Eastern Conference Preview - Part 2 Happy Opening Night! now on with the preview... 10 - Toronto Raptors Just look up a season preview from the past couple of years….will Vince stay healthy? If though, then the Raps can contend for a playoff spot. But they're not as good as their playoff run from 2 years ago even with a healthy Vince. Antonio Davis will continue to be a distraction until he is shipped out of town. One bright spot though could be rookie Chris Bosh, the 4th overall pick who's trying to be the second coming of...Tyson Chandler. They don't have much other scoring help out there for Vince, so its possibly gonna be a long season. And if Vince gets hurt, it'll be a long and *boring* season. Although not as long and boring as this team preview was. 9 - Miami Heat The Heat have assembled a good core of young players in the past few years, namely Caron Butler, Dwayne Wade, and now Lamar Odom. Add that to holdovers (read "contract albatross") in Eddie Jones and Brian Grant, and that's a good start. A good start to 9th place in the East. They could win some games, but there are still a lot of questions. Who exactly is gonna play the point. I suppose Wade or Odom, but neither is a proven (or traditional) point guard. And for those teams with size, the Heat are in real trouble. I mean their front line outside of Brian Grant is AWFUL. Samaki Walker and Loren Woods awful. And losing your hall-of-fame coach a week before opening night isn't gonna help. Its fun to see the Heat and Knicks being so bad after they almost ruined basketball forever in the mid 90's with their thug-ball. The Heat have the decidedly better future than the Knicks though, especially if they could find someone to take Eddie Jones off their hands. 8 - Boston Celtics Yes, they would've ranked higher if they hadn't done the Walker trade. But I still think that was a good trade for the Celts. Walker will soon find out like Kenyon Martin did that 20 and 10 is fine and good, but you need to be a special player to get a max extension (Shawn Marion notwithstanding). And Walker is the kind of guy who would let management know how he felt every step of the way. And while Raef LaFrentz has a bad contract, he's still a solid player. And If you've seen the new slim and trim Vin Baker, it may be 1998 all over again for the Vin man. But even after counting on LaFrentz and Baker to produce, Paul Pierce will still have to score 40 points a game. And he just might. Oh and by the way they have no established point guard either. And this is a playoff team (maybe). Oh...THAT'S why they call it the "Leastern Conference". Teeheehee, now I get it. 7 - Orlando Magic This team is practically a mirror image of the Celts. They have one star, and not much else. McGrady is an even more prolific scorer than Paul Pierce, but he possibly has even less help. They signed Juwan Howard in the offseason, but they already had a similar player in Drew Gooden. As far as traditional big men they're very sparse (like most teams), and like other teams they don't have a legit point guard. Makes you wonder how valuable Jay Williams would be just about now. I mean if he could walk and stuff. (rim shot). What the Magic do have is "G-Force" Gordan Giricek, and you know what? That's good enough for me. Expect McGrady to carry the load once more…and become the KG of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. 6 - Chicago Bulls That's right. I'm putting the Bulls this high. #6 in the conference. Yes its because I'm a Bulls fan. But look at all the teams behind them. They're all severely flawed as teams. The Bulls are the most offensively complete team on the list so far, so that's why they're #6. You can argue that the Celts or Magic could have a better year based on their star power, but in reality there isn't much difference between their expected records, and you could have each of them 6,7 and 8. Make no mistake, I EXPECT the Bulls to make the playoffs, and if they don't blame must be placed on either Cartwright or the personnel. I'm not really sold on Cartwright yet, especially in his rotation decisions, but perhaps not having to worry about playing Jay Williams and a new group of Vets will help out. This team has loads of talent, and just needed help in learning how to win those close games that they seemed to throw away so many times last year. With Pippen and Gill now on the team, along with Rose and Marshall, the team has a core of productive veterans (not just old bench-warmers) who can take this team to playoff level. This is far from a guarantee however, if the team starts off badly before the yearly "West Coast Circus Trip of Death" things could go sour quickly. Of course there are always injuries to worry about, as has been already shown in camp with Rose, Chandler, Fizer, etc. All those factors considered, the present and future of the Bulls comes down to the "C-Unit" (I read that somewhere) of Chandler, Crawford, and Curry. Its easy to extrapolate their performances in the latter half of last year, but remember that most of the teams at that time have given up. The true test in the teens' progress will be this year. No Excuses :) The top 5 tommorow....

