So You're Trying to Make the Heat Sympathetic?

Not going to work. When I shred an article, I prefer it to be a normal villain like Rick Reilly, and not an NBA blogger like Tom Ziller. And while I admit I don't follow the Sacramento Kings blogs regularly during the season, I've read his stuff before and liked it. But he is way off base in this article that tries to vilify the Mavericks for creatively outspending other teams.

I know my level of Heat-hate is at an all-time high right now, and I'm a fan of big-market teams that don't have the same financial problems of a team like the Kings, who frequently hover around the salary cap minimum. But as Reinsdorf is stingy as it comes to the Bulls, despite frequently being at the top of the league in revenue behind the Knicks and Celtics, I feel like I can relate a little to watching a team that doesn't spend as much as possible to win games. And it bothers me that he could, but chooses not to. That being said, I don't know what it's like to root for team that doesn't pay players because it can't.

However, taking that anger out on teams that choose to do everything in their power to improve their product strikes me as sour grapes.

Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban Are The REAL Villains Entering The NBA Finals

By Tom Ziller - NBA Contributor

May 31, 2011 - Without question, the Miami Heat are the villains of the 2011 NBA Finals, just as they have been the villains of the entire season. Since LeBron James uttered the words "South Beach" on ESPN back in July, and since he, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh took the stage at the AmericanAirlines Arena to celebrate their very existence, and since King James -- already hated by many for, well, being King James -- said the goal was to win "not one, not two ... not seven" championships -- since all of that, the NBA Most Wanted Moral Criminal List has been the Miami Heat roster, replicated in full and sorted by minutes played.

First off, I don't feel like LeBron was that hated before he pulled his decision crap. Compared to Kobe, the Celtics, and the Spurs (for the crime of being boring), I feel like most people rooted for the Cavs when their team was out. I know I did, and ridiculed those that chose the Lakers. And I'm not going to reiterate all the arguments, I feel like your entirely justified for hating LeBron for the way he handled everything about last summer.

That isn't changing now, and should the Heat beat the Dallas Mavericks, as they are heavily favored to do, it won't end there. There will be a dozen columns bemoaning the new NBA, written by the self-important and self-appointed nobility of the pundit class. They'll bemoan that James, Wade and Bosh took team-building into their own hands when their teams -- Wade excepted -- couldn't handle it themselves. They'll rail that the ring is cheapened by the dark way in which the superpowers joined. They'll lament that the Mavericks, a team built the right way was beaten by a fraudulent champion, a victor with an asterisk.

As anyone who has ever played in a pick-up game knows, it's pretty annoying when the best players refuse to split themselves up in order to make the games competitive (coughmarkmillerandb-lowecough)*. While they certainly have the right to choose to do that, we have the right to not respect them for it.

*non-UIC people, insert your own two p

Let me tell you something about the Dallas Mavericks.

Only one team has spent more money in the last decade than the Dallas Mavericks. Not the Lakers, not the Heat: only the New York Knicks, for a time led by an Isiah Thomas with a credit card and no conscience. The Mavericks have spent $851 million on payroll in the past decade, some $130 million more than the Lakers and $240 million more than the Heat.

But doesn't the NBA have a salary cap?

So what, right? Well, the NBA has a little thing called "the salary cap." It's used to cap salary that teams are allowed to pay out in order to keep player payroll down and create an even playing field.

I knew it!

But it's a soft cap, with exceptions and routes in which teams that are so inclined can exceed the cap. Some would call some of these methods "loopholes." Like signing a retired Keith Van Horn to a contract solely to trade him for Jason Kidd, a deal that cost the Mavericks $10 million, and was legal under Bird rights rules despite Dallas being tens of millions of dollars beyond the cap. (Bird rights aim to allow teams to re-sign their own players in excess of the cap. Teams like the Mavericks instead use it to make high-dollar deals over the cap.)

Look, I know it'd be nice if we lived in a world where Communism worked and every team spent the exact same amount of money on payroll every year. But this isn't MLB, either. The Mavericks are not the Yankees, who are spending 5 times what the Rays are this year. The Mavs simply do what they can to put the best team on the floor, which should be commended in any sport. As a fan, I want the money I spend on tickets, concessions, etc. spent on making the team better, not on buying the owner another yacht.

The Mavericks work around the system by including draft picks in deals to get trades done ... then buying back into the first round almost every single year, to the tune of $3 million a pop, cash that doesn't count against the salary cap. Dallas works deals like the Peja Stojakovic buy-out/Alexis Ajinca trade this season. (What happened there? Oh, the Toronto Raptors decided to buy out Peja, taking a financial hit well in advance of the trade deadline. The Mavericks quickly signed him to a minimum contract. In a total and complete coincidence, the Mavs quickly traded prospect Alexis Ajinca to the Raptors with cash to cover his salary and a future second-round draft pick for the rights to a Greek dude who will probably never play in the NBA. The Mavs couldn't legally trade for Peja without giving up a key player -- a Stojakovic for Ajinca trade would have been illegal -- so they borked the system set in place to limit salary, and did it through the back channels, claiming all the way that the deals were totally separate. Riiiight.)

