Bulls start to season encouraging and scary at same time

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Andrew Wamboldt

I haven’t had a ton of time lately with school starting up again, and working a full time job to find the time to consistently write about each and every Bulls game like I have liked to do i the past, so with this post, I am going to just give an overview of my thoughts on the Bulls first 1/3 of the season.

Overall, I think Bulls fans have to be encouraged by the Bulls record right now.  They are 16-4, in first place in the Eastern Conference, and hold a two game lead over the Miami Heat.  They’ve done this all while playing the most games in the entire NBA, and dealing with a horrible rash of injuries.

The injuries are what is tarnishing what would have been an otherwise amazing start to the season.  The most concerning injuries are the turf toe injury to Derrick Rose and the torn wrist ligament of Luol Deng.  It looks like Rose should be able to play on his injury, although it’s the type of thing that could potentially linger and cause him to miss a game here or there, and wins aren’t going to be easy if we have to play a good team without Rose.

Deng’s injury is definitely the most scary.  For now, he says he will try to play through the injury, but losing Deng, a great two way player who Tom Thibodeau depends on for heavy minutes will be a decent blow to the team.  It won’t completely devastate the Bulls hopes of title contention because they’re still deep at the position with Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver, and Jimmy Butler, but you would much rather have Deng out there than Brewer.

One thing that this start to the season, with all the injuries and all, has probably proven, is that the Bulls have a great coach in Tom Thibodeau.  Even when they’re missing key players, they’re still managing to win games, often decisively.  The Bulls are elite in both offense and defense this year, with a 108.0 offensive rating, the third best in the NBA, and a 96.6 defensive rating, the second best in the NBA.  The Bulls offense actually has regressed from last year (by the slimmest of margins), but for the most part, the rest of the league has been struggling offensively, while the Bulls have rarely put up to many offensive duds this season.

If the Bulls ever can get healthy, I think they will be the clear favorites to come out of the East.  The addition of Richard Hamilton is what really puts them over the top.  Hamilton gives the Bull an additional scoring threat that they didn’t have in Bogans last year, a good passer who can serve as a secondary playmaker to Rose, and Hamilton is the best player on the team at making that post entry pass, which should increase the productivity of Carlos Boozer.

Speaking of Boozer, I’ve been impressed with him thus far this season.  He is averaging 15.0 points and 8.4 rebounds.  His scoring efficiency is solid at 53.9 TS%, which is actually quite good compared to other players who have struggled to score as efficient as they’re used to in the lockout shortened season.  His PER is 20.2, which is also quite good.  I think as him and Hamilton get more time together, he will continue to put up more and more big games and impress some people.

The big thing with Boozer this year is he is actually trying on defense this year.  Because of his lack of athleticism, there are an occassional play or two in which Boozer just gets completely owned, which stick out in most Bulls fans minds after the game, leading to criticism of his defense.  However, Boozer seems to be making good rotations, and playing good positional defense to make it difficult for his man to score.  It shows up in the advanced stats, with Boozer having the second best defensive rating on the team out of the rotation players.

The guy who has the best defensive rating, is Omer Asik, who is putting together one of the best defensive seasons in recent memory.  I think that it would probably be the best move if Asik was given the starting center position, as when he is in the game, the other team has a lot of difficulty scoring anything within 10 feet of the basket.  On the other hand, Noah (who has actually played a bit better), doesn’t anchor an entire defense anywhere close to the level that Asik is able to.

Overall, it has been a good start to the season.  As a Bulls fan, the only thing we can really hope for is for the players on the team to get healthy.

This is all I have for this post.  I will be trying to post much more frequently in the coming weeks than I have for the past two as I get more comfortable with my work and school schedule and find some times that work for me to write about the Bulls.

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Bulls Beat Timberwolves, Move Into 1st Place in the East

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Sean

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves Tuesday night, 111-100. Derrick Rose exploded for 31 points, 11 assists and 2 blocks. Luol Deng had a great game as well, posting 21 points and 11 rebounds. Ronnie Brewer did a fantastic job filling in for Rip Hamilton scoring 17 points. Luke Ridnour lead the Timberwolves in scoring with 22 points including 3-3 from three point range. Ricky Rubio looked awesome coming off the bench for Minnesota, ending the game with 13 points and 12 assists.

