Once the Knicks finally acquire Eddy Curry and Antonio Davis, which player must step up for the Bulls? Eddy Curry was the first option for the Bulls last season, because he opened up the rest of the court for the perimeter players. He set the tempo on offense and established himself as a viable scorer on the inside. - So which player will make up for the impact Eddy Curry brought to the Bulls? - Who becomes the first option on offense now? - Will in new players improve the Bulls win total?
One Man: Andres Nocioni. Reason: He is a great defender and I think that he is ready to step it up and become a main scoring option as well. Even though they are probably going to be starting Deng, or even Thomas for that matter, I still see Nocioni stepping it up. Kirk will be the leader of the team for now though. I just don't see them doing to much this year because they lost both of there starting froncourt.
I think Chandler, Deng, and Nocioni have to step up as well as Ben Gordon. Gordon is great but he needs to be able to play 4 quarters instead of one. I'm not sure that losing Curry is going to hurt this team entirely too much because without him the focus will probably be more on perimeter play. I really hope to see Gordon and Hinrich shine this year along with Deng and Nocioni.
Hinrich is still probably going to take the load this year, but as long as the sophomores this year keep improving, then I don't see scoring to drop off too much from last year. Every one is also underrating Sweetney's offensive abilities. He gets 17 p/40min, which is second on the team behind Gordon and tied with Hinrich. His fouls will go down this year as well because Chicago is a superior defensive team and Chandler will be there to help. This means Sweetney will get a decent amount of minutes. Songaila's a decent scorer as well; he could score a bit in the paint and his mid-range game is pretty consistent.
Gordon and Deng will improve this year on offense, but I would not call it “stepping up” because they where going to do it had Curry stayed or gone. The Bulls acquired many good free agents this summer that are underrated all those guys combined scoring will compensate for whatever lose the Bulls take from not having Curry on the offensive end Songaila, Basden, and Allen will more than cover the scoring Curry gave as well as providing more rebounds
I think chandler is going to have do his offensive part now. Great D but, Curry was the main low post scorer, now Tyson should be the main low post scorer
I don't think it's gonna be one particular player. I think, when in the game, the go to guy will be Gordon. Otherwise, it's going to depend on who starts. If Gordon isn't in the start rotation, it's probably going to be Hinrich. He's primed to have another great year, might even break 20/7 now that Curry isn't there. But, like I said, it depends on who is in there. If Gordon starts, I'd look for him to be option #1 just because of his ability to create his own shot.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">What about Sweetney? I haven't seen him play at all, will he be a big help?</div> I think he will. He was impressive very impressive last night. And Isiah will regret letting him go. As for the topic, Nocioni is going to need to step up. Even with the nice shooting touch the Bulls are going to need him in the post some more. If he could develop a back to the basket game and Chandler improves on certain areas they could certainly make up for Curry absence. Not to mention, Thomas can be of some help too. He chocked for the most part of his season with the Knicks because he had so much things going on like death in his family, but as his mind became clear and he focused on basketball he was playing very well. He was scoring like the way he used to, he was rebounding and was much more into the game. So I think he will be of some help. But for the most part Andres and Tyson are the ones that are going to need to step their game up. As for Hinrich and Gordon they should just continue to do what they do. I expect Hinrich to become more of scorer this year but that's if Gordon continues to come off the bench. Does anybody know if he will be starting btw, or will Duhon continue to occupy the starting PG while Hinrich plays the 2?
