Give Me The Rock
this is fantasy basketball
I don’t have the time (nor necessarily the willpower) to comment on all of the individual movement that is taking place. It’s certainly easier to read the myriad material that has already been injected into the basketblogosphere.
As such…
Comments on the tolling of Big Ben
Official news on Pryzbilla (too bad for the Pistons)
Commentary on player greed (or just a list of players with some number next to their names)
Let me say, as a Bulls fan, I’m not (and I quote) “jizzing [my]selves” with the signing of Ben Wallace. Sorry to all the “journalists” out there who are now predicting that the Bulls have some how magically catapulted into the stratosphere of elite NBA teams. That’s on some Icarus shit right there. Set those expectations too high and our wings are gonna burn.
I’m not saying it was a bad move, necessarily. I’m certainly glad they didn’t give him any more than 4 years. But maybe, like Nash, he’ll move from one supportive system, to another in which he can thrive and just be Big Ben.
At the same time, I just don’t see a lineup of:
Hinrich
Gordon
Deng
Chandler or Thomas or PJ Brown
Wallace
as a championship caliber lineup.
Hinrich can probably be compared to Billups on some level (but I think he loses that battle). Gordon also compares pretty favorably to Hamilton, but the height issue probably causes him to lose that matchup. Deng will be as good as Tayshaun some day, but that day is not 2006, and only maybe in 2007. Whoever plays PF for the Bulls probably won’t be as good as Rasheed Wallace. And Ben Wallace is equivalent to Ben Wallace. So, the Bulls aren’t as good as the Pistons on paper, but they do have the hunger that this year’s Pistons clearly lacked.
I’d try to run a comparison to Cleveland and/or Miami, but I get the feeling those teams are going to be making some changes (or be forced into making those changes) before October comes around. But no matter what, Cleveland has LeBron and Miami has Wade. As someone living in Chicago, I don’t feel comfortable handing the ball to Hinrich or Gordon or Deng and expecting them to score 17 points and get “star calls” to get free throws in the 4th quarter of high intensity/pressure playoff games.
We’ve seen team beat star-power before; that is true. But more recently, we’ve seen star-power beat a team (granted it was a team that turned into wallflowers after some controversial calls). I guess I’ll get more of a perspective on how this whole thing is going to work out when I start doing our Team Profiles – Fantasy Style. In the mean time, I’ll keep reading what everyone else is saying and massaging the mass quantities of data into actionable fantasy information. Cause if nothing else, MBAs are good at reading, massaging data, and creating action items in bold type.
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