It is not Mark Cuban's fault that Robert Sarver is a cheap bitch that wouldn't spend the extra money it took to win a championship, thus destroying Steve Nash's prime. You can't just buy a draft pick, you have to find a team willing to trade it, and sadly there are a lot of those teams right now.

Also, while the Raptors also fall into the category of "Teams I don't follow very well during the regular season", I feel like Peja was a disaster for them and they were set to get rid of him anyway. The way they got him might seem shady, the reason this wasn't made a bigger deal when it happened is that no one wanted Peja. It's not like the Raptors cut Bosh so the Heat could sign him here.

After that shenanigan went down, Mavericks bankroller Mark Cuban had the audacity to take the league-owned New Orleans Hornets to task for accepting more salary in the Marcus Thornton-Carl Landry swap. Cuban has to pay 1/29th of the Hornets' payroll, you see, and that $10,000 or whatever was just a bit too steep ... for a guy paying his roster $90 million.

And this is where we get really dumb. Mark Cuban has absolutely no responsibility to make the Hornets, who are good and in his division, a better team. As a Bulls fan, I would be just as mad if the Bulls had to pay part of the Pacers' salary. I'm not against revenue sharing per se, but every team supporting one is a little different.

Mark Cuban and the Mavericks have been abusing the NBA salary cap and trade rules for years, completely ignoring the standards by which teams are supposed to abide for the good of the league, for the good of the fans. The NBA is careening toward a lockout. You know why? Because teams who cry and plead about how much cash they're dropping every season have to overspend on everything to keep up with The Benefactor and his ilk (James Dolan, Jerry Buss and Paul Allen). The NBA is headed to a lockout because Mark Cuban and friends flog the salary cap until it bleeds, pushing and pushing and pushing for the smallest advantage on the court.

Mark Cuban did not put a gun to Abe Pollion's head and tell him to give Gilbert Arenas a nine-figure deal. Yes, some teams can whether an Erick Dampier signing, but that doesn't make him a villain.

And you're mad because Miami clears the decks, signs three of the best players in the NBA, and marches to the NBA Finals? Give me a break. LeBron and Dwyane and Ch Bo and Pat Riley ain't the villains here. The Heat played by the rules (more or less) to assemble this team. The Mavericks stretched salary rules to the last thread, and have done so for a decade, and have done more than every team but the Knicks to send payroll on its upward trajectory over the past 10 years.

Root for the Mavericks if you choose, but don't root against the Heat because they're the bad guys. If you do, you're indicting the wrong suspect.

So let me get this straight. You want me to cast the Mavs as the bad guys because they have a high salary? Or do they have a high salary because they consist of a bunch of aging veterans who haven't won a ring yet? What did anyone besides theoretically Mark Cuban do wrong here? And are we just going to ignore The Decision and the stupid championship rally they had before they ever won a championship?

Yeah, I think I'm still rooting for Dallas.

NBA/NHL Pick Challenge Updates

I hope no one minds if I combine the two contests into one post. I'll start with the NBA:

Julia 85
Ball is Life 74
Andy 72
Sam 70
BJ 64
Tristan 63
Will 57
Katz 56
Conall 56
Neal 54
Rick Reilly 44

The order is set, Julia can blow us all out by even more if the Heat win the series.

NHL-

Tristan 41
Katz 38
Conall 25
Will 11

So it seems like it's close, but I have at least 10 points coming my way for having the conference finals right at the beginning of the playoffs, so I've basically got this one wrapped up. For posterity, though, I'm sticking with my original pick of Vancouver over Boston in 6 (although I will not be rooting for that).

The Morning After: Thoughts on the Bulls' Season

I didn't get to see all of last night's game yet due to my ridiculously hectic schedule as of late, so I'm not going to do a Blame Game. I did see from halfway through the 3rd quarter on, though, so I'm just going to put out some random thoughts for now. I might write a more formal season recap later.

1. There are many frustrating things about last night's loss, but one of the highest up there for me is the fact that TT did almost everything I wanted to see him do rotation-wise at the end of the game. Taj and Kurt were playing well, so he left them in. Ronnie played over Korver. He didn't shy away from playing Deng for most of the 4th with 5 fouls. TT put his 5 players who were playing the best on the floor out there to win it, which is all you can ask him to do there. (That being said, on the last play when you know you need a 3, maybe put Bogans or Butler in for Taj or Kurt?)

2. Speaking of Kurt Thomas, I wonder if this series would have gone differently if he had played a little more. I know that's strange coming from me, but his defense on Bosh and ability to hit that 17 footer consistently is almost exactly what we needed at the end of the game there. And the Heat didn't really make him pay for his slow help defense either, being content to shoot jumpers most of the time.

