<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Ben Wallace was supposedly the free-agent catch of the summer. I beg to differ. Yes, he is a stud and his work ethic is a benefit for any team. But aren't we losing sight of something here? Since when do we anoint a player who can?t score, pass or shoot free throws savior status? Just think about it. How many more blocks and rebounds will Wallace garner than what Tyson Chandler used to? And how many more victories will Wallace bring to the Bulls to justify ridding themselves of Chandler and paying Wallace $60 million? The Bulls are getting Dennis Rodman... without the benefit of having Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen around. If the Bulls think Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni are the equivalent of those two great players, then somebody better wake up soon in that organization and smell the coffee. Those are very good young players, but they are not go-to players that will take the pressure off of Wallace having to contribute offensively ? like Rodman didn?t have to for those great Chicago squads. Wallace will be the highest-paid player on the team, but the fourth or fifth best in all-around skill categories. How will that discrepancy sit with players like Hinrich and Gordon? Ben Wallace will find out early how much Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince meant to him and how they hid his deficiencies. He was protected to the max in that lineup with the multitude of offensive players surrounding him. Now he has a young inconsistent team with a volatile coach in Scott Skiles to protect his weaknesses every night. I know Pistons coach Flip Saunders can?t wait to see those weaknesses exploited, thus proving to everyone why he couldn?t play Wallace consistently against certain teams down the stretch of the season and during the playoffs. Understand I am not a Wallace-basher. I think he is one of the hardest workers in the league, but there is a reason why... He has no choice. If Wallace didn?t work hard, he would be out the league. He can?t shoot from outside three feet, he has no post moves, he is an adequate passer at best and he is a horrible free-throw shooter. Wallace's attributes are great weak-side defense and tenacious rebounding. But understand this warning... If Tyrus Thomas can?t defend the ball in the post like Rasheed did in Detroit allowing Wallace to roam, then he will likely be inconsistent and stay in foul trouble ? in the end, not paying the dividends they are expecting. You have to wonder why the Pistons didn't do everything to keep Wallace. They obviously knew what they were doing when Larry Brown was allowed to leave Motown one year after winning a championship. We saw first hand with Brown why the Pistons didn?t cry and you will see again next year why they still will not pout too much over Wallace leaving. They know who their best interior player is and his name is Rasheed ? not Ben. And although Antonio McDyess is not Ben Wallace, he is a capable defender and a much better scorer. They also didn?t like the way Wallace was complaining about coaching strategy publicly. Wallace complained that the Pistons didn?t work hard enough on defense, but yet couldn?t Saunders complain that he didn?t work hard enough to improve his offense? It seemed like the player whose weaknesses were being protected the most was turning on the very hand that put players around him to secure his cult status and put him in position to earn mega millions. So now that the Bulls have invested $60 million in a player that needs more help around him than any player probably in the history of the league to justify his earnings. We will see how patient they are as an organization. And most importantly, we will see how patient those die-hard Bulls fans are now that they feel like they can contend with the best clubs in the Eastern Conference.</div> http://www.hoopshype.com/columns/wallace_johnson.htm
Wow, everything in that article is true to me. I think it will be interesting to see how the Bulls can cover Wallaces weaknesses.
