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I've been off the boards for a long time, sick with a stomach virus. But truebluefan asked if anyone wanted to write editorial posts, so here it is... most of it is info that you all know, but just for the sake of writing, I'll put it up.
Take all of your current emotions about the Bulls and push them aside. All of the talk of Chandler making the All-Star team, Curry beating up on Shaq, Williams leading the team to the playoffs next year... push them all aside. Let's be as objective as possible.
Let's examine the Bulls through a brief walk back in time . . .
STEP 1: Laying the foundation
First, Krause pulled an incredibly questionable trade: Elton Brand for Tyson Chandler. Then he drafted the local high school superstar, Eddy Curry. These young kids worked hard, and although we are biased as Bulls fans, the word around the league is that they are the most promising high schoolers in their draft class.
These past seasons have been the most painful to watch, because there were no players to root for. The mix of veterans that have filled in the roster for the past few years have been disappointing, from Brent Barry to Hersey Hawkins, but slowly, every last one of them has been weeded out of the system, leaving only a purely talented, incredibly athletic, inexperienced bucnh of kids. Goodbye Matt Maloney, Bryce Drew, and John Starks. It was good knowing you, Toni Kukoc. Thanks for the memories, Ron Mercer.
Hello, Tyson, and good morning, Eddy. I hope you guys enjoy spending the end of your teenage years in front of all the cameras and living large. Jamal Crawford, how's it going? Nineteen games, you say? Isn't that interesting!
STEP 2: Callling the experts for help
There are two parts of this. First, Bill Cartwright. Tim Floyd's retirement was a blessing, and while no one really hates Floyd for what he did, people were certainly wondering what he wasn't doing.
Jalen Rose. Rose couldn't have been the more perfect person to pick for this triangle-oriented offense. The versatile small forward thrived in the triple post, and did exactly what the coaching staff wanted him to do: start feeding the ball inside to the big boys and see what they could do. Welcome to Chicago, Jalen... we've been waiting for someone like you.
STEP 3: Assembling the team
Thirdly, surround them with other young talents, but talents that have upward potential as well as on court experience. Krause is extremely intelligent in getting Jay Williams, Roger Mason Jr., Lonny Baxter, Trenton Hassell. College players (besides Hassell, all from the ACC, which arguably offers the best competition in the NCAA), competitive, skilled, and experienced. All of these players are 21 - 23 years of age (useless fact: Roger Mason Jr. and Jay Williams share the same birthday, seperated by exactly one year).
We're talking about some serious talent coming through here, as well as good court experience. Add a few veteran FA's, like Popeye Jones and/or Scott Williams, and we have quite an interesting team.
(Did I forget to mention Marcus Fizer? Sorry. He's definitely a strong talent, but unfortunately, not part of the main focus of the team. The fact that Krause and Cartwright forget to mention him in radio broadcasts does not imply anything concerning his trade availability, but it does speak about his significance on the team. Did Krause take Fizer just to screw the Clippers over in that 2000 draft? I guess he made up for it by giving them Brand, later. In the meantime, Fizer is an extremely talented draft mistake who gives us strong minutes off the bench until we lose him in a trade or later on, in free agency.)
But make no mistake. The Twin Toddlers continue to be the main focus of the team. A lot of the talk about Crawford, Williams, and Hassell, and Robinson is actually less relevant to the fate of the team than one might think. Chandler and Curry's development is the most important thing, because as many will tell you, the NBA belongs to the big men.
It's difficult to tell what Krause is thinking, but here is the general direction I am trying to synthesize from these trends in the roster...
Players: The roster is fairly set, sans our FA's this summer. The backcourt dilemma is easily solvable by letting the candidates for the starting and bench positions compete in the summer camps, and pushing anyone else that might seem useful to the IR. Baxter is probably here to stay, because of the lack of big man depth beyond Fizer and Bagaric (depending, again, on the FA's). Best will not be re-signed, and neither will Guyton or Oakley.