3. Unfortunately, those jumpers went in, because LeBron and Wade played like superstars down the stretch. LeBron is a flopping, preening bitch, but those were some cold-blooded 3s he hit with Ronnie's hand in his face. They both did everything veteran superstars are supposed to do in the 4th quarter.

4. Boozer is a dumbass for needling Bosh before the series started. He had his best playoff series ever, by far, and that's the main reason this ended so quickly. Let other people talk, you just go out and play.

5. It doesn't make sense that the fix was in. The NBA would want this series to go on to bring ratings up. A Bulls-Heat game 7 would have been one of the most watched NBA games of all time. So I don't think the reffing was fixed. But just because it wasn't corrupt, doesn't mean it can't be incompetent...

6. Don't outline an offseason plan that includes trading Boozer. It's not going to happen. He's due to get about $60 million over the next 4 years. There's not a GM in the league dumb enough to do that. We're stuck with Boozer for the next 3 years at least (until he becomes valuable as an expiring contract), so plan on him being there.

7. I don't know the answer to the 2-guard situation. This series has softened my stance that everything is fine and they should keep splitting the minutes between Bogans, Brewer, and Korver. A 2-guard that can create their own shot is obviously a need. That being said, it can't be someone too expensive, lest we can't sign Derrick to a max deal next year. And I don't want it to be someone that disrupts the team chemistry in any way, or shoots us out of games consistently. I'm not sure who that is right now, I'll have to look into it.

8. While I gave credit for TT for his personnel decisions at the end of the game last night, we need to find an assistant coach with a deeper offensive playbook. The Heat had seen everything by game 5 and knew exactly what was coming down the stretch of that game. You can't be afraid to have a little creativity. That should be a priority for next year.

9. Derrick will get better at protecting the ball and making good decisions. Derrick takes losses hard, puts the blame on himself, and works hard to fix the problems in the offseason. I'm sure that's priority number 1 this year.

That's all I got for now. Worst part of the loss? I have to just pay attention to baseball right now.

(*Depressed Sigh*)

I don't even feel like writing a blame game right now. Fuck Scott Foster, Greg Willard, and Marc Davis, they were God-awful.

Blame Game- Bulls/Heat Game 4

There's something we all need to remember while we watch the end of this series. The Bulls weren't supposed to be here. Before the season started, an Eastern Conference Finals appearance was the best case scenario. They almost did themselves a disservice by raising our expectations so much during the season, and playing so fundamentally sound that we didn't think of them like a young team that hadn't been past the first round before. But in the last three games (well, two games that I've seen, although I feel like this applies to game 2 as well) they've looked like a young team, and the Heat have looked like the guys that have been there before. And they have. So while this loss is as painful as a loss has been since Game 7 of the Celtics series from a few years ago, we should do our best to keep things in perspective. That being said, we should have won Game 4.

TT- 40%
I never finished writing a blame game for Game 3, but rest assured, TT would have received a good amount for his unwavering faith in Fredo down the stretch, despite the fact that he isn't hitting shots and even having trouble guarding Mario Chalmers. I just gave him credit in the Hawks series for his newfound flexibility. But for some reason he wasn't trusting himself, Sunday night with Fredo, and tonight with Big Sexy. Yes, I know I wrote this post back in January where I blasted TT for having too much faith in Kurt. But tonight he needed to have a little more faith in him. With Asik out, Boozer and Noah weren't able to handle the minutes they played (49 and 45, respectively), and were clearly gassed down the stretch. A little Kurt Thomas action in the middle there might have helped, and maybe he even stretches the defense out a little by setting good screens and hitting the open 17 footer. It's not like he's a rookie that would be shaken by the moment, or rusty from not having played in awhile. Kurt Thomas is going to be Kurt Thomas on November 1st or June 15th. There is a time and place for Big Sexy, and it was tonight.

The other beef I have with TT right now is the play calls. Standing around and letting Derrick work 1-on-1 is the type of thing VDN would have called, and you don't want to be compared to him when it comes to play calling. After the first try, I think it should have been clear that Derrick wasn't going to get the shot he wanted against LeBron. How about some creativity? Will suggested Korver sets the screen for Derrick, daring the Heat to leave him open again. I would have liked Deng with the ball up top, and Derrick trying to get free off an off-ball screen, with Deng maybe taking it to the hole against the smaller Wade if nothing opened up. But the number of forced shots and 24 second violations in the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter and overtime were a testament to not only the Heat's strong defense, but a lack of imagination in the Bulls offense as well.

Derrick- 40%
I love you, Derrick, but if you hit both your free throws with 1:09 left, we win the game. The 1-9 from beyond the arc, 8-27 from the field, and 7 turnovers (which could have easily been 10 if not for a few lucky bounces) did not help either.

