The New-Look Chicago Bulls

Republished, with permission, from the Chicago Sports Review

Thursday's deadline three-way trade by John Paxson may well go down one day as the move that saved his legacy as GM of the Chicago Bulls.

Doing the impossible and trading what is easily one of the NBA's worst current contracts allows Paxson to finally move on from the most egregious error of his tenure.

As many have said, losing Wallace is addition by subtraction, and so long as the Bulls didn't get Vin Baker back in a trade for him they would instantly become a better team as soon as he left.

What they did actually yield in the deal that also saw Joe Smith and Adrian Griffin leave town was considerably better than Vin Baker: Shannon Brown, Cedric Simmons, Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden. Somehow, Paxson managed to find somebody stupid enough to give him more talented, younger and cheaper players in exchange for Wallace.

Thank god the Matt Millen of the NBA, Danny Ferry, does his trading based solely on the whims of LeBron James.

The move is a huge positive for Chicago and a astronomical negative for the Cavs. Some may say, especially after Sunday night where the Cavs were victorious, while the Bulls lost their debut with the new players that Cleveland "won" the deal.

I'll say it now and remember you heard it here first: if the Cleveland faces the Bulls in the playoffs, the Bulls will win the series.

Now that that's established, I'll examine the skills of the new players the Bulls brought in and try to see how they'll fit with the current roster. In his comments Friday, Paxson harped on how the biggest thing about the move was giving more time for the Bulls young big men. If you watched the past two games, you've noticed just how talented the pair of Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah are. They will only get better with more minutes as the Bulls make their playoff run this year and into the future.

More importantly, though, moving Wallace, Smith and Griff means all the Bulls veteran "leaders" are gone. The younger Bulls are more talented than this trio and any success this team has today or tomorrow depends solely on its youthful core. It is time for them to take responsibility for the team's success into their own hands.

Shannon Brown

Contract:
20007/08 - $1,044,120

The Proviso East graduate returns to Chicagoland amid little fanfare. He was included in the deal only essentially to make the salaries equal out, and anything the Bulls get from him will be a bonus. Given the backlog at the guard position, and his expiring contract at the end of this year, doing anything in a Bulls uniform seems unlikely.

Just in case, though here's what the excellent folks at DraftExpress.com were saying about Shannon before the Cavs picked him 25th overall in the 2006 draft,

Strengths:

"Brown is one of the most explosive athletes in this draft, possessing good length, huge hands and excellent strength to make an impact off an NBA bench. His first step is terrific, and he finishes with reckless abandon thanks to his impressive strength, body control, tenacity and outstanding vertical leap. He's worked very hard on his shooting range to the point that he shot 39% from behind the arc as a junior. As a passer, Brown shows good awareness and is very much adept at finding the open man. He puts a lot of pride into his ability to get in right in his matchup's grill and dictate where he wants to lead them. His intangibles are solid as he's been praised for being highly coachable and an outstanding citizen both on and off the court."

Weaknesses:

"At 6-3, Brown is certainly stuck between NBA positions. He has a shooting guard's mentality, but has the size of many NBA point guards. His in-between game is underutilized, as he either explodes past his man on his way to the hoop or pulls up for a 3-pointer, but rarely utilizes the mid-range. He needs to work on creating space to operate offensively beyond just using his outstanding athleticism. Brown has been inconsistent throughout his college career, looking outstanding one night and then silent the next. He lacks the polish on both ends of the floor to truly utilize his excellent physical gifts on a nightly basis."

In a year and a half with Cleveland, Brown's only played 420 minutes in the NBA. So, needless to say he didn't do much to impress coach Mike Brown during his time there.

Just about the last thing the Bulls need is another undersized shooting guard who can't play the point. If there's a rash of injuries he may see some time, but odds are against him doing anything meaningful in a Bulls uniform.

Welcome home buddy!

Cedric Simmons

Contract:
2007/08 - $1,629,120
2008/09 - $1,742,760
2009/10 - $2,671,651 (Team Option)
2010/11 - $3,734,968 (Qualifying Offer)

Like Brown, Simmons hasn't seen too much burn in his first two seasons in the NBA. Big men do usually take longer to develop, however, and he came out as a sophomore after not really playing his freshman year. Given how little he's played and his youth, there's a solid chance he could really improve going forward.

Because I've somehow missed his career 604 minutes of action, I'll turn again to DraftExpress.com to get the lowdown on Cedric. His profile was considerably longer than Brown's so check out the link if you want more details, here I'll quote briefly from his outlook,

"Simmons is in good shape for this draft, as his combination of strengths (height, length, frame, athleticism, tenacity, attitude, budding skills, upside) is extremely rare, while his weaknesses are, for the most part, highly improvable. ... He projects as a power forward, but can certainly steal some minutes at center due to his length and athleticism in today's small-ball infatuated NBA, particularly once he adds weight to his terrific frame."

There is certainly room in the Bulls frontcourt for a cheap, defensive-oriented rebounding big man. If he works hard for the rest of this year and this off-season, there's no reason he couldn't become a regular off the bench for the Bulls going forward.

Of course, he could also not improve and disappear from the NBA quite quickly. Either way, it's always nice when you can get someone like this with high potential and low risk as a throw-in in a trade.

Larry Hughes, aka "Smooth"

Contract:
2007/08 - $12,000,084
2008/09 - $12,827,676
2009/10 - $13,655,268

Since coming to the NBA in 1998 after starring at his hometown college of St. Louis University, where he averaged 20.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG and 2.1 SPG as a freshman, Hughes has had an up and down career.

