but I think KP!

The Bulls were always a “post player away.” But we have a GREAT big man rotation, where our greatest weakness is backup PF. And honestly I think Outlaw is starting to do a good job because when he’s on the court we may not be as strong on the rebounds, but we get great spacing on offense which Roy can always exploit. I can’t even remember who the Bulls ran with on the pivots before signing an over the hill Ben Wallace, huge difference.

All the trade rumors have us picking up a SF and a PG to make us a contender now, but honestly I think that all we need is the PG. Batum hasn’t exactly been losing us games, and neither has Outlaw IMO, at worst he’s won as many as he’s lost. The limited skill sets of our PGs is whats been the biggest hamper on this team. Blake shoots and runs an efficient offense, Sergio penetrates and finds the open man, and Bayless penetrates and robs teams of their manhood.

Because we don’t have one complete PG we do talk potential. “If Bayless/Sergio develops a three pointer,” is one example. But the Bulls would still be talking about the potential of their entire roster, including their best three players. Luol Deng is not a scorer IMO, he’s a midrange shooter, kind of like Roy minus the driving. When talk about Roy’s potential it has become more of the “what more can he do?” sentiment, which almost every month now we get a new answer to. Oh, so he can score 50, hey he was kind of close to a quad-double there!

Ultimately though, our team has “culture” ;) Our players won’t quit on Coach Mac, our locker room won’t deteriorate, rookies won’t mouth off to Monty, Dean or anyone else on the coaching staff. At this point I would be shocked to read that anyone on the roster mouthed off to anyone else in the organization at all, thank god we don’t have Noah!

It isn’t Kevin Pritchard versus John Paxson, as the deified Pritchard has time to lose his golden boy status.

It isn’t Nate McMillan versus Scott Skiles, as the latter is a more proficient defensive coach.

It certainly isn’t LaMarcus Aldridge versus Luol Deng, as they’re equally talented players.

It isn’t even Brandon Roy versus Ben Gordon, although Roy is vastly superior to Gordon.

There’s only one major difference, with that difference being the following man.

a chance when Paul went out but I didn’t realistically think we would come back from 20 down. Lucky game.

His first priority are the Sox. The Bulls come a long way behind that. And there he falls in love with certain types of players and overspends on them, then is not willing to pay other talent. He is also not willing to pay the luxury tax. Tyson Chandler went away. J.R. Smith. Ben Gordon is likely next.

KP and Paxson actually have more things in common than one might think. Pritchard has said repeatedly that he is using what Paxson (and the Spurs) did as an organizational model, bringing in young talented players with a good attitude. So far he might have been more successful, and that has a lot to do with his owner. Paul Allen is willing to spend on the Blazers first, and willing to spend on whatever talent the front office tells him is the right one.

Those Bulls teams were excellent defense teams (top 3 in defensive efficiency), but poor offensively (bottom 10 in offensive efficiency).

This years Blazers are good on offense (2nd in offensive efficiency) and so-so on defense (18th in defensive efficiency as of today).

Because the Bulls’ team was so unbalanced, once the defense started to slip they weren’t able to make up for it with their offense.

Chicago was ridiculously overhyped for a team with no real big men. Chicago also lacked the depth of Portland.

Meanwhile, Portland’s young players get antihype when they have much more room for growth than Chicago’s young guys did.

I don’t want to be the Chicago Bulls

Roy, LMA, Oden >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hinrich, Deng, Gordan

Not to mention this team is way deeper 4-15 with young talent than the Bulls ever could have hoped to have been….

I think a more appropriate comparison would be last year’s Hornets team.

Portland has all young talent and potential starters at every position.. one day.. most reasonable non-homer fans will admit that we are a piece or two away from championship caliber.. but we really mean that we are a piece or two away..

The Baby Bulls core was.. who? Deng, Gordon, Heinrich.. Thomas.. Noah… ? even now with Rose.. they are still certainly missing key pieces and you cannot even pretend that these guys could grow into a complete team.. they are (still and have been since they upset the Heat in ’07) a CORE piece or two away… PLUS being a small piece or two away like many teams are..

the bulls, they had them.

Management and coaching.

When you have an owner who doesn’t care about the luxury tax, it makes a huge difference in how the GM can acquire talent. Not having to waste 60 million on the supposed future big man is also a big deal.

But the Bulls and Blazers are 2 completely different teams. From 2004-2007 Chicago was easily a top 3 defensive team. Player development was not really encouraged by the front office, and the youngs all played big minutes simply because there were no other vets to take their minutes. While Zach Randolph was traded away to give Aldridge the starting spot, Joe Smith, PJ Brown, and Nocioni were always favored over Tyrus (who not coincidentally posted a PER of 18 in January).

I wouldn’t worry about Portland dropping off. The only concern is someone like Oden never realizing his potential because of all the expectations put on him at such a young age.

…

to compare last years team to the Bulls over hyped season. Last year we were a great jump shooting team ala the “baby Bulls” that was missing an interior presence. We made some noise but ultimately we weren’t quite good enough to get over the top. This year we score in the paint and have great interior defense, the offense is coming. I think this year we are light years ahead of the Baby Bulls."