But to reiterate the theme from the opening paragraph, Derrick is 22 years old. It's OK that he can't single-handedly win every game against the Heat just yet, even if we've seen him do it before. The Bulls will learn from this experience, and I bet Derrick never looks this...shaken?... in a playoff series again.

Korver- 10%
Make your open 3s, Fredo. What the hell do you want me to say? I'm on record as saying that 2 out of the 3 between Ronnie, Bogans, and Deng should always be on the floor when LeBron and Wade are, or there's a huge mismatch. While Korver never had to guard either of them this game, the fact that he's having trouble with Chalmers and Mike Miller suggests he should maybe start picking up DNP-CDs in the near future. Maybe see what Rasual Butler can do instead.

Mike Miller/Udonis Haslem (and the underestimation thereof)- 10%
Sometimes +/- is a stupid stat, and tells lies. But when the +/- looks like this, there must be something to it:
LeBron -1
Wade -10
Bibby -11
Anthony -14
Miller +36
Haslem +25

Look at that. +36 in a game you won by 8. I know Miller hasn't shot well, but that doesn't mean he can't shoot well. And you need to be prepared for that. The Bulls weren't.

Absolved:
Boozer- While I'm still mad about the rotational defense, I feel like some of it can be credited to playing 49 minutes as much as just being naturally bad at it, and the last two games he's been good on offense and is finally grabbing boards that aren't just over his teammates.
Big Shot Bogans/TBN- Terrible decision on a 3-on-1 aside, TBN pretty much shut down Wade, and Bogans did as well when he was in (Bogans led the Bulls with a +10). Not much else they can do.
Bennett Salvatore-We ripped him a new one when he made that ridiculous call in Game 4 of the Hawks series, so we should give him credit right now. It takes huge stones to call an offensive foul on the last play of the game against a superstar like James, even if it's the correct call. No one outside of Chicago would have complained that loudly if he had swallowed the whistle there. Good job, Salvatore (Crawford, on the other hand...)

Bulls X-Men Assignment

In honor of TNT's ridiculous X-Men:First Class cross-promotion, we spent halftime assigning players on the Bulls different X-Men characters. There was some debate, but this is the final call:

Joakim- Beast
A pretty easy choice, Joakim plays beast-like all the time, but can be deep and articulate off the court all the time.

TBN- Nightcrawler
Another easy one, TBN loves to disappear and reappear on the baseline, hence the TBN nickname.

Derrick- Wolverine
While Derrick's team-oriented, humble personality is the opposite of the classic Wolverine mentality, I think we can all agree if Wolverine was going to cut his way to the hole, it would look much like Derrick.

Turkish D- Colossus
I at first wanted to give Taj Colossus, but I have to give it to Turkish for his screening ability alone.

Fredo- Cyclops
Fredo is kind of an insecure pretty boy sometimes, and is very one-dimensional, like Cyclops.

Taj- Iceman
I might be stretching a little here, but when I think of Taj, I think "smooth".

CJ Watson- Longshot
I feel like CJ sometimes makes weird plays that work through dumb luck.

Boozer- Gambit
Another stretch, maybe, but I feel like Boozer sometimes goes off script and does his own thing sometimes, but I'm not giving him Wolverine, so he gets the second most non-team member.

Deng- Storm
Sorry, couldn't stick to just the men, but I think this works because Deng does all the little things and flies under the radar at times, a little like Storm.

Bogans- Rogue
Maybe Deng could have a claim here, too, but Bogans does a great job of taking away people's powers, too.

Rasual Butler- Archangel
You forget about both of them sometimes.

TT- Professor X
Duh.

Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls/Heats Game 1

I'll combine the credit post with my thoughts I had before the series started. This was the blueprint. Play solid D, pound the offensive glass, make your open shots if they collapse on Derrick. After some first quarter jitters, the Bulls did everything right. Starting with this:



Taj Gibson- 25%

There's once again so much to go around, but I'm starting with Taj, and not just for 2 very memorable playoff dunks. Taj was around the basket on both ends, altering shots and attacking the offensive glass. A hard earned +17 for Taj, 9 points, 7 boards. More of that, please, although hopefully not out of necessity.

Derrick- 25%

Taking smart shots, and playing pretty decent defense on Wade at times. As long as he keeps his turnovers down and keeps knocking down his jumpers, it's going to be hard for the Heat to stop the Bulls offensively.

Deng/TBN/Joakim's defense- 25%

The most important thing about winning this series for the Bulls is shutting down the Wade and LeBron. As we saw tonight, you can let Bosh get his, but if you can keep frustrating 3 and 6, you can keep the Heat from getting off. And it's a very nice luxury that the Bulls frontcourt can switch on almost every pick and be OK, and Joakim did an excellent job whenever he had to pick LeBron or Wade up on the perimeter.

