http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=117540 <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>"I don't really care. We got a win," Bulls center Ben Wallace said. "Whether they were in a lull or not playing well, anytime we can get a win right now, I'll take it." Ben Wallace had a couple of highlights early. He threw down an impressive dunk over Jason Maxiell and drilled a 17-foot baseline jumper. But then Wallace sat out the entire fourth quarter in favor of rookie Joakim Noah (8 rebounds, 4 points), who played well as the Bulls pulled away early in the fourth. Following the game, Wallace insisted he didn't mind a bit. "I need it. I'm getting old," he said. "Let's develop these young guys."</div> Maybe he's not such a bad guy after all.
Whatever they slipped in his juice, keep freaking doing it. I wrote the other day the only way it's going to work here with him is if he develops more of an "AD" mindset about how he's going to play these final years. He's much more effective playing hard for 25 minutes and actually dunking than playing half-assed for 35 and making people sick to their stomachs.
Yep, sounds good to me. At this point Wallace shouldn't be playing more than 30 MPG on average anyways, and while an older, less athletic Ben Wallace still has some value, the current Ben Wallace with a huge ego and delusions of past grandeur would be disastrous. Playing him this way would allow us to use him to his highest utility to the team, and helps alleviate the minute crunch and give more minutes to Joakim Noah (who I think has played well this year, despite registering some pretty high marks on the tool-o-meter). I don't think anyone at this point believes that making Ben Wallace the focal point of anything is the road to prosperity, and if he's willing to make it easy to transition from point A to point B, all the better.
Wallace for about 25-28 MPG, that would make him extremely valuable to our team if he keeps playing hard. Then post it up with Gray for some minutes, and then an energy shot with Noah (who'd also get a few minutes at powerforward next to Gray). Tyrus is the odd man out, and due to Sam Smith, and KC Johnson, he will probably be gone by the deadline. Gray/Smith/Wallace/Noah is going to be a very effective big rotation. It'll be interesting to see what the return on Thomas is. If we could get Andrew Bogut on this team, I'd be loving our team for the future.
