Well, the Cubs are done and the Bears still are under .500. Yes, the NBA season is about to get under way, and from here, the Bulls look pretty good.
Playing in the Eastern Conference makes a difference because they don’t appear to be as good as the Suns, the Spurs, the Mavericks and perhaps the Rockets.
But when the Bulls won their first title in 1991, no one believed they could compete with the Blazers or the Lakers. If you get to the Finals, you have to play only one team, though that thinking didn’t work for the Cavs in June. And the East suddenly looks a lot better with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Zach Randolph coming over. That’s three of the league’s top 14 scorers and two of the top eight rebounders.
The Bulls are the most stable of the contenders, with most of their regulars together at least three years. It seems likely Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Ben Wallace will start together again. Only the Pistons have as much starting stability, and when you include Rasheed Wallace, who’s likely to play center, it’s difficult to describe the Pistons as stable.
The Bulls appear similar to the Mavericks when they broke through a few years ago. They did it with defense and depth and waves of interchangeable players, including Dirk Nowitzki, the reigning MVP despite a first-round playoff flop. The Bulls will have a similar game plan, though I’m interested in the power forward position, where they exchanged P.J. Brown for Joe Smith.
Brown is a better post defender. Smith, one of the true gentlemen in the league, will score more and has a good shot. But he has had physical problems in recent years as he ages, and it’s possible he’ll be an early starter and not a finisher. One would assume Tyrus Thomas would emerge, though I’m looking for rookie Joakim Noah in that spot, even though he might make Tyson Chandler’s jump shot look good.
Though he’s a rookie, Noah is older than Thomas and has played in more big games, having won two NCAA titles at Florida. He has had problems with his shoulder, but he’s a relentless competitor and has been a willing learner thus far, unlike Thomas.
Noah fits the Bulls’ profile of a hard worker who will practice more than he’s asked to. Thomas remains the exception. Not surprisingly, he disappointed the Bulls this summer by not working out here.
But I still wouldn’t quarrel with picking him. At some point, you have to take a chance on talent, potentially great talent. It often comes with risks, but if it hits it can make a difference for a franchise.
Thomas has the kind of athletic talent no one else on the Bulls has. He can do things none of the others even dream about. But players with that kind of talent often take shortcuts, and Thomas does.
Players such as Deng, Gordon and Hinrich have to work for everything to be where they are, and they do. Players like Thomas can get there without working hard or even paying much attention. Often he doesn’t. But you gasp at some of the things he does.
Noah can’t afford to take a minute off, so he doesn’t. Yes, you might wince watching him and Ben Wallace playing inside. Combined, they might not shoot 50 percent on free throws or score against one another playing one-on-one for an hour. But several coaches have told me they see Noah’s hustle and relentless play annoying the heck out of players like Rasheed Wallace, Jermaine O’Neal and Randolph, who don’t like a 6-11 gnat buzzing around them all game and running out on offense at every opportunity.
If Thomas played like Noah, it would be game over. No comparison. But he doesn’t, and no one knows when or if he can. Though Noah’s not an offensive post threat (who is on the Bulls?), he’ll score on opportunity plays. You don’t need to beat them with your starters alone.
If Noah had skipped his last season at Florida, the Bulls would have taken him No. 2 in the 2006 draft. Instead they got Thomas. It was a reasonable gamble, and now they have Noah as well. I look for Noah to make an impact with this team as a rookie. And perhaps help motivate Thomas to use more than his gifts.
Powerless
For years, former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause drafted power forwards in the hope of finding another Charles Oakley or Horace Grant. Now several are or have been in jail, while Grant lives quietly in retirement in California and Oakley doesn’t do much quietly — he is still trying to hook on with a veteran team this season (hello, Danny Ainge?).
Meanwhile, in the annals of bad Bulls scouting, Jason Caffey, their 1995 top pick who went on to sign a $35 million contract with the Warriors after leaving the Bulls, was arrested last month in Alabama for failing to pay child support, his second such arrest this year. An attorney for one of the women said Caffey owns six cars, including a $350,000 Bentley Azure.
Jailed last year was 2002 second-round pick Lonny Baxter, who was arrested after a shooting incident near the White House. And we thought that was Stephen Jackson’s job. “Two-Gun Lonnie” was on probation for a previous gun charge at the time. Baxter also was found to be trafficking in pistols and rifles, using Federal Express to ship the weapons.
The saddest story, however, involves 1992 top pick Byron Houston, 37, the career points and blocks leader at Oklahoma State. He was sentenced to four years in prison for indecent exposure after being seen in his car naked from the waist down. Houston was on probation for the same charge when arrested and jailed last month and must register as a sex offender when he is released from prison.
This was Houston’s fourth such arrest. A psychologist testified Houston suffers from bipolar disorder and drug and alcohol abuse and was subject to physical and sexual abuse as a child. Houston’s biological father, former NBA player Curtis Perry, testified for Houston and apologized for not being around to raise him. Perry, who played eight years for Houston, Milwaukee and Phoenix, asked the court to put Houston in his care and custody and said he would provide for mental health treatment.
“I don’t believe Byron’s a threat to anybody,” Perry said in court. “I think he would do very well in a situation where he gets to know me and I get to know him, based on two men getting to know each other.”
The request was denied, and Houston was jailed.
Miami musings
Shaquille O’Neal is thanking the Bulls for that first-round sweep. Sort of.
“This is the first time I’ve had time to get ready,” O’Neal told Florida reporters before sitting out practice later in the week with tendinitis. “I’ve always played through the season, and I’m always taking 15 or 20 days off just to reset my body. But when you win as many championships as I do, you’re done in June and you’re back in September. Now I had time to get ready.”