Eastern Conference Preview - Part 1 Well there's enough Bulls team previews out there, notably the one by Mikey from a few weeks ago. I thought I'd change gears and run through the 'competition' in the East. Notice the quotation marks there, they infer that the Eastern Conference actually blows. away we go! 15 - Milwaukee Bucks Startin at the bottom. The big 3 which was one game away from the NBA finals 2 years ago is all gone with the final piece shipped away when Sam Cassell was dealt to Minnesota. George Karl was paid some money to go replace Tim Hardaway on ESPN (and I thank them for that). The Bucks are left with a few talented young wing players in Michael Redd, Desmond Mason and Tim Thomas. The point guard of the future is there in the name of TJ Ford, a name that gets Dick Vitale a little excited in that special place. But they have no size to work with at all. And even less after paying Anthony Mason and Jason Caffey's bus fares out of town. They will battle with Utah for the worst record in the league. (or as I call it, the Pavel Podkolzine lottery) And as you will see Utah will have a huge advantage cause they don't get to play in the East. 14 - Cleveland Cavaliers Putting the Cavs this low doesn't mean I'm hatin' on LeBron. There's no doubt in my mind that LeBron will be special soon. For all those who group him with busts coming out too early and not knowing the game, what separates him from most prospects is that he does know the game, where to be on the floor, and how to find his teammates. As a team though, the Cavs have a lot of problems. As good as LeBron is, he'll need some adjustment time. Darius Miles has still yet to prove anything. Dajuan Wagner is having more knee surgery, and my man Big Z is always an injury risk. This team definitely has talent, but I can't see them winning many close games with so many young players on the court. Hmmm..I don't think I mentioned LeBron James' name enough. I guess I'm guilty of over-hyping him, and now Jay Mariotti will be at my door soon with some sort of blunt object. 13 - Atlanta Hawks Whoo-wee the Hawks are bad. For some reason last season when they traded for Glenn Robinson I bought into the Lon Kruger playoff guarantee. Well, one year later, and not only is Robinson gone to the Sixers, Kruger's gone too! So based on that you can pretty much guess how the year went. The Hawks still have not-quite-stars in Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Jason Terry, and an actual legit center in Theo Ratliff. I'm looking forward to see Eddy Curry match up with Ratliff this year, cause last year old Theo put Eddy in the hurt box. That puts me right there with the 600 Hawks fans left in Atlanta. 12 - New York Knicks Yes, I hate the Knicks, that's why I put them here. However, I also put them here cause they're really bad. Scott Layden refuses to give up and rebuild, continually bringing in more players with more contracts and hoping simply to compete in the East. Which isn't much of a long-term plan. Instead of following up a good draft by dealing Spree for Terrell Brandon's expiring contract and much needed cap relief, Layden instead made it a 4 way deal so he could get...Keith Van Horn. Van Horn is a good player, but like most of the Knicks, severely overpaid. Getting Mutumbo does get them bigger, but signing Dalibor Bagaric would've also gotten them bigger, and neither move gets them any better. They have no starting point guard (sorry not even Frankie Williams), but what they do have is a potential starting 5 of undersized power forwards: Thomas, Sweetney, McDyess, Harrington, Weatherspoon. Oh I forgot, McDyess is still injured and Othella Harrington will be traded to the Bulls for Jamal Crawford. But a man can dream. 11 - Washington Wizards If there's a Wizards team, without the Jordan "last time for the third time" tour, can you still hate them? Instinctively I'll probably still wish they lose every game, but now that the sideshow is gone the team can be re-evaluated. They've signed their most acclaimed free agent in Gilbert Arenas AFTER Jordan leaves. But is Arenas' breakout year last year mean he's ready to have a team built around him? Jerry Stackhouse (when he gets healthy) returns after realizing he was gonna get little on the free-agent market, but both him and Arenas need the ball to thrive. The key for this season and the future will be Kwame Brown. Under a new coach not putting him in the doghouse every other week, Brown has the opportunity to finally show why he was the #1 pick 2 years ago. Watching him have a couple of good games against the Bulls last year showed me that he has the talent to still be special. Other young big men include Brendan Haywood and Jared Jefferies (remember him?), and all will be counted on to make this a successful year. New coach Eddie Jordan will try and employ the same up-tempo scheme that he ran with Jason Kidd and the Nets. It'll be interesting to see Arenas trying to run that show, but unless one of their big men make the leap, the team is still years away. -to be continued...

Hassell Waived I'm sure most of you know this already, but yesterday the Bulls cut Trenton Hassell, effectively keeping undrafted free agent Linton Johnson on the roster. Well...for now.

Johnson, a 6-foot-8-inch forward and the nephew of former Bull Mickey Johnson, will begin the season on the injured list. He also may not last the season because his minimum contract doesn't become guaranteed until Jan. 10, and the Bulls are in the market for a front-line player.

