I dunno if anyone watched Cold Pizza this morning, but they discussed the Bulls and Woody Paige said that while the Bulls are good, they don't have the overall team depth to win a championship.

Uh... what?

At least his partner in crime (Skip) had a valid point. He said he was ready to jump on the Bulls bandwagon but three NBA GMs said they didn't have the superstar-caliber player to shoot them to the title. While I don't agree with that assessment, it's at least valid whereas Woody's makes no sense.

Discuss

The Bulls have to have at least one 20 PPG guy before they can legtimately talk about a title. They are close, but not quite. I would say they are two to three years away, maybe sooner if they get a big man in the next draft who can fill it up, and open it up for the guards.

Its only been one game, dont get ahead of yourself. I doubt our bench puts up those numbers game in game out but I could be wrong.

I saw this on Cold Pizza too. Hes nomally a little off but to say the Bulls arent deep is very funny. Then when they asked the Joker...Bayless...he said they dont have any superstars so they cant win, then they brought up when the Pistons won with no superstars and Joker says "ya, but now theyre relying on Rasheed Wallace so that theory doesnt work" which is irrelevant to the fact that they did win, sometimes those idiots are hard to listen to.

What a moron to say were not deep enough...

who has a better bench then the bulls? Just wondering, im not saying we have the best bench, but who's better?

Mike, why is having a 20ppg guy so relevant? I don't get it. Did the Pistons that won back to back even have a 20ppg guy? They were only averaging 85 ppg as a team I believe, while holding opponents under 80 average.

We don't need a dominant scorer as long as we have the kids and vets we have from great championship and college programs who understand their is no I in Team.

There are no egos on this team, and that's the way it should be.

The question is definately whether our team play and incredibly deep lineup will get us there. We know we have a strong defense but we still are a team that lacks that type of guy that can put a team on its back when no one else is able to score. Also without a legit low post scorer we are still perimeter oriented which could prevent us from getting the easy bucket (however, that could change if we continue to run the court and run the fast tempo offense that we did).

If we start shooting as many free throws as we did last night, a lot of our problems will be solved though, imo. And I don't think we have many problems, in fact if we had a legit 15/10 guy down on the block I'd say with confidence that we are the best team in the league.

2 things on Paige...

1. If brains were dyanamite he wouldn't have enough to blow his nose...

2. If you look through Woody's ears you can see the sunset...

Nuff said!!! Who cares what that chump has to say...all done with mirrors...

Your memory is a little hazy.

The Bad-Boy Pistons were pretty solid offensively as well, in fact probably more so than on defense. They averagedd 106.6 per game and allowed 100.8 in 88-89. The next year they averaged 104.3 and allowed 98.3. They didn't have a 20-point per game scorer either time, but they had 6 guys in double figures and Thomas, Dantley, and Dumars were all over 17 a game with Aguirre at 15 in 89 and 5 guys in double figures with Dumars and Thomas over 17 in 90. Regardless of the averages, Thomas was a bonafide superstar that could carry the team when needed, and Dumars was pretty solid as well. The Bulls don't have that guy that can put the team on his back yet, which is generally what you need to win it all. Maybe one of our guys can develop into that role in the future, but none of them have shown that yet.

The other Pistons team to win the title is a better comparison to us, and they also happen to be the only exception that comes to mind. They scored 90.1 a game and allowed 84.3. I don't know if we're quite that good yet though, especially since their pace of play contributed to those lower scoring totals. They were a VERY good defensive team that had good chemistry, and they had 7 guys that averaged 9 points per game or more, and Hamilton and Billups stepped up in the playoffs. Maybe we can go that route as well, but that Pistons team went through a pretty weak Eastern Conference (outside of the Pacers) before outplaying the Lakers. That would be tough to repeat. There also isn't as much margin for error when you play like that, you have to play well as a team every game (or at least most of them) without someone like Wade, Dirk, or Lebron to bail you out once in a while.

The depth thing is definitely ridiculous though.

I expect us to win in the 1st round this year and at least put up a good fight in the 2nd (maybe winning that series). I have a hard time seeing us go any farther as of right this second.

Zoom said it pretty well, but my point is you need a superstar player to win it all. You have to have at least one guy who can take over a game on a moment's notice and the Bulls don't have that guy yet.

Right, you need at least one foul-drawing monster.

I like to put teams in tiers as opposed to just ranking them straight up.

First Tier:
San Antonio: Duncan

Second Tier:
Chicago: ???
Dallas: Nowitzki
Miami: Wade, O'Neal
Indiana: Harrington, O'Neal
Phoenix: Nash, Stoudemire

Third Tier:
New Jersey: Carter, Jefferson
LA Clippers: Brand
Cleveland: James

Fourth Tier:
Denver: Anthony

In my Top 10, we're the only team without a foul-drawing monster.

And even though Duncan and Shaq ain't hitting free throws at a respectable rate, at least they are getting their opponents into foul trouble.

But then again, we are the DEEPEST team in the league, and we have arguably the best overall team defense outside of San Antonio. We also have four guys who can score in the 15 to 20 PPG range in Deng, Kirk, Nocioni, and Gordon.

Who is deeper than us? Dallas? You can only make an argument for a select few teams. Look at our second unit:

PG: Duhon
SG: Sefalosha
SF: Nocioni
PF: Thomas
C: Allen

I also can't believe that people are contributing to ESPN's ratings. That's depressing.

Realistically, Phoenix doesn't have one right now either. Steve Nash hasn't attempted over 4 FT's per game since 02-03, and Marion led the team last year with 3.7 attempts per game. Even Kirk was better than that the last couple of years. Stoudemire was a force in that area before the injury, but who knows now.

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.