West Coast Basketball

Which I suppose in the Bulls case means losing basketball. The losing has continued on the west coast road trip, dropping decisions against Golden State, Portland, and Seattle.3 teams that can actually be considered the lower class of the Western Conference. Although that means they'd probably be the 5th seed in the East.

The past couple games did mark the return of Tyson Chandler, and giving coach Skiles a full deck (unless you really miss Corie Blount) for the first time all season. While the games haven't produced results, its come to the point where any improvement is nice to see. And the Bulls offensively start to be playing better, with 95 points in Portland and 97 in Seattle. But just like their west coast counterparts the defense was nowhere to be found. Eddy Curry has been showing those teasing flashes of dominance lately, averaging 26 the past 2 games. He made a remarkable spin move to the basket against Seattle that was so impressive for a man his size. Its moments like that when I sit back and hope Paxson never trades him. But after failing to get rebounding position for 6 straight possessions, I'm willing to send him to the Magic for the rights to Stephen Hunter. But such is life for a Bulls fan. Every jaw-dropping Crawford drive (including ESPN's dunk of the night last night), every unblockable E-Rob jumper, and every shot altered by Chandler just makes it harder to watch the losses knowing how much talent really is there. Maybe giving Chandler time to play again with Curry for an extended period of time will help both twin towers grow and have a strong finish to the season. Oh wait, weren't we at this point last year?

On the trade front, I haven't come across anything beyond the Clippers rumors lately, but it was made official today that Jay Williams has been bought out of the remainder of his contract. The move does save the team some money, as he's getting only 3 million of what's left of his 16 million dollar rookie contract. If you remember Williams was in violation of his contract and could've simply had it terminated. The settlement was basically a PR move for the Bulls, and reportedly part of the deal is that the team will have first crack at resigning Williams if he can ever overcome his injuries. The timing of this settlement was to open up a roster spot for GM Jim Paxson, allowing him to take an extra player in a trade, or failing that someone off the NBDL scrap heap.

And as a closing note, I submit to you my observation during the game (it helps deal with the losing..) that Sonics underachieving center Calvin Booth looks like Presidential hopeful John Kerry.

   

 

Well...I see the resemblance.

Q-Tip

Looks like all that talk a few days ago about showing the Nuggets who's boss showed....well that the Nuggets were boss. The Bulls were rarely down by less than double digits the entire game. Eddy Curry had an interesting game, scoring 21 points, but only 2 rebounds. 2! Earl Boykins had 2, and he's 3 feet tall. But Eddy once again made some great moves inside, taking advantage of the smaller Nuggets defenders. But on the other side of the coin, Nene was able to bull-rush (no pun intended) Eddy and dunk over him on one occasion. Just the same old enigmatic Eddy.

But enough about the team on the floor, lets talk trade rumors! I already reported the talks between the Bulls and Clippers. But Chad Ford suggests a new wrinkle: (and no, Elton Brand isn't coming back)

The Bulls and Clippers began discussions about a week ago on a way to get big man Melvin Ely to Chicago. At the time, talk of a possible Marcus Fizer-for-Ely swap seemed to be about as far as either team was willing to go. The Clippers are trying to clear more cap room to make a run at Kobe Bryant, and getting Ely's contract ($1.7 million next year) off the books helped.

Since then, however, talk of a larger Bulls-Clippers swap has taken hold. Bulls GM John Paxson likes Clippers' combo guard Marko Jaric and has tried to get him worked into the deal. The Clippers are balking unless the Bulls throw in their combo guard, Jamal Crawford. That may be too much for Paxson to swallow. Paxson likes Jaric's tough defense and ability to play three positions on the floor, but Crawford is a high price to pay for Jaric. Clippers president Elgin Baylor likes Crawford's ability to run the point and scoring ability in the backcourt.

Can the two sides make a deal? If the Clippers were willing to substitute local product Quentin Richardson for Jaric, the Bulls would give up Crawford in a heartbeat. However, it's very unlikely that the Clippers would do that, even with the possibility of landing Kobe Bryant to replace Richardson this summer. More realistically, Ely, Jaric and Keyon Dooling for Fizer and Crawford works salary-wise and would address the needs of both clubs.

Its a fun to think that NBA GMs can be just like fantasy sports owners sometimes. "Ok, we have Ely for Fizer, throw in Jaric.....ok if Jaric's in you give us Crawford.....no if we're giving Crawford we need Richardson". If I were Paxson, I'd probably follow the same logic.

An interesting comparison is the one between Crawford and Richarson. They are both shooting guards (at least in the Bulls' eyes), and both were drafted the same year, so consequently will be restricted FAs this summer. Lets look at this years' stats:

	G	MPG	FG%	PPG	3PM	3PA	FTM	FTA	3P%	FT%	PSA
Crawford	44	34.7	0.394	16.9	87	265	98	116	0.328	0.845	0.979
Richardson	39	35.3	0.397	17.6	78	208	93	125	0.375	0.744	0.974

Now those are very similar numbers. But while the numbers are the same, one glaring difference is Crawford's love of the 3-pointer this year. He's on pace to set a Bulls record for attempts, and that is also exposing his reluctance to go to the basket, which has been the ire of Bulls fans all year. Richardson only has a few more attempts, but has played in fewer games. If you look at it in terms of playing time, Richardson averages about .7 more FTA per 48 minutes. Which I'm not sure is even significant. So from the looks of the stats, its hard to differentiate the two, but here is a stat that I like in Q's favor:

Crawford: 6-5 190lb
Richardson: 6-5 238lb

Richardson has that big 2-guard body, which I really like. Its easy to look at Jamal and understand why he doesn't like taking a beating when going to the basket, he's a big point guard, but a very thin 2.  Since point guard is the only position the Bulls have set, I would try to make a deal getting Q for Crawford as the principal players.

Naturally its easy to like other teams players better than your own, because all I see of the Clippers are highlights, and all I see of the Bulls is well....everything. So I'm way more familiar with Crawford's weaknesses than Richardson's. Perhaps some Clipper fans out there could help me out with telling things a stat line misses. While I've read that the Clippers want to re-sign Richardson (although I'm one of the few who actually believe they can get Kobe), they really need a point guard and many GMs think Jamal still has that capability. And for the Bulls, well I would just like to see Q as a true shooting guard playing alongside Kirk Hinrich for years to come.

Just Silliness, as Jerry Krause would say

I went over a few days ago how dumb it was for the Bulls to get all worked up over bulletin-board material to somehow inspire them to victory. I'm not saying the Bulls shouldn't be motivated just because their season (pretty much) is over, but in fact that they should feel this way EVERY game. And now the same kind of crap is going on for the Nuggets game tonight.

After losing their third consecutive game Monday night, Nuggets coach Jeff Bzdelik said, "It ain't going to be four in a row,'' and rookie Carmelo Anthony echoed nearly those exact words.

There's no telling if Jerome Williams brought his magic marker with him on the road, but several of his teammates laughed and had some fun with the news of the Nuggets' bravado.

"Ask them what happened to the last team that said something bad about us,'' Corie Blount said.

"I guarantee we'll win,'' Eddy Curry said. "Ask them what happened to Toronto. It's on.''

Why wasn't it 'on' last night against the Clippers? Why wasn't it 'on' since opening night? The part that hurts the most is that the Bulls were supposed to be the ones making guarantees this year.

Injury report:

• Tyson Chandler may be back Saturday
• Kendall Gill was put on the IR, replaced on the roster by Chris Jefferies
• My head hurts when I watch the Bulls