Sam Smith stops his cultural stereotyping for a bit to discuss a possible Bosh sign and trade, and thinks they'll ask for Noah. Well, he didn't really stop the stereotyping too much, since he talks about the euro NBA thing the Raps have going. Of course, they're also just, you know, an NBA team too. But the real meat is about Bosh and Noah, and whether it'd be wise to do that. I tend to think not. 1. You don’t win titles with “two steps forward, one step back” moves. The reason you can’t do things that way is the talent and salary structure in the NBA. Essentially, if you have to pay top dollar up front, you can’t accumulate yourself a team that’s worth paying. 2. I think the Noah vs. Rose argument is pretty silly. I’d certainly take Rose first, but I’ll submit that Noah is absolutely essential to the team’s success. Without a good defensive big, no team will get very far. Second, there really aren’t very many good defensive bigs. 3. Relatedly, the argument shouldn’t be that we try to replicate the Pistons, but that we replicate the Celtics. Or the Lakers. Rondo ~ Fisher ~ Deng (Perimeter defender) Allen ~ Odom ~ Shooter/third scorer (our equivalent now plays in Detroit, so this is a problem to work on) Pierce ~ Kobe ~ Rose (primary outside scorer) Garnett ~ Gasol ~ Bosh (primary inside scorer) Perkins ~ Bynum ~ Noah (Interior defender) In this model, I think the Bulls are quite a bit more akin to the Celtics. I don’t think Bynum is a great interior defender, but he’s passable. I think Perkins is probably quite a bit better defensively. In any case, my underlying point would be it’s darn near impossible to imagine getting our hands on an interior defender of that caliber if we traded away Noah to get Bosh. When the Celtics traded for KG, they were perfectly willing to trade Jefferson, because his primary role was the same as KGs. Obviously KG is also a superb defensive player, but still, the fact the Celtics can put him out there next to Perkins, who’s also a wonderful defensive player, is what allows them to really suffocate teams. And if you didn’t have Perkins, such that KG had to play against huge guys all the time, and stay at home more, you’d lose his best defensive use as well. Likewise, the Lakers weren’t gonna give up Bynum or, I think, even Odom to get Gasol. Again, that’s partially defensive principle, but it’s also the two steps forward one-step back principle. To really put yourself over the top, you’ve got to take two steps forward. At least. These teams, in practice, illustrate that to win titles, you need to accomplish both points one and two. 4. Which brings us to how crazy it is to say “just play Bosh at center” next to Taj. Maybe Sam Smith whispers that sort of thing at night, but I don’t see it as a good idea, and perhaps more importantly, I doubt Chris Bosh sees it as a good idea either. Part of his obvious frustration is that his teammates are a bunch of defensive paperweights, especially up front. While Noah is a string-bean, he’s put on muscle, will continue to, and is one of the league’s best defensive bigs. This is a huge selling point. If you trade him to get Bosh, you’re likely taking away a big reason Bosh would want to come in the first place. 5. In practice, I can’t imagine any circumstance where the Bulls should feel compelled to accede to a request like this. The only other team I can potentially see offering something like this is the Lakers with Bynum, but I think if that rumor is legit it’s bad news for us in any case. Because Bosh will simply demand to go to the Lakers, and the Lakers with Gasol/Bosh/Artest/Odom/Kobe are still light years ahead of us. That’s sort of a unique situation that, if it occurs, we just ain’t gonna compete with. But if we could compete with it, the only way we’d even start is by saying we’ve got Rose/Noah/Deng. Rose/Deng on their own is going to fall laughably short.
1. Noah being essential! Amen Brother! Amen. He is. 4. Agree. We keep Noah at center, and play Bosh at pf. 5. Agreed as well. If Bosh wants LA, there is no way we can compete with a sign and trade.
1. Our style is 2 steps backward, 1 step forward. 2. Offer them Deng and/or Hinrich. Maybe Deng and Taj gets it done. Pretty much Deng and anyone but Rose & Noah and I'd be a happy camper. Problem is, we'd be hard up at SF, since we're basically really thin at the spot. We do have the cap space to sign a FA who can play SF (but who?) or to absorb a big contract in trade (Melo! I can dream...).
Better hope JJ turns into a star this summer. Call me crazy, I want to keep Taj. That being said, I would trade him in a package for any of the big three. Bosh, Bron, or Wade.
I wouldn't if I were them, but then again, I wouldn't have signed him to that deal in the first place
i wouldnt mind taking back taj and james johnson if we also agreed to swapping caledron for captain kirk as well.
Sorry. I was just really perplexed by the Hedo signing. Why bring in a declining complementary player to an otherwise young team? It just didn't make much sense to me. I'm a big believer in getting a set of guys that can play together for a while. They could have gone for guys like Ariza, Gordon or Milsap and done a lot better in my book. As it stands now, I think the best the Raps will get is a young player or pick and that nice, juicy $16.5M trade exception. For a team over the cap, that could get you a very nice player from a team that wants to shed some salary. Not sure who would be the obvious fit there, but it's probably the best they'll be able to do. Like I said, I don't see why a team would give up something of tremendous value to themselves in trading for Bosh.
Toronto has a hard time keeping American players happy. The exchange rate has historically hit players in the pocketbook, and it's Canada (a foreign country). Look at their roster and you'll see Bosh (american) doesn't seem happy there (like Vince and TMac years before), and the rest of the guys are pretty much non-americans. So Hedo fits in, in that sense.
