nitetrain8601

Looked it up this year, Boston was ranked #2 defensively in Opponent's Points Per Game while ranking 11 offensively. SAS were ranked 2nd in defense, but 4th in offense. MIA the year before, 5th in defense, 10th in offense SAS the year before that was 1st in defense, and 8th in offense. I looked for just the past 10 years, but only 3 teams rated #1 overall defensively won rings. The most dominant team of that era, the LAL were 1, 19,7 in the 3 years they won the championship, defensively. Meanwhile in those same years, they were rated 4, 2, and 2 in those respective years offensively. Again, balance wins championships and history shows that. Not just defense, and not just offense. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

For people who say Gordon isn't clutch anymore, only LeBron, Kobe, Dirk and Manu were better scorers in the clutch. Deng is nowhere near 5th. http://82games.com/CSORT11.HTM As for top defensive teams winning the championship, um I'm pretty sure Boston didn't suck on offense or was even in the middle of the pack. Same goes for San Antonio the year before. I'd venture to guess, the champions for the past 25 years were above average offensive squads. And I'd venture to guess, not all of them or even half of them were #1 rated overall defensively.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 02:43 PM) That nitetrain post didn't merit a respone... Anyways, I already know the real answer, but I sure do hope pax actually has made some sort of real effort to maybe aquire Josh Smith. It's just too bad they're set at both guard spots as packaging tyrus and gordon and/or hinrich along with picks would have been nice to get him. I don't really know the financial paramaters, though. Still, if they're looking to unload him, pax should be trying. I doubt it, though. He had a hard enough time with the two obvious moves he needed to make this offseason (drafting Rose and extending Deng)... Your post doesn't deserve a response, but I'll respond anyway. Josh Smith is 99.9% unattainable for the Bulls. Not even worth looking into because if a S&T is done, he has BYC status. Read the CBA, find out salaries and tell me one way in which a Josh Smith is available for the Bulls. Nevermind that though, let's guess, he could be a big SG for the Chicago Bulls, though he would be playing out of position. At least he would be a great defender. Yes, because even after being rated #1 overall for 3 years in a row (with Kirk guarding SG's and Ben guarding PG's), that got us 3 championships. Oh wait, it only got us 1 playoff round victory. That's the problem with Chicago teams in general, fans love to concentrate on defense, defense, defense, because it shows off work ethic somehow, but don't want to think or realize that you can be rated #1 overall and still not win s*** if you have no offense which is the problem with the Bears and Bulls and was the problem with the Blackhawks when Dale first took over. Defense doesn't win championships, balance does. And the reason why I think Gordon should get the same contract if not more is because he has proven to be this team's best player over the past 4 years. He's had the team's best work ethic, and has improved his defensive game, regardless of the false facts some fans want to hang onto saying Scott Skiles knows nothing about defense or the Bulls. He's also a lot more dynamic of a player than Deng is. The problem is not Gordon wanting more, the problem is the Bulls rewarding Deng for a s*** season and way overpaying him.

Well reading the same article, it gave me the idea of going after Zach Greinke. It would take a bit, but I think for this team, it would be worth it. I also think he would come cheaper than Justin Duscherer.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 12:41 PM) I dont remember Skiles ever talking about Gordon being an elite defender ever. I remember him talking about Kirk that way, but never Ben I didn't say elite, I said above average. He's said it a couple of times in post game interviews when he's guarding PG's. He's also been quoted in the Sun-times before talking about how Ben really had terrible technique defending his rookie year but has really improved to the point where he's not a liability and actually is above average guarding the 1 spot.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 11:56 AM) What's Scott Skiles doing these days? Um, coaching in the NBA.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 11:52 AM) Did you seriously say Ben Gordon's defense was above average? He is easily the worst defender on the team. Unless being caught 8 feet out of position and leaving your guy wide open behind the 3 point line counts as "good defense" because you had the presence of mind to hurry back and fail to block it. Sorry but Scott Skiles, seems to disagree with you. And it's against PG's as well.

QUOTE (DBAH0 @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 11:44 AM) You gotta feel sorry for Hawks fans. Just when it looks like they're on their way back to respectibility, they blow it all because they didn't want to re-sign their RFA's. Smith with the Warriors would eb fun to watch. Would involve Al Harrington would be my guess and some future firsts at least. Probably not enough though. Don't know if Miller would be the best fit for the Bulls, as he's pretty soft defensively and pretty injury prone. For that deal though, I think they have to pull the trigger. Also on Kirk, Denver has that trade exception they can use if they want. Bulls could always deal Kirk for a future 1st and a good young talent, and then re-sign Gordon if they wanted to. True, but I just noted both because if it came down to both Miller and Camby, I pick Camby all the way. Josh Smith trade involves Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Perovic anda 1st round pick.