The starters are capable, and the bench has three or more players that could get spot starts for the Bulls.
Starters:
Jay Williams
Jamal Crawford
Jalen Rose
Tyson Chandler
Eddy Curry
Alternate starters:
Marcus Fizer
Eddie Robinson
Trenton Hassell
Free Agents (Scott Williams, Popeye Jones)
Rest of bench:
Lonny Baxter
Roger Mason Jr.
Dalibor Bagaric
Fred Hoiberg
Strategy: Bill Cartwright will obligingly stick to the triangle offense, using Rose, Williams, or Crawford as the initiators and Curry as the focal point. The Bulls may never gain an identity as a great jump shooting basketball team, but with Chandler and Curry's rapid development, soon we will be seeing a lot of double-teams and resulting open jumpers that must be made. Any backcourt player on the Bulls maintains his non-IR status by his ability to make a jump shot. The other part of team strategy comes defensively. The Bulls will not often employ a conscientious zone defense, but with Chandler and Curry patrolling the paint, perimeter defenders will have the ability to take more chances. Steals and blocks result in fast break opportunities, and a fast break offers the greatest advantage for these young and athletic players to score easy points.
Chemistry: This is where the Bulls will shine. I harp on chemistry non-stop, but the fact is, the Bulls are always a team with direction and the team moves together. Even when the team moved in the downward spiral bravely through the Ron Mercer era, Bulls fans knew they were throwing seasons away with an objective in the offseason, whether in the lottery or through free agency. The team was headed decidedly downward in the hope of heading decidedly upward.
Now, everyone agrees that the team is headed decidedly upward, and the chemistry of the team will reveal that these are not random talents put together in the hope of forming a strong unit, but rather a complete balance of firm players that trust and rely on each other.
Conclusion: We are looking good. I now officially turn away from my soapbox saying that we should have drafted Shane Battier instead of trading Brand and drafting Curry. The skill and talent would have been within a level of maturity, but we wouldn't have been growing any superstars. Now, we may have too many superstars to keep...
We are looking very good.
Take all of your current emotions about the Bulls and push them aside. All of the talk of Chandler making the All-Star team, Curry beating up on Shaq, Williams leading the team to the playoffs next year... push them all aside. Let's be as objective as possible.
Let's examine the Bulls through a brief walk back in time . . .
STEP 1: Laying the foundation
First, Krause pulled an incredibly questionable trade: Elton Brand for Tyson Chandler. Then he drafted the local high school superstar, Eddy Curry. These young kids worked hard, and although we are biased as Bulls fans, the word around the league is that they are the most promising high schoolers in their draft class.
These past seasons have been the most painful to watch, because there were no players to root for. The mix of veterans that have filled in the roster for the past few years have been disappointing, from Brent Barry to Hersey Hawkins, but slowly, every last one of them has been weeded out of the system, leaving only a purely talented, incredibly athletic, inexperienced bucnh of kids. Goodbye Matt Maloney, Bryce Drew, and John Starks. It was good knowing you, Toni Kukoc. Thanks for the memories, Ron Mercer.
Hello, Tyson, and good morning, Eddy. I hope you guys enjoy spending the end of your teenage years in front of all the cameras and living large. Jamal Crawford, how's it going? Nineteen games, you say? Isn't that interesting!
STEP 2: Callling the experts for help
There are two parts of this. First, Bill Cartwright. Tim Floyd's retirement was a blessing, and while no one really hates Floyd for what he did, people were certainly wondering what he wasn't doing.
Jalen Rose. Rose couldn't have been the more perfect person to pick for this triangle-oriented offense. The versatile small forward thrived in the triple post, and did exactly what the coaching staff wanted him to do: start feeding the ball inside to the big boys and see what they could do. Welcome to Chicago, Jalen... we've been waiting for someone like you.