This game looked like a blowout early in the first half. At one point in the 2nd quarter, the Bulls were up 24 points. This wasn’t even because they were playing great defense or anything either, they were shooting 74%! Had the Timberwolves shown any defensive resistance, they probably wouldn’t have dug themselves in such a hole. Derrick Rose had to leave the game at one point re-aggravating his turf toe injury. John Lucas filled in decently for about 5 minutes. However, at the end of the 2nd quarter, the Bulls shooting went cold and Timberwolves went on a nice run, cutting the lead to 6 to end the half.

The Timberwolves tied the game in the 3rd and D-Rose went to work like always, shouldering the load the rest of the game. While the Bulls were able to hold off the Timberwolves at the end, this looked like a team that could be very good in the near future…that is if Love and Rubio decide to stay.

Kevin Love is one of the best power forwards in the game. He’s arguably already the best rebounder. However, he proved last night that his post game and defensive game need a little work. It’s great to have a PF who can shoot the three but when he can’t post up against guys like Boozer, he could probably stand to add that to his game over next summer. Ricky Rubio looks like the real deal. He dazzles in a way that’s not flashy but effective. He has a great shot at winning rookie of the year and could definitely develop into the next Steve Nash.

With the Miami Heat blowing a big lead last night and losing to the Golden State Warriors, the Bulls move into 1st place with this win. Chicago plays the 1-8 Washington Wizards tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST on Comcast Sportsnet.

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Bulls lucky to get comeback win against Hawks

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Andrew Wamboldt

The Chicago Bulls got a nice come from behind victory over the Atlanta Hawks, overcoming a 19-point deficit in the second half to get the 76-74 win.  While it’s nice that the Bulls were able to notch another one in the win column, they can’t keep having these horrible offensive stretches.

The Bulls only had 26 points at halftime, scoring a dismal 11 points in the second quarter, and failed to score more than 20 points in either of the first three quarters.  While they didn’t look as bad as the Grizzlies did the other night against the Bulls, they did look pretty bad.

Thankfully, Derrick Rose imposed his will on the game, getting a Bulls run started with some consecutive three point shots as he led the Bulls to a 34-18 advantage in the fourth quarter.  Rose himself would finish the game 30 points and 7 assists.  His 3-8 shooting from three point land is encouraging, as it looks like he’s ready to become a consistently good three point shooter.  I think Rose has proven to be a much improved player this year from last in the early going, even though his base stats might not show it.  Rose is scoring much more efficiently, scoring at an elite 59.5 TS%, and he is making some beautiful passes to setup his teammates that he just wasn’t making a year ago.

Still, even with Rose’s late brilliance, the Bulls need more early brilliance to avoid situations like this.  It can’t be stressed enough how lucky the Bulls were to get the win in this game as well as the Lakers game.  It took the go ahead shot by Rose, and the eventual game winner by Luol Deng on a backdoor pass from Joakim Noah to get the Bulls the win.  None of this should have been needed, as the Bulls put together an elite defensive performance, and when you defend that well, the win should be near automatic, which wasn’t the case tonight.

Outside of Rose, Luol Deng was the Bulls only other really good scorer in this game.  Deng finished with 21 points on 8-15 shooting.  Deng has consistently stepped up so far this season and is performing well as the Bulls’ second option.

Carlos Boozer was decent scoring 11 points and grabbing nine boards in 27 minutes, but he has to step up his game and really be a consistent third option for the Bulls, which he wasn’t tonight, struggling to hit his shot, although playing well in other aspects of the game.

Omer Asik also had another good game.  Asik finished with nine rebounds and three blocks, and really was the driving force behind the Bulls’ shutdown defense tonight.  The Bulls have been amazing defensively with him on the court this season, with him posting up a 91 defensive rating for the young season.  Unfortunately, the Bulls have struggled offensively with Asik on the court, but I’m not sure if that will hold up over the course of a season, while I think his defensive prowess will.

It makes you wonder, if Joakim Noah continues to struggle, will Tom Thibodeau remain loyal and start Noah, as he has done with Boozer in the past, or bench him in favor of Asik.

Lastly, for the Hawks, this game was another example of the failings of Joe Johnson as a franchise player.  Johnson finished with 10 points on 3-17 shooting, and never stepped up for the Hawks in the clutch.

