I mentioned on several occasions that I thought Joe Smith was the best player in the deal. He's just played really well this year, and he by himself is light-years better than Drew Gooden.
Wallace was a lot better than I expected, actually. His points were all spoon-fed of course, but he and Delonte played really well together on the pick/roll. His defensive rotation was so markedly better than Drew Gooden, my excitement about this trade is still growing. I think we are going to be a very strong defensive team on the inside. It's hard to gauge since it was against Memphis, but once again we killed our opponents on the boards. When AV gets back, it could become ludicrous.
Wally and West didn't shoot well at all. I think Wally will find his shot, especially if he plays with Lebron. And I really liked everything else West did out there besides shoot. He ran the p/r really well, and his length bothered the guy he was guarding all the time. He hustles really well, too.
Seeing Gooden fail to rotate and give a wide open lane to the basket in his first 2 minutes with the Bulls today made me realize how much our defense might improve. Most NBA fans don't have a clue how much he hurt the team defensively. We're not going to kill teams like this every night, and I'm a little worried that we dropped our intensity in the second half. But that's to be expected I guess with such a huge lead.
I just can't wait for Tuesday now.
