The only mediocre thing about the Bulls right now is the lack of Ray Clay and the horrendous excuse for a dance team known as the Luvabulls. During the season ticket holder open practice at the United Center two weekends ago these "beautiful ladies" went through the same lame Bon Jovi dance routine as last season. What they didn't have time to learn a new dance during the offseason? The Blackhawks ice girls are clearly stealing their thunder, step your game up Luvabulls.
10. Drew Gooden
The man with the goofy beard and distinguished collegiate career is back and in a contract year. Gooden has been a double figure scorer his entire career and when he gets decent minutes he averages at least eight rebounds a game. Throw in the fact that big men hustle their butts off in contract years and Gooden could be a nice little surprise this year.
9. No Major Contract Distractions
8. Larry Hughes is out 6-8 weeks
I'm just kidding, but not really...
7. The mediocre Eastern Conference
The Eastern Conference is again extremely mediocre. The top tier teams the Celtics and Pistons are a year older and the only major player to switch to the East was Elton Brand. While the Magic, 76ers and Raptors will be improved there are so many bottom feeders here it's a joke. The Bulls are supposed to be scared of teams like the Bucks, Pacers, Knicks and Nets. I just don't buy it.
6. A potent fast break
Now that we have a real point guard who loves to push tempo and create plays it is time that we run the hell out of the ball. Our big guys are actually decent at getting up and down the floor (not you Aaron Gray) and we have good enough shooters to let Rose go to the basket and kick out to a midrange threat (Deng) or a long range threat (Gordon). Rose adds the whole new dimension of someone who can finish in transition something the Bulls have been missing for a long time.
5. No Ben Wallace I cannot even begin to explain how much damage Big Ben did to last season's team. By sulking, demanding respect and demanding to take jumpers Wallace split himself away from the team and got himself traded. There is no doubt Wallace was an astronomical mistake and it is probably the reason Paxson is so shy to make another major shakeup since.
4. Natural Growth Sometimes teams improve the most when they have a couple years to gel and play together. Now that this still young core has been together a couple years things could turn out okay. Basketball teams take a lot of time to play well together and this Bulls team was pretty damn good two years ago with mostly the same roster.
3. Coaching Staff Now as I agree with Matt Olsen yesterday, Vinny is in over his head right now and will probably make some mistakes. So how is the coaching staff be No. 3 on this list? For one, the assistants Vinny surrounded himself with are top notch guys who he can rely on quickly. Del Harris and Bernie Bickerstaff are veteran NBA guys who have been in the league a long, long time and Pete Myers was the one assistant that Bulls players responded to last season. This team will not quit on Vinny like they did Skiles and Boylan because he is not a drill sergeant or completely over his head like the other two.
2. Health
There was one game I attended last season where the two best players on the floor were Kirk Hinrich and Danny Granger. I also spent $75 for the ticket. Now that Deng, Gordon (the toe is minor) and Nocioni are in better health we should have a more complete team. Couple that with the decent amount of young depth the Bulls have and they should be more prepared to withstand injuries.
1. Derrick Rose
Will he have some first-year jitters? Absolutely. Will his shot struggle at times? Yes. Is he still a winner and dynamic athlete and point guard who makes all of his teammates better? You better believe it. Derrick Rose will lead this team as far as it can go and that makes me like my chances a lot more.
From the Archive:
Top Ten Reasons the Bulls WONT Make the Playoffs
5 comments:
Glad that all of the posters on this blog take the time to make a nice looking post.
Most days, TTCS looks well put together. Today's not one of them.
Did you only have 5 minutes to throw this together or what?
#4..."they were pretty damn good two years ago..."
you say that it takes times for a team to gel together, that they need a few years before playing well together. if that were true, and they were pretty damn good two years ago, why did they suck so bad last year?
Now, I expect somebody to say that "it was a rebuilding year."
every team is having a rebuilding year when they suck. they'll suck again this year.
No, the chemistry issues stem from the cancers known as Ben Wallace and the coaching of Scott Skiles and Jim Boylan. There were also distractions such as contracts, the Kobe fiasco and young hot heads like Tyrus and Joakim who have now grown another year.
It was not in any sense a rebuilding year, but rather a team that crumbled due to chemistry issues. I believe a lot of those chemistry issues have been fixed.
and in terms of the dude commenting on the "nice looking post"
Get a LIFE!
Seriously, read the content; that is what I care about the most. And seeing in terms of your lack of arguments about what I wrote shows that either:
A. You didn't read it, or
B. You agree with them and I did my job as a "blogger"
Sorry that sometimes photos don't take precedence to something I research and write.
This team should be better than a seven and eight team, it seem that last year was a transitional year with the switching of coaches. It was obvious that the young Bulls no longer bought into the military hard-nose style of Coach Stiles. That can only last so long with the Egos of the 'League.' If Ben Gordan shots is dropping and I bigs play at an intense level game in and game out there is no reason the boys can't reclaim a 4 see if not the number three spots. Let us not forget the Bulls record vs. the Piston over the last few years. They simply are not intimidated by the likes of Detroit. With Rose aboard pushing the rock verticlely and not in circles ala Kirk Heinrich I can see big things. Can Kirk be the next John Paxson, a spot up shooter who is hard-nose on defense, can Deng develope into a Scottie Pippen, we will see. This year I see the Bulls at 46-36.
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