The Hawks look like they’re poised to be anywhere from the third to fifth seed this season once again.  I think Chicago and Miami have proven to be a cut above the rest of the team’s in the early going, but Atlanta does have some good qualities.  They play some tough defense, but I think their lack of offensive fire power will be their downfall come playoff time.

All in all, a good win for the Bulls.  They’re 5-1 now, and get the Pistons tonight, which should be a favorable matchup.  The Bulls are off to a very good start to the season, even if they’ve looked dreadful in some stretches.

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Bulls get 40-point win over Grizzlies

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Andrew Wamboldt

The Chicago Bulls did a good job putting on the show for the United Center fans tonight in the Bulls’ home opener, completely obliterating the Memphis Grizzlies 104-64.

The Bulls looked like they were going to blowout the Grizzlies from the get go, getting out to an early double digit lead in the first quarter.  That result became a certainty when Zach Randolph went down with a knee injury after a diving O.J. Mayo crashed into his leg.  According to the television broadcast, Randolph only bruised his knee.  Let’s hope that is all the damage that was done to Randolph and that nothing tore, so he can return to the Grizzlies lineup soon.

Once Randolph went out, the Grizzlies seemed to throw up the white flag.  The Bulls led 25-12 after the first quarter, 54-28 at halftime, and 84-44 after the third quarter.  The game was truly something amazing to watch as far as NBA basketball goes, I don’t think I have ever witnessed such an embarrassing display of basketball in all my time watching the NBA.

That comes from a fan who once witnessed the Miami Heat hold the Chicago Bulls to only 49 points in a game in the last lockout shortened season in 1999.  That Bulls team at least tried in that game, they just couldn’t hit a shot.  This game however, the Grizzlies looked like a mess, like these guys weren’t professional basketball players.  They were throwing passes out of bounds on a routine basis, and they showed no indication that they new how to protect the rim, giving the Bulls easy layups and dunks all night long.

The Bulls got out and running fast, with Derrick Rose leading the Bulls on the fastbreak play after play.  Rose finished with 16 points and 6 assists in 25 minutes, and made some great passes to setup his teammates for easy scores, passes that might remind basketball fans of the ones Steve Nash used to do in Phoenix before they got rid of all the talent that used to surround him.

Carlos Boozer had one of his best games of the young season so far, scoring 17 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes, shooting 7-10 from the field.  He scored on some good cuts to the basket after being setup by his teammates, scored some in the post, and some off jump shots.  In addition to that, he played some pretty good defense tonight as well.

Ronnie Brewer filled in for the injured Richard Hamilton (strained groin, not very serious) and put up 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists.  Brewer is doing a good job cutting to the basket for easy scores, and is hitting his shot with confidence.  I would venture to guess that Brewer’s +48 from tonight’s game is the best +/- of any NBA player this season, it’s simply an amazing number.

Outside of those three, there was some interesting play from some of the bench players.  Omer Asik finished with 8 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks, keeping the Bulls defense strong when all the starters went to the bench.  John Lucas III came in and scored eight points almost instantaneously, which was good to see from someone most people just view as a massive scrub.

As far as the Grizzlies, they just looked bad.  Jeremy Pargo, Rudy Gay, and Marc Gasol had +/-’s of -36, -36, and -38.  All three of them just looked to have completely given up on the game and played uninspired ball all night.  Jeremy Pargo, the younger brother of former Bull Jannero Pargo, looked especially bad, jacking up shots on his way to an awful 2-13 shooting performance.

A cause of concern for the Bulls is C.J. Watson going down with an injury in the second half.  Bulls fans can only hope that he can return to action soon, and that the injury isn’t anything serious.

This was a great win for the Bulls.  The team was clicking on all cylinders both offensively and defensively tonight, and they were able to give the bench unit some additional minutes to play together. Most importantly, the Bulls improved to 4-1 on the season and are doing a good job keeping pace with Miami and Orlando up top.

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Rose with 29 points, 16 assists in Bulls 114-101 win against Clippers

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Andrew Wamboldt

The Chicago Bulls finished their West Coast road trip to start the season with a 114-101 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.  The Bulls were led by an impressive 29 point, 16 assist, 8 rebound performance by Derrick Rose.

The game ended up being a contrast of two different styles, with the Clippers going for style and the Bulls going for substance.  This is not to say that the Clippers had no substance of their own, because they do, they’re one of the most talented teams in the NBA.  However, they just looked foolish out there on the court when compared to the Bulls.  The Clippers as a team expend too much energy trying to make highlight plays.

