls, the refs performances have really affected the outcomes of many games. Quarterbacks cant be touched, and the rule about running into the punter is pretty dumb, at least from my perspective. The kicker/punter is on the field just like the quarterback and running back. If the defense can get to him before he can kick it why is he off limits. IF a QB gets hit before or during he throw, it is legal, so why cant a punter get hit while or before kicking the ball. Even dumber than the hits is when there is a penalty because a player dives to block a punt and misses, and then the punter trips on him after the punt, that is just retarded. He got the punt off and fell on me, i didnt affect the outcome of the play at all. The punter should just go out there without pads and a helmet, he doesnt really need it, he cant be touched.

Then, after two nights of basketball, you see the refs calling technical fouls over the smallest of infractions. Rasheed got ejected, but that shouldnt bother you because sheed is always getting ejected, right?  WRONG. Those technicals were so dumb, all he did was say a few words, not even showing up the officials. Kirk Hinrich got T'd up as well after his only reaction to a foul was talking to a fan, not even to a referee. By the end of the year, you all will see just how big a controversy this showing up the referee #### is. The refs are more sensitive than woman duing that time of the month. I wouldnt be surprised if after evrey game they have meetings and they all pour out their emotions out to eachother and how "that big strong black guy told me to learn the rules (sniffle,sniffle,) what nerve do these guys have?"

Instead of going ahead and changing basketballs, which there was no reason to do, i dont care what PETA says or the monetary reasons were, David Stern should focus his attention to where it counts, not saving cows and regulating the clothing that his players can wear, not to mention this dumb Marc Cuban rule. For all the Cuban haters out there, you know deep down that you wish you had a Mark Cuban that actually cares about winning running your team. The guy is great.

Peace out, just had to get this #### off my chest.

I know we are in the thick of the NFL season, but it is never too early to talk NBA, so here are my preseason power rankings, top ten only.

1)Miami Heat- The defending champs always have the right to sit atop the power rankings. But even besides for that, they still have all of their core players. The only problem is that Shaq, Zo, and Gary Payton are all aging, and with Jason Williams's injury, they need Antoine Walker to step his game up.

2) Dallas Mavericks- With Dirk, Terry, Howard and Co. back, they will be looking for revenge.

3) San Antonio Spurs- With Tim Duncan's foot healed up, and some more experience for Parker and Ginobili, they will get better despite some age issues.

4) Detroit Pistons- The loss of ben Wallace will not be as big as many hink. They adde some offense with Nazr Muhammad, who wasnt able to showcase his talents in San Antonio. They will be much better this year looking to prove the league they are for real.

5) Pheonix Suns- This team is a great regular season team, but they remind me of the old Dallas Mavericks, a high powered offensive team that can do damage in the playoffs, but not get the ultimate prize.

6) Chicago Bulls- The Buls improved alot over the offseason through the draft and free agency. But it seems like all of their additions all fit the same mold, players with very good defense ut limited offensive skills. Tyrus Thomas will have pressure to put up 12-18 points per game if they wish to be real championship contendors.

7) Denver Nuggets- Carmelo Anthony is not getting the respect he deserves, with Lebron and Wade grabbing all the headlines, but no player was more clutch at the end of games last season. Martin and Karl have put their past behind them, and Denver looks to move past previous playoff failures.

8)Cleveland Cavaliers- Having Lebron on on your team is good enough for a top ten spot, but there isnt much besides for him and hughes to get inspired about. Ilgauskas is always an injury waiting to happen. But if things go right in Cleveland, they can be a real problem for teams night in and night out.

9) Sacramento Kings- With Bibby, Artest, and Brad Miller, the Kings are poised for a comeback. It will be very tough to contend in the star studded West, and they need reliable fourth scorer, and i think Kevin Martin might be ready to take on that role.

10) Los Angeles Clippers- This team is solid all around, and MVP candidate Elton Brand is simply a beast in the paint. If the team stays healthy, they will pose problems for the West. The big issue is the loss of Radmanavich, that can hurt them bigtime.