He couldn't find a way to mesh with then 76ers star Allen Iverson, and was traded halfway through his second year to the Golden State Warriors. In an interesting piece of career symmetry, that first trade of his career was also a three-team deal featuring the Chicago Bulls. GM at the time Jerry Krause refused to take Hughes back, preferring instead a 2000 first round pick from the Warriors that was used on Jamal Crawford.

In two and a half years with Golden State Hughes did nothing particularly noteworthy, though he played point guard relatively competently for a period. Being able to at least fill in at the point is a real nice aspect to have for a 6-5 scoring two guard. It speaks to Larry's all-around game.

He signed with Washington in the 2002 off-season, and his third year there was the best of his career. His PER was 21.6, which is at an All-Star level. His jack-of-all-trades game was on full display, as he averaged 22 PPG, 4.7 APG, 6.3 RPG and lead the league with 2.9 SPG. He even made the NBA All-Defensive first team.

It was that performance which caused the idiot Danny Ferry to vastly overpay for him. He didn't mesh with LeBron during his Cleveland tenure, and his numbers never equaled those he put up as a 26-year-old for the Wizards. Though, again starting as a point guard, he was good enough to support LeBron on their over-hyped run to the NBA Finals.

This year in particular was a rough one for Hughes, as many of his numbers are the lowest of his career. He's never been noted as a particularly good shooter, but this year's field goal percentage of .377 shows he's been especially bad. He was injured early on, a chronic problem for him, and he's only played a full 82 games once.

It should be noted, though, after finally returning to full strength he had been playing well his last ten games with the Cavs. His averages were 4.6 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.1 SPG and 19.9 PPG. His field goal percentage also got more in line with the rest of the career and returned to a respectable .431.

How he fits in with the Bulls this season and going forward remains to be seen. While he will unquestionably be overpaid for his tenure, I think he will be a solid addition that will fit in well with what the Bulls want to accomplish.

In Sunday night's ESPN telecast, sideline reporter Lisa Saunders revealed a surprisingly valuable insight (for a sideline reporter, who're almost always useless) she gained in an interview with Smooth. He complained that he never fit in with the role Cleveland coach Mike Brown asked of him: to be a spot-up shooter. He said he's more of a scorer who moves without the ball and within a flowing offensive system.

That's exactly the kind of offense the Bulls try to run. His defensive skills will also be much appreciated, as the Bulls have been looking for a big defensive guard since they've returned to the playoffs. Of course, they found the answer to that problem in January with Thabo Sefolosha, but there's still room for Hughes.

Many pundits have been commenting on how his arrival means the definite end of Ben Gordon's tenure. Paxson shot down that idea Friday, and I don't think he was lying. Given Larry's defensive talent and ability to play point for stretches, he actually could play with Ben. Against the Rockets, Jim Boylan put the two on the floor together for stretches and they played well off each other.

Gordon is a better scorer than Larry, while Hughes does everything else better. Actually, if Larry's arrival spells the end for any Bulls guard it's more likely to be Thabo, whose game is similar to Hughes', but not quite at his level - yet.

Player movement aside, the Bulls guard who will suffer most from the move will be Chris Duhon. He got a DNP-CD Sunday night and that figures to be the norm. If I had my druthers I'd start Du, as he remains the best pure point guard the Bulls have and the only guy who can really run an NBA offense. With him as the general, the Bulls always score better.

At the end of the day, given his contract Paxson would probably prefer to move Hughes this off-season if he could. For the rest of this campaign, I think Larry will fit in real well with the Bulls and be a big part of them returning to the postseason.

Drew Gooden, aka The Truth (*he claims this was his before Pierce), The Big Drizzle

Contract:
2007/08 - $6,400,000
2008/09 - $7,100,000

Gooden played his college ball at the University of Kansas with Kirk Hinrich. His third and final year with the Jayhawks he averaged a double-double, with 19.8 PPG and 11.4 RPG.

That was good enough to get him drafted by the best GM of all time, "The Logo," Jerry West. For one reason or another Gooden failed to live up to West's expectations, and he was traded from Memphis to Orlando midway through his rookie year.

So far in his career, that's really been the truth about "The Truth," - not living up to his potential. Whether it was in Memphis, Orlando, or eventually Cleveland, his career averages of 12.0 PPG and 7.9 RPG are not the kind of numbers expected from a #4 overall pick.

Aside from that, the player Drew Gooden is today, especially at his overly reasonable salary, is exactly what the Bulls have been looking for all season. He's a proven scorer with his back to the basket, which nobody else on the roster is, save Aaron Gray. Unlike Gray, however, Gooden's overall game is good enough to warrant extended minutes.

As he gets more comfortable with his teammates, the entire scope of the Bulls offense will change. The flashes of a dynamic inside-outside game we've seen with Gray will become the norm. No longer will the Bulls jump shooters have to work especially hard to get good looks.

If defenses play too hard on them, they can dish it inside for an easy score by the Big Drizzle. Once defenders start collapsing on Drew, he's a good enough passer to hit Hinirch, Gordon or Deng for open jumpers. And, even if they were still all shooting as bad as they were at the beginning of the year (they aren't, thank God) they would make more shots if they were open, as opposed to having a man in their face. For some reason, opposing defenses didn't really feel it was necessary to guard Ben Wallace.

Also keep in mind, that even if Gooden never lives up to his draft number, another bust - a #1 overall bust, in fact - Joe Smith, was pretty solid for Chicago this year before he got traded.

I don't know if Gooden will start or not. If he does, I hope it's at the center position, as Tyrus deserves to start and is much better as a starter. Either way, Gooden is a gigantic upgrade over both Smith and Wallace and will help the Bulls on both ends of the floor.

Écrit près Charlie Danoff --  Homepage