|
|
|
Tuesday, October 31, 2000
Bulls: Painfully young, but looking better
|
Team page/schedule | Stats: Preseason / 1999 | Roster
Last year: 17-65, eighth in Central, 15th in conference
Coach/VP: Tim Floyd/Jerry Krause
Arena, first game: United Center (21,711); Nov. 4, 1994
All-time franchise record/NBA titles: 1,477-1,278/6
Notable: Team has sold out every home game since 1987
|
THE TOP EIGHT
|
|
Pos
|
Player
|
Key Stat
|
Skinny
|
|
PG
|
Jamal Crawford
|
--
|
Certainly has great size (6-8) for point
|
|
SG
|
Ron Mercer
|
16.9 ppg
|
This is the big free agent? Will score
|
|
SF
|
Marcus Fizer
|
--
|
Rookie is a four, but that spot's filled
|
|
PF
|
Elton Brand
|
20.1 ppg
|
An amazing rookie year, now he has help
|
|
C
|
Brad Miller
|
7.7 ppg
|
Well, he is a center; 12 ppg maybe?
|
|
6th
|
Ron Artest
|
12.0 ppg
|
Should be starting; Great defender, too
|
|
7th
|
Bryce Drew
|
5.8 ppg
|
Worried about Crawford, they got him
|
|
8th
|
Corey Benjamin
|
7.7 ppg
|
Shooting guard has showed flashes
|
|
 |
|
|
The Bulls are still recovering from the loss of championship-level players. They have won 30 games the last two years. They should improve a little this season, but they are still building the team on young players. The Bulls will continue to be a sub-.500 team. Tim Floyd is a good coach, but they need more quality
talent. They have nice, young players, but there is nobody who can carry the
franchise. Elton Brand is solid, and I expect rookies Marcus Fizer and Jamal
Crawford to make an impact. But the Bulls' best players are
either rookies or second-year players. And they still don't have a center.
|
|
|
By Jeffrey Denberg
Special to ESPN.com
The Good
Follow along. The Bulls have co-rookie-of-the-year Elton Brand and a nice young player in Ron Artest. They add a terrific guard prospect in Jamal Crawford, plus low post whiz Marcus Fizer -- among others -- out of a very good draft. They sign free agent shooter Ron Mercer, who's got a chip on his shoulder over a bad rep, and pretty good center prospect Brad Miller, who showed a lot of toughness in Charlotte. They clear money off the cap sheet by moving players who don't have a present or, in some cases, a future. Does this look bad to you? It shouldn't. Actually, it's pretty good. The Bulls got killed because they couldn't land a top tier free agent over the summer, even with a $20 million cap hammer, but Jerry Krause has put together a vital young team that has plenty of upside. And if he wants, he can go big for free agents again next season, with potentially more money than anyone else and some big time trade possibilities.
The Bad
This team is so young it's downright scary. Chaperones, please. Of course, when you have a lot of kids you want structure and the Bulls offer plenty of that with Tex Winter's famous -- in some quarters infamous -- Triangle Offense, now taught by Krause himself through his protege and coach, Tim (Pink) Floyd. As designed, the triangle gets the ball to the team's best scorers in the most efficient way possible. That's how the Bulls can funnel everything into Brand. On the opposite side, this inflexible line of attack defeats the young and the precocious. That's why Crawford, only 20 and with but 17 games of experience at Michigan, thanks to the cranky NCAA, might not be ready. Crawford rebelled in summer league and he's likely to continue complaining while pushing for a change or a trade. Floyd is 30-102. There are a few who praise him because his team is always competitive. There are more who wonder: Can this man coach?
|
THE BIG QUESTION |
|
How much longer will Chicago take this losing? The Bulls have already conceded that their long string of sellouts -- yes, there were some phantoms last season -- will end at 609 after their opener against Sacramento. As the losing grows, sales of the 200 luxury suites declines. It could get ugly around here.
|
Whose team is this?
Of course, you know there is not a single Bulls player who controls things. That went out the window when The Michael packed his gear and left the United Center for the last time in 1998. And you know that Floyd is only following orders. And you may know that chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is really a baseball guy who doesn't care much for hoops unless he's collecting the big trophy. So whose team is it? Krausie's, of course. The quick-walking, fast talking dumpy little guy whom everyone likes to dump on is the cheese here. He sets the rules, picks the players, designs the offense. Through six championships, Krause was obscured by Jordan, the only man he did not bring to the team. Now, he stands in front of the line, taking all the abuse. But one day...
| |  | |
| Brand |
How they'll play
Step together, one, two ... step two, three. Do the Triangle with me. It's cut and dried folks. We know the Bulls will compete, but we don't know whether their ability to keep games close is a tribute to their competitive zeal or a heavy dose of ennui on the part of rivals biding their time for tougher game. They showed they can feed the post and get points from Brand. Now you wonder if things will get a little crowded with Fizer. Can the two play together? The pages of NBA history are littered with teams that crowded the low block and got nothing.
Projection
Can the Bulls win 30 games? That would double their victory total under Floyd his first two years in the league. Can they do better? Not likely. They're going to be running basic stuff to integrate the new guys half the year. That's little room for the kind of spontaneity that their talent would suggest can succeed best. It's one thing to run a system for veterans, quite another for kids, some of whom haven't learned to play in more simple systems. The Bulls have taken a step forward with young talent, but you can write at least 50 losses into the book.
|
|
|
|
|
