User:RahalMccall69

Credit Ian Levy for writing an excellent article on what the signing could mean for the . If you haven't read , I strongly suggest you do. Levy has also done some great things over at hickory-high.com, which is another site that should be mandatory reading for nerdy (and non-nerdy too) basketball fans everywhere. Levy compares the Bulls Noah-Gasol pairing to the Divac-Webber pairing of those excellent teams in the late 90's and early 00's. I truly feel that the 2002 Kings were one of the greatest teams if not the greatest to never win a championship. They had shooting, a strong post presence, and a heck of a lot of flair. Check out their if you don't remember or are too young to have witnessed their greatness. They also got jobbed against the . It was . However, all that aside, they were a fantastic team. Are the Bulls really comparable to such a great team? Let's delve into it a bit. One of the qualities at the crux of this Kings team was some great shooting. Take a look at their page. They had five players that shot over 35% from the arc and four of them had at least two 3pa/g. Peja was very much a high volume shooter from distance taking a whopping 4.1 per game. He shot 41.6% that year too. However, was assisted on 67% of his shots and 86% of his 3's. For reference, Korver was assisted on 94% of his shots last year. was assisted on 63%. on 42% last season. <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Designer-Tory-Burch>Designer Tory Burch</a> assisted on 27% his MVP season. It seems to me that Peja was very efficient and could get his own shot about as much as a Luol Deng type of player. Do the Bulls have a player like that on the roster? I'm not sure they do. However, Peja and the other guys on the Kings were still assisted on the overwhelming majority of their three point shots. So, while I am concerned that the Bulls don't have quite a variety of off the dribble shot creators, perhaps they have enough shooters? Hinrich, Dunleavy, McDermott, Mirotic, and Rose all have the ability to put up 35% + from beyond the arc. Do the Bulls have the shooting to contend with those Kings teams? I'd say just from a shooting perspective, yes, they have a chance. Playmaking was another quality for those 2002 Kings. Most people remember the great passing, but they forget just how good they were at getting unassisted buckets. Of their top five players in terms of minutes, all of them were assisted on less than 70% of their buckets. That's pretty impressive. If you look at the probable big minutes players for this year's Bulls, Rose will definitely meet that criteria, Gasol and Hinrich likely will, Noah, Taj, and Jimmy will all be borderline, and the rest probably won't (although no idea about Snell). My strong guess is that none of our borderline players will make it or at least we won't want them too. While all three were assisted on less than 70% of FGs last season, all of them had pretty poor efficiency. They need to be assisted more to be effective. I think the Kings were underrated in their ability to get their own shot of the dribble or in the post. was a beast. I think the Bulls will fall short in this area. Everyone seems to remember how great of a passing team the Kings were. While they were great, they were not the best in the league that year. They were 4th in assists but first in pace (something I doubt we'll see from the Bulls), so that means in terms of pace <a href=http://www.radiorcs.com/page.php?sale=Kate-Spade-Gold-Coast-Evangeline>Kate Spade Gold Coast Evangeline</a> adjusted assists, I am betting they were #5 at best. That is still pretty good especially because the Kings got lots of layups and dunks off those assists. The great part about the Kings is that they were 4th in assists without anyone averaging over 5 per game (Bibby was right on 5.0). Webber and Divac combined for 8.5 assists. Could the Bulls replicate this feat? The Bulls were 10th in assists last year while being nearly dead last in pace. This is without Derrick Rose. There is no doubt the Bulls can be a great passing team. Noah averaged 5.4 assists last year (, and on his top plays from last year if you've forgotten how good he is). Gasol averaged 3.4 last season, and has gotten to at least 3 per game every season since 2006. I think the Bulls will be great in the passing department. There are a few other tidbits to consider. The Kings were the #3 offense and #6 defense that year. I think the Bulls will be better defensively, but can they crack the top 10 offensively? I'm still concerned about the lack of ability to break guys down off the dribble, but hopefully the plethora of shooting and multiple post players will help mitigate that. The Kings had two players who scored 20+ppg, however, they played at a frenetic pace. They averaged 5 more possessions than the Bulls last season. For reference, that's the difference between the 2005 under Mike D'Antoni and middle of the pack team in terms of pace that season. However, do the Bulls have two guys that can score? We assume Rose can, but can Pau still score enough at 34 to help out? Who knows. The last tidbit is that the Bulls will be <a href=http://www.avanttravel.com/page.php?sale=Michael-Kors-Promo-Code>Michael Kors Hamilton</a> built around Derrick Rose where the Kings were built around Chris Webber. Both are amazing players, but the teams will certainly play differently. I think the positives to take from this comparison in general are that the Bulls should now have enough shooting and can definitely be as good if not a better passing team. Where they will struggle is unassisted shot creation. The Bulls offense may still be too reliant on precise movement and screening to be successful. That said, having the best passing big man combo since Webber-Divac is going to be lots of fun to see. All in all this comparison made me a bit more hopeful for our Bulls this season. Hopefully, the Bulls will find similar success to the 2002 Kings...without getting screwed by the refs :).