Shaq figures to have long summers for some time, with Dwyane Wade said to be experiencing knee issues after shoulder surgery that will keep him out into November. Antoine Walker was held out of early practices for not meeting coach Pat Riley’s conditioning standards, just like last season.
Riley acknowledged that his midseason break for surgery last season was also prompted by his distaste for his team. Coming off the previous year’s title, he said Heat players came into last season “with an indifference like no indifference I ever had on a team and did very little to try to repeat other than talk about it [and] frankly didn’t care.” Yeah, we noticed, beginning with the opening-night blowout by the Bulls.
Riley started practice at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 2, the first day teams could practice. Midnight Madness? The return of Riles’ boot camp? He brought in mattresses after the team’s first workout of the day so the players could nap and remain at the gym for the second. We’ll see how long Shaq goes for that. Three days, it seemed.
As the Knicks turn
Eddy Curry, weighing perhaps 280, which is said to be his lightest since 1st grade, told New York reporters he first thought about getting into a gun battle with the robbers who stormed his Burr Ridge mansion this summer. And without Lonny Baxter or Stephen Jackson.
“I had a gun in the house, so I’m thinking, ‘OK, maybe if I got to my gun …'” Curry said before apparently remembering his free-throw accuracy. “A lot of stuff went through my mind. Sitting here today, I definitely think I made the right decision by not doing anything. But after it happens, you’re like, ‘Man, I could have done this.'”
Curry said the robbers entered through his garage, the same way robbers entered Walker’s home in a similar incident earlier in the summer. Curry said he tried to talk the robbers out it by offering them money and other valuables. “But one guy was like, ‘No, we came too far, we’ve got to go in,'” Curry said.
Though Isiah Thomas’ sexual-harassment trial has dominated Knicks news, the team appears to have the second coming of Bill Cartwright and Patrick Ewing with Curry and Randolph. They couldn’t coexist. Can Curry and Randolph? The Knicks kick off the domestic exhibition schedule Monday in Philadelphia.
Around the league
Allen Iverson is saying the Nuggets could win 60 games. George Karl says he expects oft-injured Kenyon Martin to play 1,500 to 2,000 minutes for the Nuggets, most of them after midseason … The mortgage crisis you’ve heard about is playing a part in the Cavs’ failure to re-sign regulars Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is heavily into the mortgage business as the owner of Quicken Loans. LeBron James is not pleased with the situation. … Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who grew up in Northwest Indiana, is being inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. … The Pacers intend to play Mike Dunleavy Jr. at shooting guard, and the Bulls expect to use Luol Deng there with some regularity this season. … Though they didn’t get along, former Pacers coach Rick Carlisle is saying Jamaal Tinsley could have a big season under new coach Jim O’Brien, who plays a quicker, more open style that emphasizes three-point shooting. … Coach Rick Adelman has come to Houston with a more open, quicker game, leaving some to wonder how Tracy McGrady will cope, as he prefers half-court play. … USA Basketball staffers said Sonics rookie Kevin Durant was the team’s best player in some of the early scrimmages.
“Rush Street Reggie,” as Reggie Theus was known in his Bulls days, is enforcing a midnight road curfew as new Kings coach. Ron Artest said it was “reasonable.” There’s a joke there somewhere. … Artest and the Warriors’ Jackson are suspended for the first seven regular-season games for criminal violations last season. … Jackson, by the way, was named Warriors team captain and celebrated with a new tattoo with two praying hands against the backdrop of a church window. The hands are holding a gun. Of course. “I pray I never have to use it again,” Jackson explained to Bay Area reporters.
Of Bucks and megabucks
The Bucks could be a surprise team in the East. Several general managers envision rookie Yi Jianlian being a major contributor by midseason. The Chinese teenager has changed his tune about Milwaukee, which he had threatened to boycott. “It’s a beautiful city, nice downtown,” he said. “You’ve got a lake, you’ve got a river.” The Bucks need a full recovery by DePaul’s Bobby Simmons, who signed a $47 million contract, then had surgery and missed all of last season. “Right now I look totally different than last season,” Simmons said. “I worked my butt off this summer.” … Don Nelson’s new star with the Warriors is Italian import Marco Belinelli, who may start at shooting guard. “He has stardom written all over him,” Nelson said. And we thought Stephen Jackson was the ultimate “shooting guard.” … Last season Nelson lobbied the NBA to list Troy Murphy at center on the All-Star ballot because of a game plan supposedly designed for him. He then traded Murphy to Indiana in midseason.
Among the newest millionaires, Chauncey Billups makes $10.1 million this season on a $60 million deal, Devin Harris makes $7.8 million on a $43 million deal, Kevin Martin makes $8.7 million on a $53 million deal and Rashard Lewis makes $14.8 million on a $113 million deal. … Garnett got a three-year, $56 million extension from Boston, which was said to be the deal breaker for Minnesota. Garnett wanted to remain with the Timberwolves, enjoying those long off-seasons, but owner Glen Taylor decided to stop overpaying for missing the playoffs and told GM Kevin McHale to get draft choices and salary relief.
At least four teams, including the Bulls, were said to have offered superior deals to the one Boston made, though McHale is telling people Al Jefferson will be a superstar. Of course, McHale is also telling people he’s the Timberwolves’ general manager, which few believe. … Garnett, by the way, had 19 points, 16 rebounds and five steals Saturday as Boston opened the preseason with a win over Toronto in Italy. Ainge is said to have sent McHale another bouquet of roses.
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sasmith@tribune.com
