Sports 4 Dorks

We’re going to try another
liveblog tonight, from the United Center in Chicago,
and we’d truly appreciate it if you’d swing by and leave a comment or 14.

Chicago is coming off their best game of the season, a
30-point thrashing of the Miami Heat that was only notable for its emphasis on
the repetition of the premise that the Miami Heat are always good for
what ails the Chicago Bulls.

Honestly, the most surprising thing to come
out of the Chicago camp recently is the Chicago
Tribune’s Sam Smith, and his complete
about-face on Chicago’s kiddie corps:

"The Bulls went for
Tyrus Thomas, I believe, because they didn’t have a great athlete who projected
as a star. So it was time to take a chance. It looks like a miss now, though I
haven’t given up on Thomas and would like to see him get regular playing time.
With some strength, he might be productive at power forward."

Sam? Seriously? Welcome to our warm, little world. Where we
much prefer Joakim Noah’s 14 points, 11 rebounds, and two blocks per 40 minutes
to Ben Wallace’s 5.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, and two blocks per 40 minutes.

After an 11-6 December (even while playing 10 of 17 games on
the road), the Warriors have trudged through a 4-4 January. With games against
current lottery denizens in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minnesota
coming up, the team has a chance to buttress its record before plying its trade
against more suitable fare from Houston,
New Jersey, the suddenly-solid
Knicks, and the Hornets.

The game is nationally televised on ESPN at 9:30 p.m.,
Eastern, and we’re hoping to have a post up a good half-hour before that.

Chicago: 15-22, 90.5 possessions per game (13^th
most in the NBA), 103.1 points scored per 100 possessions (27^th),
107.1 points allowed per 100 possessions (13^th).

Golden State:
23-17, 97 possessions per game (3^rd), 111.3 points scored per 100
possessions (6^th), 109.5 points allowed per 100 possessions (24^th).

UPDATE: We do have to take issue with some points from Sam’s column …

"When the Bulls signed Wallace, he was the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year. He had won the award four times and was coming off a Game 7 loss in the NBA Finals with the Pistons."

"Coming off" only works if he means "it happened 13 months prior to the signing."

Really, Wallace was coming off a submarine job of Flip Saunders, the fifth pro coach (Bernie Bickerstaff, Doc Rivers, and Jim Boylan appear to have been spared … thus far) he’s done that to, and an Eastern Conference finals loss to a Miami Heat team that the Pistons should have beaten handily. 

"[Wallace] was replacing Tyson Chandler, then the object of fan fury. Chandler, the conventional wisdom held, was mentally weak and always in foul trouble, accounting for a huge disparity in free throws.

It’s no coincidence that Chandler’s increased production with the Hornets comes while playing with a great point guard, Chris Paul. It makes all the difference for big men.

With contract extensions coming, 2006 was the last summer the Bulls would be under the salary cap. The alternative big men available were Nazr Mohammed and Joel Przybilla.

The signing of Wallace and subsequent trade of Chandler were widely praised."

Not by me.

I knew that Chandler would perk up as he got older, and return to his 2004-05 form once he got in better shape. He was out of shape in 2005-06 after staying away from the court while waiting for a contract offer from the Bulls, and Chris Paul’s presence has no bearing on how well this guy rebounds and plays defense.

Nazr and Przybilla are both playing better than Ben Wallace right now, and we’ve ignored both Chris Wilcox and Drew Gooden (two power forwards, both available in 2006, who could have played with Chandler). For Wallace’s price, the Bulls could have gotten two players at the same time, while retaining Chandler, that are contributing more per-minute than Ben Wallace right now.

UPDATE: 9:40ish, and I’ve just returned from bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-65 and a near miss accident (a car jumped the median and crashed into the side of the car stationed next to ours), and decided to call the trek to the United Center off. Icy roads, 45-mph traffic, no reason for it. We turned around on the first exit we could inch toward and came home. 

My apologies to whomever was looking forward to the liveblog, but I’m a bit shook and calling it off. There will be others, I hope.