Boozer- 10%

I'm fine if this is how you want to use Boozer, TT. 26 minutes, and he gave them good ones offensively, if not always on defense. But as the Heat like to play Joel Anthony and Jamal Magloire for some reason, Boozer's defensive weakness will only be a problem in rotation. So keep staying hot offensively, Boozer, and we're cool.

TT- 10%

TT outcoached Spoelestra, and it's going to be important that we recognize this mismatch and exploit it all series. The Heat couldn't adjust to what the Bulls were doing to them defensively or find a way to get open looks for his best players. If Riley doesn't give him some tips soon, they can keep taking advantage of this the whole time, and the Heat athleticism won't be able to bail them out.

UC Fans- 5%

I haven't been happy with the UC crowd so far in the playoffs. The one game I went to, there were several great plays and bad calls that Sam and I seemed to be the only people in our section who noticed. A home team's crowd has 2 jobs: Provide energy and momentum after a big play, and let the officials know when they made a mistake so it's in their heads on the next call. They did both tonight. Good work.

I think the Heat will respond and make this a series. But I also think the Bulls are capable of playing 4 games like that, and if it's a chess match between TT and Spolestra, TT will win. Go Bulls.

Bulls-Heat Game 1 Open Thread

Just going to put an open thread up, and maybe have some thoughts later, but I need to concentrate too much to liveblog this one. Sorry I haven't had a chance to get my thoughts up on the series before it started. Stupid technology.

NBA Playoff Pick Challenge Conference Finals Update

New standings:

Andy 72 (Bulls over Thunder)
Julia 70 (Heat over Spurs)
Sam 70 (Bulls over Lakers)
BJ 64 (Lakers over Bulls)
Tristan 63 (Bulls over Thunder)
Ball is Life 59 (Lakers over Heat)
Will 57 (Bulls over Thunder)
Katz 56 (Bulls over Lakers)
Conall 56 (Bulls over Thunder)
Neal 54 (Bulls over Thunder)
Rick Reilly 44 (Bulls over Lakers) I repeat: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

So there are 8 possible outcomes, here are how they all play out :
Bulls over Thunder
1. Andy
2. Tristan
3. Will
Thunder over Bulls
1. Andy
2. Tristan
3. Will
Bulls over Mavs
1. Andy
2. Sam (Sam can tie if the ECF goes 7 or the finals goes 6, and win if both are correct)
3. Tristan
Mavs over Bulls
1. Andy
2. Sam (tie if ECF goes 7)
3. BJ
Heat over Thunder
1. Julia
2. Andy
3. Tristan
Thunder over Heat
1. Andy
2. Julia (can tie if the ECF goes 7)
3. Tristan
Heat over Mavs
1. Julia
2. Ball is Life
3. Andy
Mavs over Heat
1. Julia
2. Ball is Life
3. Andy

So it's basically down to Andy or Julia (unless Sam gets really lucky), and it basically comes down to the Bulls-Heat series. I'm in your corner on this one, Andy.

Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 3 Update

So due to the technical difficulties I had this weekend, I didn't get a chance to put this up before the conference finals started last night. So don't pick Boston to sweep. Here are the standings:

Katz 38
Tristan 26
Conall 25
Will 11

However, my finals pick is still alive in Vancouver-Boston. Everyone else's is out (Katz- Van-Chi, Conall- Phi-Ana, Will- Chi-Phi). So I'm down 12, but have 15 extra points on the board if it pans out.

Boston over TB in 7

I should have picked TB over Washington in the first place, since I picked the Bolts as my x-factor in the East early on. I had no idea how hot their O could get, though. But I still think Tim Thomas and the Bruins D can bounce back, and good D beats good O in the playoffs.

Vancouver over SJ in 6

A battle of teams that have both almost choked away a 3-0 series lead in these playoffs. I still think the Canucks are the most complete team in the playoffs, though, and should dispatch the Sharks fairly easily.

Stay Tuned

I have a lot of thoughts on the Bulls-Heat series. But I don't have a working computer or phone right now, or the time to pound them all out. I will try my hardest to get it done by Sunday, though.

Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls/Hawks Game 5

TT. TT. TT. TT. TT. I love it. You got rid of the stubbornness, and played your 5 that were playing the best at the end, regardless of regular rotations. If there wasn't so much credit to go around right now, I'd give you 100%.

TT- 50% (Honorary 100)

I've probably been a bigger TT critic this season than anyone I know. (See here. And here.) I love the intensity he's brought, the way he's gotten his team to buy into his scheme, the fact that he knows the Xs and Os better than anyone (although after VDN, anyone would have been an improvement there,) but I just couldn't stand the way the rotation was set in fucking stone. Bogans played in even number quarters approximately 5 times this year. Taj could go out and have a beastly night, and be back to 18 minutes the next night. It was driving me crazy.