Nothing that we haven’t heard from other sources ever since we signed Wallace. Now I’m going to come straight out and say it anyone who thinks Chandler is at the same level defensively as Wallace is, is somewhat delusional (or Tyson Chandler). Ben Wallace is a four time defensive player of the year Chandler is not even good enough to lace up Wallace’s shoes let alone be mentioned in the same breath as him. One thing that hurt us about Chandler was that although, he averaged a decent number of blocks they came more on athleticism than defensive instinct. Therefore, he would only play 25-30 minutes a night, because he was always in foul trouble. Paxson noted that as one of the big things that will improve our defense in his press conference today, Ben Wallace’s ability to actually remain on the court. For the people who say we overpaid for Wallace you have to really look at the numbers. We paid Ben Wallace 60 million, but dumped Chandler for two players who have one year left on their contracts. We still owed Chandler 50 million dollars over the next five years so technically, we only added ten million dollars to our cap, and that is ten million dollars that will come off our salary cap in a lesser number of years. Another huge reason why signing Ben Wallace is such a big deal is that it gives us a mentor for Tyrus Thomas. Imagine the athletic freak that Tyrus Thomas is already being mentored by Ben Wallace on defense for the next four years. Add a jump shot to that, and the sky is the limit to how good Tyrus’ can be. He has shown the ability to hit a jumper from mid range as well as three-point range thus far in summer league. Acquiring Ben Wallace makes us instinct contenders when you add what we already had on the roster to the equation. It was also a move that Paxson had to do to show the fans in Chicago he was committed to bringing a championship here to be honest with you. I have not been this excited for a season to start since we drafted Elton Brand. Although, we all know how that turned out unfortunately hopefully this story has a happier ending. The last time I remember expectations being this high where prior to the 98’ season. There are always going to be people who disagree with moves teams make be it doubters, haters, or pessimists. However, the simple fact that you are actually hearing the Bulls being mentioned as pre-season favorites to make it to the finals shows how big this move is for us. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Wow, everything in that article is true to me. I think it will be interesting to see how the Bulls can cover Wallaces weaknesses.</div> There is no weakness that Wallace has that Chandler didn't have. However, Wallace does have many things Chandler didn't have. So overall it's like trading in a mini-van for an Escalade.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">There is no weakness that Wallace has that Chandler didn't have. However, Wallace does have many things Chandler didn't have. So overall it's like trading in a mini-van for an Escalade.</div> True, but still a weakness is a weakness, just as it was interesting to watch the Bulls cover Tysons weaknesses....even though they didn't do a good job of that.....it will be interesting to see how they fair with Wallace.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Franchise4Ever:</div><div class="quote_post">True, but still a weakness is a weakness, just as it was interesting to watch the Bulls cover Tysons weaknesses....even though they didn't do a good job of that.....it will be interesting to see how they fair with Wallace.</div> To be honest with you I?m not at all concerned. To me people are just looking for any reason to discredit Ben Wallace now that he finally got his payday. None of these ?weaknesses? hindered him when he helped lead the Pistons to an NBA championship. Every player has his weaknesses I remember a while ago (last year) we had a thing on JBB where each team forum was asked to critic there star player and name their weaknesses, almost all the stars had a couple of weaknesses some enough to create two pages worth of posts.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Best Kept Secret:</div><div class="quote_post">To be honest with you I?m not at all concerned. To me people are just looking for any reason to discredit Ben Wallace now that he finally got his payday. None of these ?weaknesses? hindered him when he helped lead the Pistons to an NBA championship. Every player has his weaknesses I remember a while ago (last year) we had a thing on JBB where each team forum was asked to critic there star player and name their weaknesses, almost all the stars had a couple of weaknesses some enough to create two pages worth of posts.</div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Ben Wallace will find out early how much Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince meant to him and how they hid his deficiencies. He was protected to the max in that lineup with the multitude of offensive players surrounding him</div> The Pistons lineup was a godsend. It was perfect in everyway, To each team there is a puzzle. Ben fit perfectly in the Pistons "puzzle", if he fits in the bulls puzzle it is yet to be seen. I am not downing the man just yet but you still have to keep your eyes open to such points.
to me the reason y everyone says that Wallace is bad is because Wallace went to a team that can compete with the leagues favorites Miami, Cleveland, and Pheonix. The league always says a lot of bad un true stuff about us. The bulls went to the playoffs by a fluke etc. All we need now is a low post player and for our guys to get consistent. Come on now remember how everyone was all talking about how Ben Wallace should leave the Pistons well the Pistons now will have a hard time trying to beat Miami but now the Bulls will now be SOMEWUT like the 2004 Pistons(a team full of defensive players). if we can get a low post player and for our guys to get consistent we CAN BEAT MIAMI. If we one 2 games against Miami without good veteran leaderships, a post-player, a roster full of D-league players, a true center, a player injured for season, etc. Even during the regular season we only lost to Miami by 3 or less points. The league right now just wants to c Miami and Cleveland so they can c a battle between D-Wade vs Lebron James, of who is the best in the 2003 draft.