I lost count of the number of times that Blake Griffin needlessly dribbled the ball between his legs in the game.  The Clippers as a whole seemed overly concerned with looking pretty while they win, instead of just making the simple play that actually leads to winning, that they played themselves out of the game with senseless hot dogging.  The Bulls, in contrast, play a very utilitarian style of basketball, in which they make the simple plays to score.  Chris Paul and Blake Griffin need to realize that you look a lot better winning ugly than you do losing with style.

In this battle of point guards, Rose ultimately came out on top.  Chris Paul also had a pretty good game, finishing with 15 points and 14 assists, but Paul’s ability to take control of a game doesn’t quite match Rose’s, and at least on this night, Rose played the role of setup man better than Paul did.

Overall, the Bulls got a pretty good game from all their starters.  Richard Hamilton has given the Bulls a player who understands how to make something out of broken plays, which I think played a big role in the Bulls giant scoring outburst tonight (as well as the Clippers broken defense).  Hamilton finished with 16 points on 8-18 shooting, starting hot early, and then going cold late.

Joakim Noah had his best game offensively of the season, finishing with 19 points and 8 rebounds.  Carlos Boozer had a relatively quiet night, getting 10 points and 6 rebounds, making the most of the opportunities granted to him on the offensive end.

Luol Deng had another good game, finishing with 19 points and 8 rebounds while playing solid defense.  If Deng keeps this up, he will surely be an allstar this year, he’s just been great in all four game so far.

The Bulls have quite a bit of work to do defensively still, especially in the front court.  The Clippers got way too many easy looks in the lane, most for dunks.  The Clippers big men combined for 46 points, with Blake Griffin putting together a big 34 point 13 rebound performance with Deandre Jordan adding 12 points.

This road trip to start the season has been a bit rocky for the Bulls, with the team not playing up to their potential and playing a lot of bad defense.  Still, going 3-1 on a road trip, with victories over two good Los Angeles teams is impressive.  Road wins aren’t easy to come by in this league, and the Bulls 75 winning percentage on the road this season is better than the 63.4 road winning percentage they posted last year.

As long as the Bulls work out their defensive issues by the playoffs, at the end of the year their bad defense in their first few games won’t matter.  All that will matter is that they won these games.

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Bulls Outrun the Kings, 108-98

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Sean

After the lackluster performance Monday night against the Golden State Warriors, the Chicago Bulls revved it up to 11 for a win against the Sacramento Kings, 108-98. Carlos Boozer lead the way for Chicago with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Derrick Rose wasn’t a slouch either, scoring 19 points and dishing out 8 assists. However, the real hero of the game was CJ Watson who came up big when Rose was in foul trouble. Watson tallied 8 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds. Demarcus Cousins lead the way for the Kings with an impressive 15 points and 12 rebounds. Rookie Jimmer Freddette chipped in 14 points. Marcus Thornton had 20 points and 5 boards. The Bulls improved their record to 2-1.

This was a refreshing win for Chicago. After the miraculous Christmas victory over the L.A. Lakers, the Bulls struggled against Golden State on Monday night. It was one of those losses that just took the wind out of your sails. Rose was too focused on getting his teammates involved, shots weren’t falling and the Warriors backcourt of Monte Ellis and Stephen Curry totally ran over Chicago.

Last night’s game against Sacramento was a game the Bulls needed to win to get back into their groove. On paper, the Kings look great. They have Tyreke Evans, Demarcus Cousins, Marcus Thornton and rookie PG Jimmer Freddette. If the Kings choose to keep their young studs, they might have a decent playoff team in a few years. However, the Kings couldn’t catch up with the Bulls who ran almost the entire game and played some fantastic defense in stretches when they weren’t fouling. Unfortunately, I doubt the Bulls will be able to repeat the running they did last night for the remaining 63 games. I was pretty surprised to see how well Rip Hamilton was running the floor last night. He had an ideal game for his role on the team with 16 points and 4 rebounds. Rose was back into MVP mode, just slicing and maneuvering around whatever the defense threw at him. I think Rose knows that he’s going to have to continue to shoulder the load on this team and it’s not going to be as easy as last season was.