Tonight he showed some flexibility, and it won them the game. It's quite possible that Derrick does his thing in the 4th even with Boozer, Noah, and Korver on the floor, but it would have been significantly harder. Instead TT put his 3 best energy guys/shot blockers (yes, I'm counting Turkish D as an energy guy, just for his work on the offensive glass) and they disrupted everything the Hawks tried to do on offense for the last 8 minutes, and instead of Derrick having to get his points in tough halfcourt sets with the Hawks collapsing on everything, he could get out and run in transition. Mad credit to TT for trusting those 3 to get the job done.

Derrick- 25%

Of course, that could have backfired completely if Derrick wasn't putting the ball in the basket as well. He stayed aggressive, mixed up the runners with the pull-up Js, and had his best game in awhile in terms of not turning the ball over. I'd really like it though, Thursday, if Derrick didn't have to be the entire offense for stretches of time.

Taj/Asik/TBN- 15%

Probably could have been way more for all three, but I gave TT so much of the credit above, just deflect some of that down to these guys. Seriously, all those stops and run-outs don't happen if there's a weak defensive link (coughboozerandkorvercough) on the floor for the Hawks to exploit. The closest they had was Teague on Derrick, and Taj and Turkish could make up for that. And the way Ronnie disrupted Joe Johnson was amazing.

Possibly premature side-note (knocking on wood) IF the Bulls get past the Hawks in this round, TBN is going to be huge in the next round for his ability to guard Wade. I remember giving Ronnie a ton of credit in games against the Heat earlier, and they're going to need him again. I hope TT keeps this momentum going and makes sure Ronnie gets the minutes on Thursday, too.

Deng- 5%

Great D, aggressive offensive, not too many flat jumpers. Deng looks a lot like the Deng that Kobe didn't want to lose in a trade back in 07. If Ronnie is going to be important in a (hypothetical) Eastern Conference Finals with the Heat, Deng will be 10x more important, since he'll have to guard LeBron while still contributing on offense. Now I know why TT has been playing him 44 minutes a game all year.

Big Shot Bogans- 5%

Again, could be more. I almost want to do the thing I did in Game 1 of the Pacers series and give some other guys negatives so I have more to go around. I like Bogans involved in the offense. It's simple, when Bogans is hitting, there's more room for the big men to work around the basket and Derrick to drive. Even if Bogans isn't having a great shooting night, it's still worth finding him for 3-4 shots a game. And if he is hitting, I'm fine with him playing in even quarters.

No Credit

Joakim- What the hell was that? Maybe Judson was right: the lower the hair is tied, the worse Joakim plays. He couldn't have played much worse tonight, 0 points, poor defense on Horford, and a few head-in-the-cloud defensive rotations, which is very uncharacteristic.

Fredo- I said it in one of the liveblogs, but I'll say it again. There might not be a place for Korver in this series. All the Hawks guards are quick and effective scorers, and having Korver in there for them to exploit gives the Hawks a giant offensive advantage. Bogans or Ronnie should be in the game at all times. Fredo will be important again in the hypothetical ECF, where he could guard Jones or Miller (Assuming Miller isn't picking up DNP-CDs by then.)

Boozer- I'm done with Boozer. He is actively hurting the Bulls right now. I think we win Game 6 easily if Taj was to play 30 minutes and Kurt Thomas came in to spell him. White Mamba can be the emergency big. There's literally nothing Boozer helps us do right now. And don't try to point to his rebounds, fully half of the rebounds Boozer gets at this point are ripped out of teammates' hands. Hopefully this game is a harbinger of things to come, though.

Alright, let's do it again in Atlanta, and not have to worry about a Game 7.

Bulls/Hawks Game 5 Open Thread

Sorry, don't have time for a whole liveblog tonight, but I'll throw an open thread up, feel free to offer up your general analysis or Boozer hate in the comments below.

Blame Game- Bulls/Hawks Game 4

It's a chitownsports policy not to assign blame in a Blame Game to the refs. So I'll refrain from giving Bennett Salvatore any here. But I will say that the game wasn't over when Salvatore made an "inadvertent whistle" (where he clearly put his arm up signaling a foul, then somehow changed his mind.) So you blew the whistle and put your arm up on accident? Or did you make a call, then get embarrassed and make it worse? And why would it be a jump ball, and not Bulls' ball on the side? I've never seen a call like that made at any level. Anyways, on to the blame for those actually in the game.

Team Rotations on D- 50%

The biggest difference between this game and the others in the series was how many easy shots the Hawks got. The Bulls did an excellent job on most players individually (not Josh Smith, who we'll get to in a minute), but whenever they had to go through a screen, someone was left open. TT teams don't do that. I'm sure the Bulls will be going through tape tomorrow and fixing their mistakes. Hopefully they'll take the lessons to heart in game 5.

