Carlos Boozer: Is the Hate and Criticism Warranted or Overblown?

Carlos Boozer has been heavily criticized even before his first game as a Chicago Bull. Perhaps tripping on a gym bag and breaking your hand isn't the best first impression. Who knew? 

However, hearing all the criticism has convinced me that we need to lay off of poor old Booz. 

When the Chicago Bulls signed Boozer during the mad offseason of 2010, they knew what they were getting. That player they were getting was not a player who would make any All-Defense teams in a rec league and a player who would struggle against players with length. 

The player we're complaining about today is the player we knew we were getting last offseason. 

Looking at Boozer's numbers, they are not dissimilar to the numbers he put up over his career. Boozer last year averaged 17.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game on 51 percent shooting. For his career, Boozer has averaged 17.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game on 53.7 percent shooting. 

Really, the scoring difference is negligible. The rebounding difference can be attributed to playing next to great rebounders like Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Kurt Thomas compared to playing next to Mehmet Okur; there are just more opportunities on the Jazz. So really the only number that worries me is the efficiency, but he still shot over 50 percent on a reasonable amount of shots. He was also shooting 53.5 percent from the field up until February, so his regular season really wasn't bad. 

The biggest criticism of Boozer is of his playoffs performance, where he averaged a paltry 12.6 points per game on 43.3 percent shooting. This performance, combined with his getting lit up on a nightly basis, contributed to his criticism. The performance itself is absolutely unacceptable, but there may be some reasons for this.

The main thing you have to look at is that Boozer was undoubtedly hurt for the duration of the playoffs. If you think back to March 21 in a game against Charlotte, Boozer suffered an injury that looked like it could be the end. While being flagrantly fouled by Kwame Brown, Boozer was pulled down and his leg looked like it could have turned the wrong direction. I personally thought it would be a classic ACL tear, but Boozer got away with only a sprained ankle.

With an injury like that, the effects don't just go away. The injury absolutely affected his performance. You don't only have to see this in his bad playoff performance, but also with his poor performance as soon as he came back from injury, averaging only 44.4 percent from the field in the month of April.

While the concern that Boozer may never be truly healthy is legitimate, blaming Boozer's effort solely on his poor performance in the playoffs is absolutely unfair.

My final point is that the Bulls may be able to use Boozer more effectively. Boozer was known for his elite pick-and-roll offense while playing with Deron Williams, but you barely ever saw a Rose-Boozer pick-and-roll. Most of the time when you saw the pick-and-roll, you'd see a Rose-Noah attack, which really doesn't make much sense.

Noah, while a very fine player, is not a pick-and-roll big man. He sets effective screens, but can't really capitalize after the pick. Boozer is most dangerous because he has two options: He can either roll to the basket—where he is one of the best finishers in the NBA—or he can pop and hit the mid-range jump shot that he is more than capable of hitting.

If the Bulls can capitalize on Boozer's greatest ability, it can only make him better.  

In general, you know what you're getting when you sign Carlos Boozer: an injury-prone, undersized, but extremely skilled power forward who won't play defense effectively. Once we can realize Boozer is making the money one-way players who are elite scoring options in the post make, we can start thinking about how to truly improve the team.