The Bulls kind of snuck up on everyone as a sleeper in the east and ended up with the leagues best record. Every team now knows that Chicago means business but they still have many holes in their game. It’s easy to say that the lock down defense and Derrick Rose were enough last year but one forgotten factor is missing and that’s the outstanding play of Kurt Thomas. Thomas was the enforcer on the Bulls last year and was able to step into either the PF or C position at any time and played solidly the entire season. Osik and Taj both foul way too much and are still pretty soft. Hopefully the Bulls front court will start playing a little smarter or maybe they could find a free agent who could slide in and take the Kurt Thomas role.

The Bulls play again tonight against the Los Angeles (Lob City) Clippers to a national television audience at 10:30 p.m. on NBATV. The Bulls need to replicate their performance last night in tonight’s game against this fast paced Clipper offense.

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Bulls win against Lakers not pretty, but still good

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Andrew Wamboldt

Far too many Bulls fans are already throwing up concerns about various Bulls players following the Bulls 88-87 Christmas Day victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.  Yes, the Bulls didn’t play that well throughout the game, but they still got a road win over Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to start their season.

What should not be lost in this game is that the Bulls played a fairly good defensive game, holding the Lakers to only 87 points in the game.  If the Bulls continue to hold teams to less than 90 points a game, they are going to be walking away with the victory on most nights.

The only problem with the Bulls last night was a horrifying offensive drought, in which they scored only 14 points in the roughly first 20 minutes of the second half, and 2 points in the first 8 minutes of the fourth quarter.  This is probably going to be the worst offensive stretch the team will have all season, and they still managed to survive the game with the win.

On a night where Kobe Bryant was hitting shot after shot, the Bulls did a good job forcing him to turn the ball over to mitigate the impact of his points.  While Pau Gasol seemingly was torching them early in the game, the Bulls shut him down in the fourth quarter, holding him to only 14 points on the game.

As far as the Bulls on the offensive end, there was a lot to like.

Yes, Derrick Rose had 5 turnovers, but it should not be overlooked how he scored 22 points on 9-13 shooting and 4-6 from three.  That is some amazing efficiency, and the way Rose was shooting threes seemed to be a whole lot more natural than last season.  If Rose’s three point shot is improved to the point where he’s a consistent 40-45% shooter from three, he is going to be fairly unstoppable, and the Bulls all the more deadly of a team.  This first game may be a sign of things to come.

Richard Hamilton has been much maligned because of his regular season debut performance, but 6 points and 3 assists in 23 minutes isn’t completely terrible.  Hamilton’s problems all were on the defensive end, and are all things that can be fixed as the season goes on and Hamilton learns the system better.  There were too many times where Hamilton could have just trailed Kobe into some help defense, but instead Hamilton was reaching over eagerly, leading to  a lot of unnecessary fouls.  I expect after this morning’s film session, that Hamilton won’t be making these same mistakes against the Warriors.

Offensively, Hamilton still looked like a good fit to me.  When Hamilton was in the game, the team’s ball movement was much better.  In particular, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah looked a lot better with Hamilton in the game than when he was out and Ronnie Brewer or Kyle Korver were in.  Brewer and Korver really seem to struggle with making passes into the post, while Hamilton is able to get the ball into the post whenever he wants.

When Hamilton was in the game, I thought Boozer played pretty well, when Hamilton was out, Boozer went largely ignored on the offensive end.  I felt when the Bulls were in the middle of that giant offensive drought, that they should have worked the ball into Boozer, and let Boozer create some offense.  He definitely looked like he’s poised to have a good season.  If he had made his free throws in crunch time, I think his performance would have to be looked at as nothing but good.

Luol Deng was solid, doing a bit of everything, and playing good defense throughout.  He needs to shoot the ball better, but otherwise his game was good.

Joakim Noah really struggled, and if Noah isn’t giving you much on the offensive end, you have to give Omer Asik more of the time at the center position, as Asik is the far superior defensive player of the two.

With this game, Bulls fans just need to sit back and enjoy the victory.  The Bulls are 1-0, and at the end of the season, nothing will matter except that we got the win, and that Derrick Rose gave us a beautiful game winning floater to remember the game.

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2011-2012 NBA Season Predictions

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Andrew Wamboldt

The NBA season has come fast upon us, so it’s time to make some predictions for the 66-game season that we will be getting this year.