Some news and notes as well, GSW is working deeply with Atlanta on a S&T for Josh Smith and the Bulls are looking to trade Cedric Simmons, Andres Nocioni and a 1st round pick for Brad Miller. Sac wants Noah to replace Simmons. And Bulls had a chance to trade Hinrich to Denver for Camby and thought about it too long. Denver presented them the idea, Bulls were taking too long, so Denver made the trade with LA.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 11:02 AM) Deng has a tremendous attitude, has continued to work out and improve and had a down season and still put up pretty good numbers. The kid is going to be a very good player and I still believe that him and Sefolosha will be the best Bulls long-term (yes, thats right, I'm not slurping Derrick Rose). Um, Deng has not improved his game in the least bit. In fact, he's gone backwards. At least in his rookie season, he hit 3's. All Deng does is move great without the ball. He can't post up, he doesn't hit 3's anymore, he jacks up that stupid long 2, 1 foot inside the 3 point line on fastbreaks. He doesn't rebound at a good clip. And the guy does not have the mentality to lead or takeover games. 6 years for 71 million is a ton for someone with that many problems considering he's not even a big man. Now if he meets incentives, the fact that it can go all the way up to 81 million is flat out ridiculous because he's not that good of a player. As for Gordon, he thinks he deserves at least Deng money. I agree. At least he is dynamic offensively. He's been the team's best player for the past 4 years. And when he's stepped on the court, he's had the most impact. And despite what everyone thinks, the Bulls have done the best while Ben was starting, not on the bench. His defensive has gone from very poor to above average(according to Skiles), and he still put up arguably better numbers than Deng last year in a terrible offensive system while being injured as well. Put Gordon in GSW's system, and I guarentee he averages 25ppg. In fact, look at the top 25 efficient scorers, and Ben is on that list with nothing but all-stars. If you let Gordon go, you're not going to be replacing him with something as good and that's a fact. If he was a two way player, he would be considered untouchable. Oh yeah, last but not least, the Bulls were the #1 rated defense 3 years in a row before last year. We got 1 playoff round win. What this team needs is balance, not super defense at every position(which despite what many think, Deng isn't great defensively as he's pretty slow for his position. Taking away your best offensive player by far, you're really moving far away from offense. Especially you're only guy who can hit an open 3.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 08:52 PM) Thornton has a slider? Whoa whoa whoa, I said Poreda doesn't have as good of a slider as Thornton, I never said Thornton's was good.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 08:49 PM) Everything about Poreda screams "Thornton clone" Really? It screams poor man's Thornton to me. He doesn't have the slider Thornton does IMHO. If only one of them developed a good changeup, they would be devastating.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 29, 2008 -> 08:45 PM) Sounds a lot like Poreda Poreda is a stud. You kidding me? Guy is awesome. Until we trade him that is, then he's another De La Santos who everyone will say, "I always thought he was a bullpen guy anyway".

Swish at least is really great defensively at 1B. PK has nothing in the tank it looks like. BA is excellent defensively in CF. And he gives you some occasional pop. It'll never happen, but it would be nice if Ozzie just tried it.

I just wanna say, BA would be a .400 hitter, with a .500OBP, 47HR's and 189RBI's if he started everyday. BA > Alexei.

PK needs to be the team's #9 hitter. BA all day, everday over him!

Guys, he's a grinder!

In short: Konerko blows Swisher blows Uribe blows We should hate on all blowing people. Rebuttal, not ones who play a good defense.

Well to be fair, they're supposed to have some interesting games this year. Last year though, seriously it was probably the boringest sports channel I ever watched in terms of actual games.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 03:57 PM) Way to not make any sense. How didn't I? Northwestern, Minnesota, Penn State, Michigan are teams that are on that channel from what I saw this past year. Pretty boring. Only decent thing was Kendall Gill.

His fastball according to WGN is around 86mph. That's the only pitch he seems to be throwing for strikes. His curveball isn't even close to hitting the zone. He's not using a changeup. And he's dicking around a ton.

QUOTE (South Side Fireworks Man @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 12:45 PM) If the Sox don't score, Javy will hold the Tigers down. If the Sox score one, Javy will give up two. If the Sox score five, Javy will give up six. So there going to score again and we'll score one? Javy is blowing hard right now. Falling behind almost every hitter.

QUOTE (joesaiditstrue @ Jul 27, 2008 -> 11:27 AM) I see us going 6-5 or 7-4 in the remaining games vs the red sox and yankees, that's my prediction i see us playing a little more closely against the angels, winning 1 or 2 of those games, and the same for the oakland series I see it being a tad more difficult than that.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jul 26, 2008 -> 07:58 PM) Missing your team's football and basketball games makes it a good enough channel for me. I guess Northwestern vs Penn State is a big time basketball game for some people after all.

QUOTE (rangercal @ Jul 26, 2008 -> 09:09 PM) a little delay for you? lol Yeah, but at the same time, Bobby isn't dominant in the least bit like he was on 05 and that correlates with him no longer that unhittable heat.