this is bull

Wow, its quite amazing to see a team considered by many to be this year's eastern conference champion start a season 0 and 4. Considering the competition the bulls faced thus far, a real contender should be atleast 3 and 1 right now. However, the bulls lost their fourth straight last night and its apparent the bulls have some glaring weaknesses.

Many experts considered the bulls to be contenders in the east because they claimed the "core" of this team would take "the next step." Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich will finally mature and with their playoff experience lead the bulls to the nba finals. However, what I've seen thus far are the same mistakes these guys have been making since they entered the league and in my opinion, just aren't that good.

Now, I may anger some fans in chicago, but lets take an honest look at the bulls roster. Does anyone really scare you? Do they have an all star on this roster? I don't wanna hear maybes and ifs...this is not a hypothesis, do the bulls have an all star? My answer to that is no. The biggest problem for this organization has been that the general manager has fallen too much in love with his players. I cannot say enough how good character guys we have, but in the end, talent wins.
The bulls have a lot of young talent, but will they be enough to win a title?

John paxson said no to a possible deal with minnesota for kevin garnett. He also passed on pao gasol, jason richardson, and zach randolph. The belief was that the core would develop and a piece here and there would get the job done. What mr. Paxson failed to realize was that the other teams in the nba are doing the same thing. Mr. Paxson, did you think you're the only team that is developing young talent? Who are you kidding. Notice how all the teams in the east improved. The bulls need to adapt and change as well. Also mr. Paxson, where are those pieces that you're talking about? We are so close to getting over the hump you claim, but is joe smith
enough? Is joakim noah enough? Where is the big guard we need? Winning the past few years have disguised a lot of the bulls biggest flaws and weaknesses. Yet after this slow start, many around the league are starting to see how easy it is to capitalize on the bulls shortcomings.

To begin, lets begin with luol deng. I am a luol deng fan, but I am also an honest bulls fan. I never considered him to be much of a star. I thought he'd develop into a possible all star player, but not a sure fire star. Last year his midrange jumper was a major weapon. He was known league wide when he averaged 25 plus in the playoff series against the heat. However one major fact the media and bulls fans failed to see was that luol deng was never guarded by the heat. The
heat focusedl all their attention on the guards and dared luol deng to beat them. He eventually did, but once the pistons gameplanned on beating deng, he was a non factor. tayshaun prince showed deng he was the better version of deng by driving, passing, and defending three positions. Scouts and coaches are following the same gameplan and have forced deng to shoot his own shot instead of settling on a spot and letting him shoot. The biggest disappoint for deng this year has been his lack of defense. Iguodala, maggette, and yi jianlin all had big games against deng.

Ben gordon has shown this year his offensive game is not enough to cover up his defensive and ballhandling woes. If ben was like arenas or kobe where he can consistently score 30 to 35 a night, itd be ok. However for a guy who averages low to mid twenties and nothing more is deadweight.

Onto the other ben, mr wallace has been the biggest disappoint this year. He's the 15 million dollar man whom everyone thought would be a man downlow and be a force on the boards. To be averaging 3.32 rebounds a game is inexcusable for a center, becuase he should accidentally have atleast 7 to 8 boards a game. I won't go into his offensive game, enough said.

The next victim on my bulls hit list is kirk hinrich. The most overrated player in the nba, kirk hinrich has made chris duhon look like a star this season. Hinrich is known for his defense yet every opponent he's faced thus far has averaged a double double. Some defense kirk. So will u score then? No, his shots been off like his whole career, and he's averaging a whopping 6 points a game. Alright kirk, I guess you are dishing the rock then. No,he's averaging a whopping 4 assists a game. What???

What do you do kirk hinrich? For a 50 million dollar man yourself. You sure bring a lot of garbage to the court. Kirk hinrich needs to work on driving to the basket. Teams are playing the bulls in a zone. If kirk can penetrate and draw a foul or kick out once in a while, maybe we won't have to shoot so many jumpshots. Kirk consistently gets driven backwards. He dribbles way too long, and his shot selection is horrendous. The most amazing this is, he's been doing all this bad work in about 25 minutes per game, cuz he's usually on the bench most of the game for being in foul trouble. Now most of that comes from guarding ben gordon's guy which puts him in bad positions. So I won't knock on kirk too much about his foul troubles, but paxson should be aware that his backcourt needs a change. How long can u go with these two guys who can't complement
each other???

So what should we do?

I know I painted a gloomy picture of the bulls roster, but in all fairness its not that bad. They have good pieces and all players mentioned above are all well above average. However one thing we lack is the stud who we can count on every night. Even teams like the pistons who didnt have the quote unquote star won titles, because they could depend on billups and hamilton to bring it every night. Who do the bulls have?

I know paxson doesn't wanna hear this right now, but he needs to break up this core and get kobe bryant. People argue giving up too much will hurt this teams chances of goin to the finals. The way I see it, this roster won't win the finals as is. Kobe with a depleted team won't win a finals either. However, at the end of the day, the bulls now have kobe to build around. Now that's a player you can add a few pieces here and there,and say you can win a title, mr. Paxson.

- Mr. Hook