Carlos Boozer: Was Last Season About Injuries or Age?

Every team has a media and fan whipping boy. For the 2010-2011 Chicago Bulls, it was definitely Carlos Boozer. It didn't start out that way. At first, that title was planted on Keith Bogans, the Bulls' excuse for a starting shooting guard.

Boozer was the light at the end of the tunnel, having started the season out injured from a fall on a gym bag in the off-season. Though his injury raised concerns amongst the Bulls faithful, fans were forgiving and anxiously awaited his debut.

It took Boozer a couple games to hit his stride and he was up and down during the season. He finished up averaging 17 points and almost 10 rebounds per game.

These totals are right on par for Boozer and what most fans should expect from him. This is his career average, but much of this is dragged down by his first two seasons in the league while he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Boozer was still establishing himself at that time, but since then, his numbers have been strong in seasons that he's played 60 or more games. When he plays fewer than 60 games, his totals dip to what we saw from him this past season, 17 points and 9 rebounds.

In seasons that Boozer plays more than 60 games his totals balloon to 20 points and 11 rebounds per game. If this was his output throughout this past season and playoffs, I doubt that he would've received any criticism, even with poor defense.

So to offer my answer to the question I posed in the title of this article, injury seems to be the cause of his subpar performance. That said, Boozer has only played more than 60 games five times in nine seasons.

That is a definite cause of concern for Bulls fans. Though he hasn't had back-to-back injury-riddled seasons since the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 seasons, when he played in 84 games total.

There is no doubt in my mind, in retrospect the Bulls should've targeted Amare Stoudemire from the beginning, but Amare may never have truly considered any other destination besides the Big Apple.

So, after being shunned by "The Big Three," Boozer was the safest and smartest way to spend all that cash.

Anyone who lambastes the Bulls for signing Boozer, I ask them what other free-agent low post player should the Bulls have signed if not Boozer?

He is only 29 years old, not an old man by any stretch, but the injuries on a undersized, less than stellar athlete at the power forward position is troublesome.

Though I can think of and have written about scenarios that the Bulls could move Boozer, their conservative trading nature says they probably won't. Bulls Nation is likely stuck with him. That may not be that bad of a hand to be dealt as long as we don't expect more than his resume promises.

Every player on a championship team doesn't have to be a defensive wizard.  If you think Dirk Nowitzki is a good defender, you're mistaken.  Boozer has long been considered a below average defensive power forward. He is and always will be 6'8" or 6'9", thick legged with moderate to below average leaping ability.

He has advanced footwork and a nice 15- to 17-foot jump shot, that if placed in the right offensive sets, he will knock down with regularity. The sooner Bulls fans and Tom Thibodeau regulate their expectations of Boozer, the sooner we'll see the true capacity of what this core can accomplish.

Boozer isn't going to turn into Bill Russell in the paint. He is what he is, an injury-prone, scoring, rebounding and poor defensive power forward. Bulls fans, there are far worse realities to accept; you could be in Cleveland.