HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Eddie Johnson

OK, so I would hope that all the Chicago fans that blasted me a few years ago when I wrote about the Bulls making a mistake by signing Ben Wallace would please apologize. Everything has virtually come true about that article. Wallace did not fit in and Ben Gordon and Luol Deng overpriced themselves and passed up good deals because they were looking at the Wallace contract. Now the Bulls are back to rebuilding and Wallace moves on to a contender. Guess what? Now you will see Wallace play like the Wallace of old with a legitimate center in Zydrunas Ilgauskas and a great player in LeBron James.

Joe Smith will help also in the interior. He is smart and steady and will be a good influence in the locker room. But the real find is Wally Szczerbiak. LeBron now has a consistent shooter that is not afraid to take the big shot and will be extremely physical, which automatically makes the Cavaliers the most physical team in the league.

Does that translate into another trip to the Finals? I don’t think so and mainly because they still don’t match up defensively with Boston and Detroit. Larry Hughes, whom I also wrote about as a desperate signing by the Cavaliers a few years ago, was their best perimeter defender and now they will be hard pressed to guard a Paul Pierce and Ray Allen combo and a Chauncey Billups-Rip Hamilton duo as well.

The Bulls have now backpedaled to where they were when Michael Jordan retired. Patience should have been preached, but the Bulls seem to be back to square one after giving up on Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler a few years ago.

OTHER TRADES

The Sonics are moving out of Seattle and creating a new identity around Kevin Durant. I really like the way PJ Carlesimo helped out his former employer by shipping Kurt Thomas to the Spurs. Thomas will provide the Spurs with everything Robert Horry used to in terms of defense and a solid threat offensively.

The Hornets are fighting all naysayers who do not believe they can continue to hold up against teams in the Western Conference and if Bonzi Wells plays up to potential, their last trade could turn out to be a steal.

Will someone please tell Chicago Bulls rookie Joakim Noah to shut up! I have never ever heard a rookie talk so much and be involved in so much controversy within the locker room. Noah, rookies are meant to be seen not heard. Shut up will you and learn.I blame this on the Bulls veterans for even allowing this rookie to feel like he is a spokesman. I remember when I was a rookie I was scared to open my mouth to say hi. I had players like Sam Lacey, Ernie Grunfeld, Leon Douglas, Phil Ford, Reggie King and Joe C. Meriweather who would slap me upside the head if I even breathed too loud.

I had to deliver a newspaper and donuts to those guys every day before they left the hotel room for practice. I only asked questions, I never suggested and I never talked loud enough to drown out their voices in a conversation.

Why?

Because as I told Scott Burrell (a rookie when I played with the Charlotte Hornets) when he asked me one day out of frustration, “Eddie, do you know everything?” I said, “No, Scott. You just know nothing!”

Scott and I are very good friends to this day and he always reminds me of that comment I made to him and today he understands why.

Rookies must learn, this is another level. Noah, I don’t think anyone has told you yet but you are not at Florida anymore. Yes, it was nice you won back-to-back titles. And yes, it was nice your team got along splendidly.

Guess what, that’s over and done with. Your reward was being drafted high and garnering a ton of attention, but now you are trying to earn the real deal contract. That is the contract that says you performed well at this level because until now the paycheck you are banking every month is based on what you did at Florida.

The Bulls don’t need a rookie explaining why he and Ben Wallace had an argument, which seems quite silly when you think about it, because Wallace has paid his dues and has a championship to boot.

Something tells me Noah feels like he knows how to win since he has two NCAA titles. Well, let’s put that team back together at this level and see where it gets you.

Here’s my advice to Noah: Just use that energy to keep improving and leave the talking to the veterans and listen because it’s called respect! Oh and yeah, please shut up.

I will use one of the funniest quotes I have ever heard in sports and only because it’s in reference to my beloved Chicago Bears. Dennis Green, the former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals went into a postgame tirade in reference to the Cardinals blowing a huge fourth quarter lead to the Bears last year and conducted a press conference for the archives, which is now a national commercial. He said, “The Bears are who we thought they were and we had them right where we wanted them, now if you want to go and crown their ass go right ahead, but we had them right were we wanted them.”

That’s the same feeling I have about the Chicago Bulls. They are exactly what I thought they were and that is good team that will fight and claw but always come up short. Still, some prognosticators were crowning them to win the Eastern Conference this year.

The Bulls are 1-5 and could conceivably be 1-9 after the first four games of a six-game road trip playing against the Suns, Clippers, Lakers and Nuggets.

Chicago fans are wondering what is wrong with the team that swept Miami last year and was beaten 4-2 by the Pistons in the Conference semifinals.

Let’s backpedal for a moment to last year…

Everyone thought the Cavaliers got a break when the Bulls blew an opportunity to play the Wizards last year in the first round, but Chicago caught a break too. The Heat proved to be just as bad as the Wizards and the proof is the fact the Heat have lost 19 out of 20 games going back to last season and counting seven preseason losses this year.

Also add the fact that the Pistons were vulnerable and the Bulls couldn’t take advantage. Just look at their meltdown against Cleveland in the Conference Finals.

So here is my point… The Bulls are not as good as advertised and it’s because of two fatal flaws that never seem to work out come winning time.

The first flaw is obvious and I wrote about it when Chicago signed Ben Wallace much to the chagrin of Bulls fans who peppered me with insults via e-mail. The Bulls have zero interior scoring with not one player on their roster that can command a post position and create high percentage baskets for him or his teammates. Wallace offers nothing offensively and his strengths are rebounding and blocked shots. Well, I am embarrassed to even mention that he is averaging 4.8 rebounds and 1 block per game.

That’s why the Bulls are shooting 38 percent as a team and rank 29th in the league in that area… Because teams are suffocating the perimeter players and daring them to drive or throw it down low to any big man the Bulls have on the floor.

Secondly, their go-to scorer is a 6-foot-2 guard, Ben Gordon , who is shooting 35 percent from the field and is averaging a paltry 2.2 assists per game – thus adding proof of how they are being defended. The Bulls have a team of hustlers and players with no star ability to score consistently and dominate. Yes, they can play defense. But really, what other choice do they have? That is exactly what Scott Skiles and John Paxson have been preaching, but this way of thinking is wrong – especially when it involves Paxson, who played on multiple championship teams and was nothing but a shooter himself.

They drafted Gordon, Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng – all of them outside scorers that can create problems. And then they signed a non-scorer in Ben Wallace and draft back-to-back non-scoring big men in Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah.

I look back at all those Bulls championship teams and see virtually all of their players with the ability to shoot the ball.

That’s why I am having a hard time understanding the method to this madness. Why do you pay Ben Wallace most of your payroll and then go and draft two clones? (Especially Noah, who might be a worse scorer than Wallace. Did I just say that?)

Listen, here is the remedy!

Paxson, you blew the chance to trade for Kevin Garnett and he might win his second MVP this season based on early season projections. And now you are hesitant to trade for Kobe Bryant.

Paxson, you need to listen to your conscience and stop listening to head coach Scott Skiles, who is intent on having 12 players who played like he did – diving on the floor and running through brick walls. Four or five of those players are enough.

You need Kobe Bryant, so put a package together including Luol Deng and stop thinking you are going to build a championship with draft picks. Superstars win championships.

The only wild card team with enough savvy and talent without a star player is Detroit and although I picked them to win the East, they will not win the championship. Boston has the best chance right now in the East.

Make your job easier and go with the superstar. Build around him. Kobe has a solid 5 to 6 years left in him to at least give the Bulls a fighting chance to win a title. If you don’t, “The Bulls will be who we thought they were, but they will never be crowned.”