Derrick's shot selection- 20%
I was trying to figure out how Derrick went 12-32, when he only took 3 threes and 5 shots total from beyond 15 feet. It just seemed like tough layups that usually fall for Derrick weren't falling tonight. In the 4th, though, the Hawks did a much better job collapsing on Derrick, and he was throwing up shots anyway. He made just enough to keep doing it, but there were some key possessions when someone else was wide open. I have faith in Derrick, but we need to remember this is his 3rd year in the league. He's going to get better at deciding what to do with the ball in those moments. Hopefully quickly.

Fredo- 15%
1-8 from the field, -13. If he's not hitting, he's not helping. Maybe Derrick kicks some of those out to him if he wasn't quite so cold. He's a streak shooter though, so hopefully at home they start falling again.

Boozer's D- 5%
Don't get me wrong, Boozer had a good game on offense. But Josh Smith had 23 points, 16 rebounds, and a game-high +18. And most of that was on Boozer, who just couldn't keep up with him on or off the ball. He wasn't the only defensive liability for the Bulls tonight, but he was certainly the biggest. And Josh Smith having a good game inside is one of the main keys to the Hawks success.

Deng's 2nd half- 5%
He came out strong, but disappeared in the 2nd half. They need Deng to stay aggressive the whole game to take some of the load off of Derrick. But tonight Deng sat outside shooting jumpers and staying away from the basket, which wasn't helpful. The Bulls won Game 2 and 3 by outworking the Hawks, and Deng was a big part of that. Not having that in Game 4 was a problem.

The Bench Mob- 5%
14 points (9 of those Taj), 9 rebounds (8 of those Asik). The Bulls need much better numbers from the bench to win games 5 and 6. It would be nice if TT would give them a little more trust as well, though. They were pulled quickly in the 4th, and with Derrick in for the whole 4th, I felt like they never really got a rhythm going. I think they would have been better off giving Derrick a few minutes of rest and letting the Bench Mob work together.

I still expect the Bulls to win Games 5 and 6 and wrap this series up. They need to come out emphatically at home though, and work much better as a team defensively

Bulls/Hawks Game 4 Liveblog

If the Bulls play even at 75% of what they did Friday, we could be coming home up 3-1. I think the first quarter will be very telling. If they can get Joe Johnson and company dejected early, it might be cruising time again. I feel good about the Bulls chances either way, but I'd much rather crush all the hope of the Hawks tonight.

Phil Jackson

I generally don't wish ill upon sports figures, but I admit there are times when I hope a player or coach does not succeed.

This is how I felt about a potential 6th championship for Phil Jackson in LA. And not just a 6th, but a second three-peat. It would be eerily similar to his time in Chicago.

Down 3-0 to Dallas with a potential two out of the next four games in Dallas, it seems unlikely that LA will win a championship this year. And I take comfort in knowing that Phil will end up with more rings in Chicago.

I don't love Phil today the way I used to; LA changed him, to be sure. But I will always be proud to know that right along the best player of all time was the best coach of all time.

And I know that coaches don't go to the hall of fame in one team's jersey, but if they did, we know that Phil would be wearing red with the classiest logo in the NBA.

Bulls-Hawks Game 3 Liveblog

Please don't suck Boozer. That's all I ask.

On Boozer and TT

Look, I get the reasons to play Boozer. He's making $80 million over 5 years. It would be nice to enter the Eastern Conference Finals (if that comes to pass) firing on all cylinders. He's making $80 million over 5 years. When he's on, he's capable of creating his own shots in the post as well as anyone still in the playoffs not named Gasol. He's making $80 million over 5 years. Then there's the money thing.

But it's impossible to get around the fact that the Bulls are a better team when Taj is on the floor. On both sides of the ball. Defensively, Taj and Noah are able to cover so much ground around the basket that the perimeter defenders are able to take risks without the fear of giving up an easy 2. Offensively with Taj active on the offensive glass and knocking down 15 footers, he's giving us a lot more than this:



Seriously. Injured or not, Boozer has done nothing Taj (or even Kurt Thomas for that matter) can't do, and has been an obvious drain on defense. And it's getting tiring to have to overcome his play to win.

The Bulls would be perfectly capable of winning this series if Boozer doesn't play a minute. And honestly, I think they can beat the Heat without Boozer, too. Here's why:

1. Joakim has his post game back. It's been coming for a few games now, but you could really see it in Game 2 last night. Jo's left hand hook was falling, and he wasn't afraid to take it off the dribble from 15 feet away and finish at the rim. If Jo is scoring in the post, what they mainly need from the other big man is to space the floor and keep him from being doubled, which Taj or Kurt could do anyway.

2. The Derrick-Ronnie/Bogans-Deng-Taj-Noah lineup is TT's dream defensive lineup. And against the Heat, they're going to need two good help defenders to help against Wade and Lebron drives. And Boozer being 2 seconds too late to every rotation is going to get them even further in the hole.

