Chicago Bulls lost a heartbreaker tonight, but in the 4th quarter it was hard NOT to see the end coming. The game started out with a great flow, with the Bulls up by nearly 20 for most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah provided a great tandem on the boards, grabbing a combined 15 rebounds, with Gooden having a 16 point game(sidenote: this could turn out to be a great trade if Gooden and Hughes keep performing like they have). Other positives came in the form of some key shooting from Thabo, who tallied 20 points, and Luol Deng who had 21 point game. It all seemed to unravel in the 4th quarter, however. With the Bulls up by 18 points with about 11 minutes to play, the Sixers staged a comeback. Led by Rodney Carney coming off the bench for 12 of his 18 points, including 3-3 from beyond the arc, and 76er's star Andre Igoudala having a 25pt/8 reb game, Philadelphia came back to stun the Bulls 110-106.
The Bulls look like they have a bunch of pieces in order to be a contending team, however the few things they are lacking are huge, essential pieces. Basically, let's look at what is positive that they have. For starters, they have many offensive weapons all over the floor with huge potential: Gordon, Deng, Thomas, Noah, Gooden, Hughes, Nocioni...All they need now are two key factors, and they may already have one. One essential piece is a true point guard who puts scoring second. Looking at some of the key PG's around the league (Nash, Kidd, Paul) we see that the Bulls are lacking someone who can be comfortable with the ball (Hinrich had four turnovers tonight) and be an elite playmaker. So, the Bulls need a PG that can take advantage of all the offensive weapons, and know how to get the ball to each player effectively. The other key piece missing is a guy who can take the ball anywhere around the post and jam it home for a score. Watching the Suns-Warriors game the other night, I saw play after play of Amare just elevating over everyone and dunking. Now with the Bulls, they could potentially have two of these types: Gooden has showed promise in the post and Ty Thomas has shown that he can elevate and jame, but they are not as consistent as some options we could have had. If the Bulls could have pulled off a trade for players like Kobe or KG, many of there problems could have been fixed. Unfortunately now, however, we need to wait for resources such as the draft, future trades, and free agents to address these two needs. Hopefully we'll see some promise for the future. Maybe the Bulls will sneak into the playoffs in the dismal East's bottom half, and maybe next year will bring new things. That's really where this team is right now; confused to find it's identity, changing lineups on the floor every two seconds, and experimenting to find the right mix.
Bottom line: rough night for the Bulls. They used a bunch of players (though not always the right ones at the right times--where was Noah for most of the second half?). They need to figure out an identity, and in order to do that they might need either a true superstar with "liftoff," and/or a classic point guard with playmaking ability to utilize all offensive weapons.
With this pick, the Bulls have gained the potential to improve drastically next year. They can now draft one of the two elite players in the June's draft: Derrick Rose, PG out of Memphis, or Michael Beasley, PF out of Kansas State. Then, the pick would give them flexibility to trade a couple of guards/forwards they already have for other key pieces. It is still early, but at this point I would choose Rose; the Chicago kid looks poised to follow in Chris Paul's and Deron Williams' footsteps as the next elite, NBA point-guard to lead his team to big things.