Eastern Conference

1. Chicago Bulls (52-14) - With the addition of Richard Hamilton, who seems to be a good fit with the team, the Bulls now have a complete starting five and some of the best depth in the league.  Over the course of a shortened season, with an abbreviated training camp, a veteran team like the Bulls that are deep and win because of good defense are poised to be a standout team.  As the number of games in a week pile up quick, players are going to get tired, and games are going to get ugly, and the Bulls are a team that are built to win and even prey on ugly basketball.

2. Miami Heat (50-16) – The Miami Heat should be a much improved team over last year with another year playing together.  The Heat did nothing to improve their roster in free agency, adding Shane Battier, who plays the same position as their two best players, and Eddy Curry, a center who no doubt has some talent, but who hasn’t been in shape to play in the NBA for years.  Without improving their roster, all of the same problems that were there last year with the Heat will re-surface.  Nonetheless, the Heat are still going to be an impressive team because of their big three, but they won’t be able to keep up with the Bulls, at least in the regular season, as they will feel the pain from injuries more so because of their lack of depth.

3. Boston Celtics (44-22) – The top three in the East won’t see much change, with the Celtics coming in third.  The talent of their big four paired with a similar defensive system to Chicago should allow Boston to win a lot of ugly games, similar to the Bulls.  Injuries will keep a bit of separation between the Celtics from the top two teams in the conference, and they probably are just too past their prime to compete with either the Heat or Bulls come playoff time.

4. New York Knicks (40-26) – The Knicks have created a nice little team that is knocking on that top tier of the conference.  Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire give them a nice inside out duo, and Tyson Chandler will give them the defensive anchor they’ve been sorely lacking.  Oddly enough, the Knicks might become an even stronger team than their record will indicate at the end of the season, as they will be among the favorites to sign Kenyon Martin, a former teammate of Anthony in Denver, and Wilson Chandler, a former Knick, when those guys come back to the United States after the Chinese Basketball Association season ends.

5. Indiana Pacers (37-29) - The Pacers are poised to take a step up to the next level this year with the addition of David West and the improvement of their young players, such as Tyler Hansbrough and Paul George.  The Pacers have size, depth, and a hard nosed defensive mentality ingrained in them by their coach Frank Vogel, three things that should help them succeed in a shortened season.

6. Orlando Magic (35-31) - The Magic will have to fight through a season with a completely disengaged Dwight Howard.  Still, even a disengaged Dwight Howard should still be one of the most imposing interior defensive presences in the league, so it’s hard to see the Magic doing too bad this season.  If the Magic are a middling team, which is fairly likely, expect them to trade Howard before the trade deadline for a package based around either Andrew Bynum, Brook Lopez, or Joakim Noah.  My bet would be on him going to the Lakers, as Andrew Bynum is probably the best young player they can get for him, but I could see them looking elsewhere, as it would have to be really painful to lose two franchise big men to the same team.  If the Magic trade Howard mid-season, expect them to fall out of the playoff race and begin to tank.  It’s probably in the Magic’s best interest to trade Howard early so they can tank this season from the get go and grab as high of a draft pick as possible.

7. Atlanta Hawks (34-32) – The Hawks have been trending downwards for the past few seasons, and with the loss of Jamal Crawford, expect the Hawks slide to complete mediocrity to continue this season.

8. Philadelphia 76ers (30-36) -With Brook Lopez out already, the Nets just really aren’t a team with a lot of talent, and outside of these two teams, the rest of the East is pretty awful, so expect the 76ers to sneak into the playoffs with a losing record.

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9. Milwaukee Bucks
10. New Jersey Nets
11. Detroit Pistons
12. Washington Wizards
13. Charlotte Bobcats
14. Cleveland Cavaliers
15. Toronto Raptors

Western Conference

1. Oklahoma City Thunder (50-16) - The Thunder are primed to runaway with the Western Conference.  They have a few years of experience playing with each other, and they are simply more talented and younger than most of the conference, so they should be able to keep up with the grueling schedule without too many injuries.

2. Dallas Mavericks (44-22) - On the one hand, the Mavericks took a step back in letting Tyson Chandler go, but they took a step forward in prying Lamar Odom away from the Lakers.  I think they definitely would have been a better team if they just kept Chandler, but I don’t think Tyson Chandler is worth anything close to what the Knicks paid him, so even though they won’t be as good of a team as last year, it probably was a wise move to let him walk, and Lamar Odom is a decent enough addition to the team to help make up for the loss.

