Ben,

You have built up one hell of a resume if we're talking about bouncing the ball off of your knee-caps. That 2.9 to 2.5 career assist-to-turnover ratio is a thing of beauty. Words can't describe how awesome your defense is. Your contributions to team chemistry are immeasurable.

Now, go and share the ball with Jamal Crawford and Stephon Marbury. For the love of God, get the f*ck outta here. You're ruining my entire Bulls experience.

I like Noah too, but god damn, you're out there like Pluto. Tyson just lead the league in offensive rebounding. Joakim has never sniffed an NBA game.

Congrats on naming yourself after the wackest player in Bulls history, btw.

I'm in.

Damn, already? I guess that the season is fast approaching, though.

Luol Deng continues to amaze. Good God, talk about a mid-range freak.

I liken him to Scott Podsednik with his terrible fundamentals and enormous meathead following and all, but yeah, I'll buy Freddy Garcia.

Dude, we had won 12 of 13 going into that contest.

A wake up call?

S*** happens. We have yet to gel to the point where we can put teams away on the road. That's just the way it goes.

Kirk and Duhon make up what I consider to be the mot intelligent PG duo in the entire NBA. Those guys have brains, and then some.

If we had a real SG, Duhon would be a major asset off the bench. He's one of the most slept-on players in recent Bulls history.

A fat player is a tired player, and a tired player is TOAST on defense. That's my concern.

He'd be a quality bench player if he was in shape.

Draft position doesn't mean anything either. I mean, hell, Ben Gordon was selected #3 overall.

I want to see Sweetney riding the bench for some other team.

Until dude is willing to give up the cheeseburgers and drop a good 50 pounds, he'll be useless.

No question about it, Tony.

Gasol is a legitimate offensive star in this league who demands double teams whenever he gets his hands on the ball. We need points in the paint, and it ain't happening with the Ben Wallace/PJ Brown/Andres Nocioni mix.

Andres is capable of going off at times, but he ain't no offensive option in the paint. We need a horse down there.

PG: Duhon/Hinrich
SG: Hinrich/Sefolosha
SF: Deng/Nocioni/Khryapa
PF: Gasol/Nocioni/Thomas
C: Wallace/Gasol

You'd also free up a spiffload of minutes for Sefolosha and Thomas, and we'd also get to see a little bit more of Khryapa.

Yeah, awesome game for Tyson despite the fact that he was in foul trouble throughout the first half.

I feel bad for the Hornets. Desmond Mason is currently their best scoring option outside of Chris Paul. No Peja or David West = steamrolled.

I hope that they get their spiff together, and I'm sorry that they had to run into us right when we're starting to pick up a little steam.

Ridiculous reasoning right here. Who gives a damn about all star games.

Some of you guys keep stepping into the same traps over and over again. He ain't a superstar until he does something in the playoffs? My ass. You win as a team. This ain't one-on-one streetball we're talking about here.

All star games couldn't possibly be any more meaningless. You never use something like that to justify whether or not a guy is a superstar.

Step away from the glamour and glitz for a moment and watch some freaking games. You can make an argument that Chris Paul is the best PG in the NBA as of now, and it wouldn't be that far-fetched. All star games are for the kiddies. There ain't no real NBA fans investing any time in that nonsense.

Big Ben has been great, but people tend to fly right past Ben Gordon and Luol Deng, so when he rotates, that tends to leave opposing centers wide open down low. See the Dampier game if you require evidence. That tid bit RME JICO posted shouldn't mean jack to any serious Bulls fans. It goes a hell of a lot deeper than Wallace vs. opposing centers.

Luol has them long arms that can wreak havoc on your outside shot, but he just doesn't have the foot speed to stop people from penetrating. You can live with that if you ship Ben Gordon the hell out of here, though.

Wow, if only he had a brain...

He's a legitimate #1 scoring option down low, a great free throw shooter for his size, a damn good rebounder, a pretty good passer, etc. You could live with his terrible defense out of the PF slot if he is surrounded by players like Aldridge, Outlaw, Roy, and Jack.

Talk about a defensive powerhouse in the making. Portland has made some serious power moves in recent years, but if they expect to contend at some point in the future, Zach Randolph and Darius Miles need to be traded. You don't win with players like that.

Yep. Him and Magloire got into it, as they did last year in the Bulls vs. Bucks games. Tyson was playing pissed off the entire night, and as soon as the refs called a silly foul on him, he went off.

You can't knock a guy for being passionate, but he cost them the game last night. I didn't actually see this one, but numerous sources have indicated that he was really making it hard for Zach Randolph to score, which as y'all know, is absolutely pertinent if you expect to beat the Blazers. The Hornets were up by 27 going into the second quarter, but as soon as Tyson got hit with a couple of fouls, he went to the bench and the Blazers started to come back.

It's half unharnessed aggressiveness/half maturity issues, although it's hard to tell a guy to stop playing with so much passion. Tyson really wants to win, which is just one of the many reasons why I love the guy. That said, he's gonna have to keep that 15 technical foul limit in mind, because the Hornets can not afford to have their rebounding monster missing games down the stretch.