Even though the Bulls showed they could use a 6-8 player more than 2 guard like Hassell. What they REALLY could use is a big stiff to at least give Curry some hassles (no pun intended) in practice. So I guess Pax will be looking at the cut lists from other teams. notes -There have been lots of rumours floating around mentioning Bulls players in various trades. The most outlandish was the Knicks offering Othella Harrington for Jamal Crawford. Scott Layden reminds me of that guy in your fantasy baseball league who you dont even want to discuss trading with cause he only has crap and that's what he offers. I've also been reading about Donyell Marshall being on the trading block...which as I stated yesterday was a bad idea. -As of now, everyone is scheduled to be healthy on opening day. But that could easily change, especially with Chandler (back), and Hinrich (flu). -In lieu of doing a season preview (which you can read on those links to the left...they do a good job), I'll be doing Eastern Conference playoff predictions. Basically saying that all the teams are bad.

The Expendables Chad Ford today was going over who is possibly on the trading block due to position logjams and of course....salary. And with the Bulls' logjam at the 4, you could see where this is goin:

Marcus Fizer and Donyell Marshall, Bulls Fizer and Marshall appear to be the odd men out in Chicago with the emergence of Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, Lonny Baxter and the signing of Scottie Pippen. GM John Paxson would love to move Eddie Robinson and his terrible contract, but right now there aren't any takers. However, Fizer and Marshall both have value. Fizer has logged several solid games for the Bulls this preseason and appears to be completely healthy. Marshall is a versatile veteran who knows how to score and rebound. The best part? Fizer's contract is up after this season and Marshall has just two years remaining on his.

I just don't like ever seeing the 'emergence' of Lonny Baxter. I still view Lonny as a 10th man, and unless he grows 4 inches, he will always be. But that's just me. If the team really views Lonny as being as a worthy replacement for Fizer or Marshall, than seeking out a deal wouldn't be a bad idea. However, given the choice between the two, I would deal Fizer. I am a big Fizer fan, but him and Lonny are similar players, undersized scorers off the bench. Marshall however is a veteran, which should be a premium on this team. He's a better defender and rebounder, and dealing him now would be a mistake in their playoff quest. I just don't see Lonny being nearly as good a player as Marcus Fizer. Just watching them play it seems like Lonny could do the things that Marcus does, but not as well. Marcus is an explosive athelete, while Lonny has trouble jumping over a piece of paper. He may be able to rack up the points in the summer league, but he's just outmatched in this league. notes - E-Rob played yesterday, and watching the game I even saw him hit a couple of jump shots. Which made me with I had a VCR hooked up. - I havent mentioned Linton Johnson all preseason, cause basically I thought it was a non-story. But last night he was playing while Trenton Hassell didn't get off the bench. So draw your own conclusions... - The Bulls Reporter has a nice analysis on Chandler's back. Like a real diagnosis. I'd probably just say something dumb like "doctor says he needs a backeotomy!"

My Man Sam, Back Shootin' the Shit Well at least in Sam Smith's latest column he admits "here I go again". He's back pitching crazy suggestions to Bulls' management in the Trib. I like Sam alot, I think his columns are very entertaining and he definately knows the NBA, but he's one step below only Peter Vescey when it comes to outlandish rumours. Here's todays:

Finley, the veteran from Proviso East, has five years left on his contract averaging about $16 million. The Mavericks would like to get rid of that, and part of the Walker trade was to move LaFrentz's large contract. For all Mark Cuban says, he's cutting payroll as well. It would be hard to imagine Finley being worth $18.6 million in 2007-08 when his contract expires. But at 30, he should have several good years left. And he's the kind of rugged veteran defender the Bulls crave. And his salary happens to match up almost exactly with that of Jalen Rose, who has one fewer year on his contract than Finley. Though they're optimistic about Rose this season, the Bulls believe they have enough scoring with their young players. They've been looking for veteran defensive help. Hello, Pax. You listening? Jerry Krause never did.

Pax is probably hearin ya Sam...but hopefully not 'listening'. It's not that this trade wouldn't be a good idea for the Bulls. Finley would be a better fit for this team right now than Rose, he's a better defender and team player. My point is simply why would the Mavericks ever do this trade. Sam says the Mavericks would like to get rid of Finley's salary, yet their taking back a player who has a salary that's nearly equal both in cost and duration. And what else would the Mavericks need but another guy who won't guard anybody and needs the ball? Chad Ford agrees with this, referencing the column today and adding:

Rose is too selfish for what the Mavs are trying to do. Finley will put the team before his own shots. Rose has been unable to do that in Chicago. The one guy the Mavs would love to have is Eddy Curry of the Bulls. It's hard to believe that Chicago would give him up to Dallas for anything short of Nowitzki, however.

This quote is too hard on Jalen though, who has been unable to defer shots cause nobody else wants to take the tough shot. This year will be his test in that regard. And secondly, no crap the Mavs would love to have Eddy Curry. That's the problem here. The Mavs need size and while the Bulls have a lot of 4s, only Curry is a true center. And theres no way the Bulls ever trade Eddy Curry. well maybe for Dirk :) So thanks Sam for stirring the 'ole pot....but besides good conversation there wasn't much to offer.