3. The last thing the Bulls need is Boozer getting booed every time he steps on the floor (or cheered on the road, as I intend to do with Josh Smith.) Derrick and Noah said the right things after the game, but I don't blame Bulls fans at all for getting on Boozer. He needs to know, even if he is hurt, that the half-assed defensive effort is hurting the team.

Maybe TT was even listening. Despite how stubborn he usually is with his rotations (see previous rant here), the fact that he pulled Boozer in the last 4 minutes last night was encouraging. I have hope that if Boozer pulls this crap again in game 3, we'll have to see if TT will pull him earlier, or if I'll have to root for him to get into foul trouble (a la Ben Gordon.)

Boozer. Get it together. Or get out of the way. Please.

Bulls/Hawks Game 2 Liveblog

I fully expect this to be a blowout, and I'll be able to end the blog early and go play Portal 2 for the 4th quarter. Don't let me down, Bulls.

Derrick pays tribute to hard work - and his mama!

Derrick accepted his MVP honors yesterday (the Kia he was given he kindly donated to Meals on Wheels, as we all would probably do with a Kia if we had his kind of money), and if you haven't seen it, I think you should take a look. His whole speech is a display of gratitude and emphasis on working hard, but it isn't until Derrick talks about his mother at the end that you can tell just how much he really means it. It's a rare moment of non-basketball related emotion from His Shyness*. (Not yet an approved nickname for Derrick, perhaps I have to address that more in the previous post on team nicknames.)

Now, I infamously cry at everything, so it is not surprise that when Derrick started talking about his mother, I was tearing up. What was surprising was seeing Derrick do the same. The emotion that choked his voice a bit, that made him pause for a moment before he could talk about how much he loves his mother, is something we never get to see from Derrick.

And then he said something that made me feel so confident that this is just the beginning for our young superstar. He mentioned that whenever he feels tired or doesn't want to keep pushing himself, he thinks about all the times his mother got up for work, how she provided for her family in hard times, and it makes him continue to push harder.

"Brenda Rose. My heart, the reason that I play the way that I play, just everything. Just knowing [that] the days that I don't feel like going into practice, or I'm having a hard time, I think about her when she had to wake me up, go to work and just making sure that I'm all right and making sure the family's all right. Those are hard days. My days shouldn't be hard because I love doing what I'm doing and that's playing basketball. So you keep me going every day and I love you and I appreciate you being in my life."

The love and respect he has for his mother and family is touching. And it shows that Derrick's motivation is rooted in the tangible things in his life. He doesn't want to win basketball games because he wants to be rich and famous (though I'm sure those perks do help), but he wants to win because he knows that he is one of the lucky people who had a good family growing up and a God-given ability to play basketball. He owes it to those people that support him to make them proud, and it pushes him everyday to be the best he can be. He has perspective. Derrick Rose makes me a very proud Chicago Bulls fan, and I can only imagine how his mother feels everyday, and especially after that speech.

A couple other quick notes on the video:

1. How funny was it to see Jo, Taj and Ronnie in sweats leaning against the Kia for charity? I love how in a room full of nicely dressed people, those three managed to rock their own style and sit away from everyone else. I do wonder if Korver, Deng and the rest of the Bulls were seated in chairs somewhere out of the camera shot wearing suits...

2. It was great to hear Derrick pay homage to the greats before him. What impresses me so much about Derrick is that he is the face of a franchise formerly identified by THE Michael Jordan, yet it doesn't seem to phase him too much. Instead, he is grateful to the Scotties and the Michaels and all the other greats because it helped create the rabid fan base that so enthusiastically supports Derrick's career. It was a classy move to mention those guys, and he is right, all of those players on the 6 championship teams are still in the forefront of Bulls' fans minds. Did you hear the way the cameras clicked a little more fervently when Derrick mentioned BJ's name?

Lastly, I think tonight will be a bounce back game for the Bulls. Derrick gets his MVP trophy tonight in front of a home crowd that I think will be as hyped up about the award as he will be. I share the concerns of many others at this point about their ability to overcome the Heat in the next round, if not the Hawks in this one. (Let's be honest, with the way they are playing, the Heat should look like the favorites in the East right now.) I will say this however: What I know (or think I know) about Derrick is that his motivation is practically otherworldly. After seeing him address his mother so lovingly, I realize even more just how great his desire to succeed is. With all the expectations on the Bulls team this year, there would no doubt be crushing disappointment if they went out before the Finals. But if that happens (and of course, we all hope it doesn't), I think the frustration of losing prematurely for the Bulls will spark them to a greater amount of focus next season. Because regardless of this season's outcome, the career of Derrick Rose is just beginning. He's 22, he's got talent and drive, and he's got a mother he clearly wants to make proud. And should he lose in the playoffs this year, well I'm tempted to guarantee a Bulls championship next year. Because the only thing missing on Derrick's list of motivating factors is anger, and he will be angry if they don't make it out of the East. And I have a feeling that outside of Bulls fans, you wouldn't like Derrick when he's angry.