Chris Paul and Bobby Jackson got T'd up as well during the course of that game. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it sounds like the refs did their absolute best to make an actual game out of it. It should have been like a 20 point blowout, especially with Brandon Roy on the bench. If you talk to any Blazers fan, you'll find out that Brandon Roy is the guy that makes that team tick. Without him, they are hopeless.

He's already a top 4 PG in the NBA along with Nash, Kidd, and Billups.

As far as having to take your team to the playoffs and win a series to qualify as a superstar, I'll never buy that. This is a team game. Individuals ain't gonna win you jack.

Ben Wallace vs. Cavs

He has 21 offensive rebounds through four games, and 50 rebounds altogether.

The Hornets are 4-0. Coincidence?

That's just a damn good team, though. Byron Scott is a quality defensive-minded head coach who gets the most out of his players, Chris Paul is absolutely amazing, Desmond Mason and Linton Johnson provide plenty of perimiter defense, David West is an effective mid-range scoring option, Bobby Jackson is the best backup PG in the NBA, and Peja can be a lethal offensive option when he's on. My 45 to 50 win prediction may actually be right on the money by the time all is said and done. It was wishful thinking at the time, no doubt.

Chandler is vital to what they are doing. They've been suffocating teams on the glass, and that's with a tweener out of the PF slot in David West. Cedric Simmons and Hilton Armstrong haven't seen much playing time thus far. They're killing teams on the glass despite the fact that they have no beef in the paint.

Expect a letdown against elite teams like San Antonio and Dallas, of course. But otherwise, I see them defeating confused teams like Houston, Memphis, etc. IMO, the only Western Conference teams that are better are San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix, LA Clippers, and a healthy Denver squad.

Let's do this. I have a feeling that Kirk is gonna rip into Bibby tonight. Let's hope that he has his shot going.

Lebron might be more valuable, but it's not due to his ability to play numerous positions. Michael Jordan could only play out of the SG and SF slots. Would Lebron be more valuable, according to your logic?

But you can make an argument for Lebron based on legendary court vision. There's no doubt about that.

I'll go with Kirk Hinrich. He'll have Bibby guarding him, so yeah...

Yep, as a team, they are somewhere in between the one that slaughtered Miami and the one that took a dump in Orlando, albeit much closer to the former.

They are a top 5 team in this league, and arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference. Looking like complete and utter crap from time to time won't change that.

Really, the only team that I would hate to meet in the Eastern Conference Finals would be a healthy Indiana squad. They have a brilliant head coach, great defensive personnel, and some high percentage scoring punch. Make no mistake about it; that is one dangerous squad, when healthy.

Bring on the Heat, Pistons, and Cavs, though. Those are the teams that I want to see in the playoffs. I think that we can smother them with our depth.

6. Nocioni
7. Thomas
8. Duhon
9. Sefolosha
10. Khryapa
11. Griffin
12. Allen

That's some nice depth.



Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, and Grant Hill combined to shoot 80% from the field (27 attempts) and 90% from the free throw line (26 attempts). By the time that all was said and done, they had scored 70 points as a trio.

IMO, they'd have taken out any team in the NBA last night. When you think about it along those lines, this loss doesn't hurt as much.

Yeah, I'm thinking about Nash in the right system, actually.

Some FT numbers from the 2005-2006 playoffs:

Game One vs LAL: 8-8
Game Two vs. LAL: 7-7
Game Five vs. LAL: 5-6
Game Six vs. LAL: 13-13
Game Two vs. LAC: 8-9
Game Four vs. LAC: 6-6
Game Five vs. Dallas: 9-9

Nash shot 92% from the line in the playoffs, but the Suns made sure not to utilize him to the utmost.

That's why I hate talking about teams that are retarded. If the Suns had the brains, Nash would be at the free throw line constantly. Instead, you get ill-advised three pointers left and right from damn near the entire squad.

In half-court sets, just give the ball to Nash, let him attack the basket every single time, and that's that. You'd be putting him in a much better position to either hit the wide open man for a mid-range shot, or go to the free throw line with his 92% free throw percentage.

Nash is the best pure free throw shooter in this league, and his free throws attempted per game is Exhibit A for why the Phoenix Suns are a stupid team. They couldn't come up with an intelligent game plan if their lives depended on it. Just bombs away and hope for the best, like we used to do in grade school.

I think that it's more about particular systems in Jason's case. I like him because he can take it right to the rim with ease, and in the process, he can draw multiple defenders and open things up on the offensive glass. He has shown flashes of 30 PPG potential, which is beyond rare in this league, as you know.

He plays in an atrocious system, no doubt. He wouldn't be shooting anywhere near as many threes on a real squad with an actual game plan. Put him on a Larry Brown squad, a Rick Carlisle squad, etc, and you'll get the most out of him. West coast teams have their heads way up their asses for the most part, but hey, they need to bomb it constantly to keep their casual fans interested. Conservative offense and defense just ain't getting ratings, unfortunately, although Texas is an altogether different story. Also, it's not as much about shooting a great FT% as it is getting the other team's key players (big men) into foul trouble. That is precisely what we need, IMO, and it ain't gonna happen with Ben Gordon having to settle for long-distance shots damn near every time.

I understand that Richardson is not a good defensive player, but you have to surround him with defensive personnel, and the Warriors just don't have it.

My point: Put him on a real team like the Bulls, and he is a major championship piece.