STEP 3: Assembling the team
Thirdly, surround them with other young talents, but talents that have upward potential as well as on court experience. Krause is extremely intelligent in getting Jay Williams, Roger Mason Jr., Lonny Baxter, Trenton Hassell. College players (besides Hassell, all from the ACC, which arguably offers the best competition in the NCAA), competitive, skilled, and experienced. All of these players are 21 - 23 years of age (useless fact: Roger Mason Jr. and Jay Williams share the same birthday, seperated by exactly one year).
We're talking about some serious talent coming through here, as well as good court experience. Add a few veteran FA's, like Popeye Jones and/or Scott Williams, and we have quite an interesting team.
(Did I forget to mention Marcus Fizer? Sorry. He's definitely a strong talent, but unfortunately, not part of the main focus of the team. The fact that Krause and Cartwright forget to mention him in radio broadcasts does not imply anything concerning his trade availability, but it does speak about his significance on the team. Did Krause take Fizer just to screw the Clippers over in that 2000 draft? I guess he made up for it by giving them Brand, later. In the meantime, Fizer is an extremely talented draft mistake who gives us strong minutes off the bench until we lose him in a trade or later on, in free agency.)
But make no mistake. The Twin Toddlers continue to be the main focus of the team. A lot of the talk about Crawford, Williams, and Hassell, and Robinson is actually less relevant to the fate of the team than one might think. Chandler and Curry's development is the most important thing, because as many will tell you, the NBA belongs to the big men.
It's difficult to tell what Krause is thinking, but here is the general direction I am trying to synthesize from these trends in the roster...
Players: The roster is fairly set, sans our FA's this summer. The backcourt dilemma is easily solvable by letting the candidates for the starting and bench positions compete in the summer camps, and pushing anyone else that might seem useful to the IR. Baxter is probably here to stay, because of the lack of big man depth beyond Fizer and Bagaric (depending, again, on the FA's). Best will not be re-signed, and neither will Guyton or Oakley.
The starters are capable, and the bench has three or more players that could get spot starts for the Bulls.
Starters:
Jay Williams
Jamal Crawford
Jalen Rose
Tyson Chandler
Eddy Curry
Alternate starters:
Marcus Fizer
Eddie Robinson
Trenton Hassell
Free Agents (Scott Williams, Popeye Jones)
Rest of bench:
Lonny Baxter
Roger Mason Jr.
Dalibor Bagaric
Fred Hoiberg
Strategy: Bill Cartwright will obligingly stick to the triangle offense, using Rose, Williams, or Crawford as the initiators and Curry as the focal point. The Bulls may never gain an identity as a great jump shooting basketball team, but with Chandler and Curry's rapid development, soon we will be seeing a lot of double-teams and resulting open jumpers that must be made. Any backcourt player on the Bulls maintains his non-IR status by his ability to make a jump shot. The other part of team strategy comes defensively. The Bulls will not often employ a conscientious zone defense, but with Chandler and Curry patrolling the paint, perimeter defenders will have the ability to take more chances. Steals and blocks result in fast break opportunities, and a fast break offers the greatest advantage for these young and athletic players to score easy points.
Chemistry: This is where the Bulls will shine. I harp on chemistry non-stop, but the fact is, the Bulls are always a team with direction and the team moves together. Even when the team moved in the downward spiral bravely through the Ron Mercer era, Bulls fans knew they were throwing seasons away with an objective in the offseason, whether in the lottery or through free agency. The team was headed decidedly downward in the hope of heading decidedly upward.
Now, everyone agrees that the team is headed decidedly upward, and the chemistry of the team will reveal that these are not random talents put together in the hope of forming a strong unit, but rather a complete balance of firm players that trust and rely on each other.
Conclusion: We are looking good. I now officially turn away from my soapbox saying that we should have drafted Shane Battier instead of trading Brand and drafting Curry. The skill and talent would have been within a level of maturity, but we wouldn't have been growing any superstars. Now, we may have too many superstars to keep...
We are looking very good.