3. Los Angeles Clippers (42-24) - The Clippers will be one of the most exciting teams in the league this year, and for the first year in forever they will be legitimate title contenders, albeit a title contender with a very very outside shot.  Adding Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups, and Caron Butler, while losing Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman is a pretty good upgrade for the team.  The Clippers may have been better off long term keeping Gordon and the draft pick, but as far as this year, the move will instantaneously propel them towards the top of the conference.

4. San Antonio Spurs (38-28) - The Spurs kind of surprised everybody when they led the conference in wins last year.  It shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise that the Spurs were able to get it done in the regular season, as they have a great coach and some true winners in Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.  The Spurs should be able to use those intangibles to have a relatively successful season, but there is no way that the Spurs stay healthy enough in a shortened season to make any serious noise.

5. Los Angeles Lakers (37-29) - The Lakers are another team that will take a step back this season.  They have little depth, and while they still have a nice size advantage in their front court, they lost the size advantage they had at the small forward spot with Lamar Odom after he was traded to the Mavs.  The Lakers have little depth, and with guys with past injury issues, that has to be a concern.  In addition, the Lakers have a new coach in Mike Brown who is a significant downgrade from Phil Jackson.  With an already injured Kobe and a suspended Bynum, the Lakers are bound to get off to a rocky start to the season as well.

6. Memphis Grizzlies (36-30) – The Grizzlies have assembled some nice young talent, and with teams like the Hornets, Nuggets, and Blazers taking some hard hits in the off season, the Grizzlies should be able to move up a few spots in the standings, although they’re nowhere close to any type of serious contention.

7. Houston Rockets (35-41) - Similar to the Grizzlies, the Rockets are a pretty average team who will move up in the standings by virtue of other teams taking significant hits in the offseason.

8. Portland Trail Blazers (33-33) – Even with all of the injuries and other medical concerns, the Blazers have proven to be a resilient team, and I think they will have another season of resiliency and make it into the playoffs once again, despite being the most cursed team in basketball.  However, it might be best for the franchise if they were to tank this year so they can begin their rebuild after the retirement of Brandon Roy, and the setbacks to Greg Odens recovery.

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9. Golden State Warriors
10. Phoenix Suns
11. Utah Jazz
12. Denver Nuggets
13. Minnesota Timberwolves
14. Sacramento Kings
15. New Orleans Hornets

Playoff Predictions:

First Round:

1. Chicago Bulls over 8. Philadelphia 76ers (4-0)
4. New York Knicks over 5. Indiana Pacers (4-2)
3. Boston Celtics over 6. Orlando Magic (4-1)
2. Miami Heat over 7. Atlanta Hawks (4-0)

1. Oklahoma City Thunder over 8. Portland Trail Blazers (4-0)
5. Los Angeles Lakers over 4. San Antonio Spurs (4-2)
3. Los Angeles Clippers over 6. Memphis Grizzlies (4-2)
2. Dallas Mavericks over 7. Houston Rockets (4-2)

Semi-Finals:

1.  Chicago Bulls over 4. New York Knicks (4-2)
2. Miami Heat over 3. Boston Celtics (4-0)

1. Oklahoma City Thunder over 4. Los Angeles Lakers (4-3)
2. Dallas Mavericks over 3. Los Angeles Clippers (4-3)

Conference Finals:

1. Chicago Bulls over 2. Miami Heat (4-3)

1. Oklahoma City Thunder over 2. Dallas Mavericks (4-2)

NBA Finals:

Chicago Bulls over Oklahoma City Thunder (4-3)

Overall, I think this season comes down to three teams vying for the championship: the Bulls, Heat, and Thunder.  I think the Bulls and Heat in particular will be the class of the NBA this season, and that their meeting in the Eastern Conference Finals will be one of the best playoff series we’ve witnessed in awhile.  I like the Bulls to prevail over the Heat this year as the Bulls can realistically see a lot of internal improvement in young players Taj Gibson and Omer Asik, as well as veteran Carlos Boozer, who was seriously hampered by injuries this year.  Even Rose could make big improvements this year, as he was wildly inconsistent with his three point shot last year. In addition, the Bulls made a significant upgrade at shooting guard with Rip Hamilton in place of Keith Bogans.  I just feel the Heat have done nothing to improve their own team and that the new and improved Bulls will be able to sneak by them this year.  I think either of these teams would beat the Thunder (or any Western Conference team) in the finals, and I think it will be incredibly close between the two teams all year long.

