Maybe next year for Bulls

Wow, it really has been a long time since I have written for the blog. So much has gone on, I couldn’t possibly cover it all. So what I’m going to try to do instead, is to split this column into thirds: Bulls/NBA, Cubs/MLB, and Bears/NFL. I was never good at math, but let’s give it a try.


Bulls/NBA---Ever watch a game and think to yourself, “This is looking way too easy. There’s no way this team is just complexly dominating the opponent. Something has to change.” That was yesterday’s Bulls-Pistons game three. 28 points in the first half. Did anybody think that was the real Pistons, the squad who has the best starting-five in the league? Missing open jumpers, forgetting to get back on D, showing no passion in crashing the boards. It was almost like they knew that the Bulls couldn’t keep it up for 48 minutes. And sure enough, they were right. The Bulls completely fell apart in the second half, and it was downright embarrassing. If I counted correctly, Detroit ran a pick-and-roll with Chauncey Billups and Tayshaun Prince about 600 times in the second half, and it worked nearly every time. Plus it helped that nobody on the Bulls could consistently make shots and that every time we reached the free throw line, we bricked at least one out of two.

So now the question arises, what will the Bulls do in the off-season to make sure they don’t get swept out of the playoffs next year. Well, the first thing that will help is the draft. Because of John Paxon’s genius and Isaiah Thomas’ stupidity, the Bulls have the Knicks lottery pick. Since New York finished with the leagues ninth worst record, the Bulls have a small chance of getting the first or second pick in the draft (which means either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant). But more realistically, they will get the ninth pick, which is an interesting one. According to hoopshype.com, the Bulls would pick Chinease center Yi Jianlain, a player the website describes as, “An extremely skilled seven-footer…impressive skills facing the basket…defensive and rebounding potential is a concern.” The site nbadraft.net says the Bulls will go with Florida big man Joakim Noah, who was good as a Gator, but a questionable pro prospect. The experts at the site say Noah’s NBA comparison is Tyson Chandler, but with a higher basketball IQ. I think Noah would be good for the Bulls, because he is a high energy player, an instant impact on D and a winner. Though I must say the Chandler comparison is kind of scary. Finally, ESPN’s draft expert, Chad Ford, doesn’t have a mock draft, but he does have a list of his top prospects. He says the ninth best player in the draft is Georgetown forward Jeff Green. Ford says that Green is, “ A Do-it-all forward who can shoot, pass, rebound and lock someone down on the defensive end…while he does everything well, he isn't great at any one thing.” Green would be OK for the Bulls, but it seems he would play small forward, and that is the one position the Bulls don’t need to upgrade. I think the Bulls should take a post scorer, like Florida’s Al Horford, Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert or North Carolina’s Brandan Wright, so that there isn’t so much pressure on guys like Hinrich, Gordon and Deng to knock down jumpers.

Elsewhere in the NBA, it’s been really fun for me to watch Jazz guard Deron Williams show what he’s all about. I watched him for three years at Illinois making big play after big play (Just go back and watch the ILL-Arizona Elite 8 game), yet people who only watch pro ball kept saying he was too big, too slow and not a good enough shooter to be a great point guard in the league. In game two versus Golden State a few nights ago, he hit the game-tying bucket in regulation and had a bunch of big passes during overtime to give Utah the win. For the playoffs, he is averaging 18 points, nine assists and five rebounds a game, plus is playing great defense on Baron Davis. (He’s also leading the Jazz in minutes per game and is shooting over 80 percent from the free throw line.) D-Williams is for real and is the main reason that Utah is a couple wins away from the Western Conference Finals.


Cubs/MLB---After 32 games, I have mixed feelings about the Cubs. I see that they are in second place in the NL Central while their key off-season pickup, Alfonso Soriano, has only three home runs and three stolen bases and their bullpen, which was supposed to be a strength, has a record of 2-8 and is only seven for twelve in save opportunities. Add in the fact that ace Carlos Zambrano is 3-3 with an ERA over 5.8, and it seems like the team is lucky to be at .500 with a record of 16-16. But then look at the other side. New pitchers Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis, who were supposed to be average pitchers, are a combined 7-3. And my guy Rich Hill, who coming into the year was the teams number four starter, is 4-1 with an opposing batting average of only .181. As much as I don’t like saying it, I can’t see those three pitching this well for the next four and a half months. Something is going to have to change. Hopefully it’s the former. Soriano has been hitting the ball well (see his .313 batting average), but just hasn’t been getting his power to come through. The bullpen, though they have been bad in some key situations this season, has pitched better recently. And Zambrano usually picks up his game as the season goes on, and I think he’ll be more focused if the Cubs could ever actually sign him to an extension. I’m not saying we will win the division, but I think the Cubs will be in the race until the very end.

In other baseball news, the whole Roger Clemens signing is outrageous. I can’t believe that the Yankees are going to pay the Rocket, who at this point is nothing more than a number three starter, over a million dollars per start. While I realize that New York’s starting pitching is horrible, signing the 45 year old Clemens is not going to help much. He is not a clutch pitcher, something that is necessary to be a Yankee, and is going to wear down. Plus the fact that he is allowed to just show up whenever he feels like it is idiotic. How can he be considered a team player if he just shows up when it’s his turn for the spotlight? That is somebody I would not want as a player if I were the manager or a teammate. The reaction when he steps foot into Fenway the first weekend of June will be amazing, because he is so hated in Boston.


Bears/NFL----Last season I said the Bears needed to draft a tight end in the first round of the Draft to give Rex Grossman a reliable target. Instead Jerry Angelo decided to take a starting strong safety in Danieal Manning, rookie sack leader Mark Anderson and the NFL’s best kick returner, Devin Hester. So maybe the team knows what its doing. Anyways this season, the Bears did decide to add a TE. Greg Olsen became the first player at the position to be drafted in first round since Da Coach in 1961. Olsen is a good player, and come from a good tradition at Miami. In the later rounds, I liked that the Bears took former Northern Illinois back Garret Wolfe. With Thomas Jones now in New York, somebody is going to have to step up in the running game. Cederic Benson is the starter, and as of right now, Adrian Peterson is the backup. Wolfe has a good shot of getting in the running rotation if he makes tacklers miss like when he played for the Huskies. I also liked the selection of Josh Beekman, a first team All-American guard last year at Boston College, and the free agent signing of the best QB in all of college football last season, Chris Leak of your national champion Florida Gators. (Damn, that feels good to write.)

The other news surrounding the Bears, as well as the entire league, is the new conduct policy that commissioner Roger Goodell is putting in place. This has already led to the suspensions of Titans cornerback Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones, Bengals wide receiver Chris Henery and next is expected to be Bears defensive lineman Tank Johnson. While I realize that it hurts the leagues image for their players to be arrested, I don’t believe it is fair to punish Tank when he has already served his debt to society for going to jail for four months. Maybe a one or two game suspension is all right, to get a message across, but to force him to sit out half a year after he has already been in jail doesn’t seem right.



*Note: This column was written at various times on Friday and Saturday, so some of the stats may have changed