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Richard Hamilton a hit in Bulls debut

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Andrew Wamboldt

Richard Hamilton made his debut for the Chicago Bulls’ tonight in the Bulls’ 93-85 pre-season victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Hamilton got the start at shooting guard, and it looks like the rotation that we saw tonight is probably what the set rotation that Tom Thibodeau will play going into the season.  In his first game with the Bulls, Hamilton seemed to be the glue that let the Bulls click offensively.

It cannot be stressed enough how well Richard Hamilton fit in with the Bulls offensively.  It started early, with Hamilton hitting some open jump shots, the shots we had become too accustomed to Keith Bogans either passing up or missing.  Once he established himself as a threat early on, the Pacers began giving more attention to Hamilton’s off the ball movement, which created more space for his teammates to operate.

In addition to that, Hamilton proved to be a good finisher on the fast break, and he made a bunch of brilliant passes that gave the Bulls some easy scores.  All in all, Hamilton finished with 13 points on 6-12 shooting, six assists, and four rebounds, leading the Bulls in +/- at +18.

Perhaps no one benefited more from the addition of Hamilton than Carlos Boozer, who had a breakout game with 24 points and seven rebounds, to help put away thoughts of his bad game in his first pre-season game.  The extra spacing really helped Boozer out, and Boozer was able to get some good looks with the added ball movement that Hamilton provided.

The Bulls also got 14 points from Luol Deng and a 12 point and 9 assist performance from Derrick Rose, who just looked to facilitate the offense after coming back from some early foul trouble.

The Pacers were led by Tyler Hansborough, who had 24 points and 13 rebounds.

Overall, this pre-season can only be seen as a major success for the Bulls.  They won both their games against a Pacers team that should be a playoff team, not by having any type of crazy offensive performances, but instead flexing their defensive muscles and holding the Pacers to an average of only 85.5 points in the two games.

This should be a good sign for the Bulls going forward into the shortened season.  When teams start getting tired because of the fast paced schedule, offenses will start breaking down, and the teams that have consistently good defenses (or the Super Friends, ala Miami) should be in a good position to succeed in the shortened season.

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Richard Hamilton will provide upgrade from Keith Bogans

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Andrew Wamboldt

Coming into the free agency period, Rip Hamilton, Jamal Crawford, and Jason Richardson were the three guys that Bulls fans seemed to have their eyes on.  While the Richardson ended up re-signing with the Magic for $25 million over 4 years, the Bulls ended up having a chance at both Hamilton and Crawford, both very solid players.

Some murmurings have suggested that the Bulls went with Hamilton over Crawford because of defensive concerns, but in reality, I think both players aren’t too far off from each other defensively.  I think the real reason the Bulls probably went with Hamilton over Crawford was that Hamilton operates without the ball a lot better than Crawford.

I think Tom Thibodeau will run a lot of those plays that they already run for Kyle Korver, for Richard Hamilton.  I think they will look to Hamilton to fill that Ray Allen role of getting them 15-17 points a game, mostly off of jump shots.

The big risk with Hamilton will be whether he still has anything left in the tank to go off of.  I think, with Rip, we will just have to wait and see.  I think everyone associated with the train wreck that was last year’s Detroit Pistons deserves a free pass for that season, as they were coached by the worst coach I have ever seen in the NBA in John Keuster.

Ultimately, I think Richard Hamilton will prove to be an upgrade over Keith Bogans, but not the full solution to the Bulls shooting guard woes.  As mentioned by Sean a few days ago, J.R. Smith would be a great pickup to help complete the Bulls team for this year.

The Bulls would have to wait until the Chinese season ends in March (or until Smith drives his Chinese team crazy to the point that they are forced to release him), to sign Smith.  Smith would provide the Bulls with a deadlier three point threat and a guy who they could throw in with the bench unit to carry the offense.

The good thing about J.R. Smith’s situation is that the Bulls can take some time to evaluate whether they really need to add some crazy to their roster.  If Rip Hamilton and rookie Jimmy Butler are working out, the Bulls can avoid the potential headache in Smith.  If things aren’t working out, Smith could provide the extra jolt to save the Bulls season.

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