<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zards @ Jun 16 2007, 12:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>In all honesty, I see Chicago being the best team in the East next season. I mean come on, they already have a young and improving point guard in Hinrich, a long range shooter in Gordon, a versatile scorer in Deng, and their anchor on defense in Ben Wallace. Not to mention they have great role players who contribute night in, night out (Nocioni, Brown, Ty, Duhon, Sefolosha). They are a very deep ball club. All they need to do is add some more experienced NBA veterans around their young core and they could very well be a 60 win team next year. (Note: They also have the 9th pick in a stacked draft this year, and they could land a big man who can score in and out of the paint, maybe a guy like Spencer Hawes).</div>Spencer Hawes is a bit of a project and won't be able to contribute underneath right away with his scoring. He is still weak, will get pushed around alot in the post(even at college he got pushed around some), and won't be able to score much on the inside right away. So he is not going to help them out alot next year with his scoring. As for spending, they won't be able to spend to much at all, as they have to keep alot of money free to start signing their young core when they become free agents. So pretty much next years team will look alot like this years team does, with little adjustments unless there is some sort of trade on the team.Unless Chauncey Billups leave which I don't see happening, the Pistons are still going to be alot like they was this year, and a better team than the Bulls again.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MrBigShot_23 @ Jun 16 2007, 11:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>You beat the Spurs in the regular season.Congrats. :worthy: </div>What? He never said that. He meant the defending champions in the Heat...
Definitely the Bulls, they got another top 10 pick and they are gonna have plenty of cap space because PJ Brown's contract comes off the books along with Sweetney and a few other players. Thomas will improve along with Thabo and the pick will most likely bring us a post player if its used, otherwise it'll be used in a trade to bring in a post player.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (valo35 @ Jun 16 2007, 12:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Pistons pretty much proved throughout that series, that they can score on the Bulls as they want to, when they actually feel like playing. You guys just didn't have enough offensive fire power to top them in the scoring category, no matter how well you played defense. Until they get someone that can do that, and spread balance on the floor, they will not be able to beat the Pistons in a seven game series because they won't be able to score enough points to help out their defense.As for almost coming back and winning this series, they just let up for two games, they was never in danger of loosing that series to you guys. They won the first three games of the series, including two games where they dominated you guys, and third game where they came from 20 down to win. They proved that they can score on your guys defense as they please, while being able to stop you guys from scoring throughout that series. Without major losses to their team, or an inside scoring presence to your team, you won't ever be able to score enough points to get ahead of the Pistons.It was something the Bulls couldn't do last year either, beat the Heat, so it really isn't a valid point you bring up about the Pistons not being able to beat the Heat. The Bulls got lucky and played a Heat team with a completely banged up Wade, a banged up Shaq, and a team that didn't have enough time to get any chemistry going. Had the Pistons gotten that same matchup, they would have been able to beat the Heat this year also.</div>Other than the first two games in a hostile Detroit, the Bulls competed with the Pistons in every way. Most of the games we were either tied or leading and you cant say we couldnt score on them also, because if you take away that 20 point lead that ends up in a home loss, we would have come back from 0-2 to take them to a game 7. The only thing we really showed is inexperience against an elite team. Next year everyone will be better on our team and towards the end of the series we figured out detroit and it became a very close series. I see no reason why with our entire team full of rising talent we cant take down the pistons. Also the Heat were not a bad team at the end of the year, throughout the end of the season they made a strong push that put them back in the playoffs after not even being seeded most of the season(and shaq was healthy come post-season but ben wallace outplayed him and mourning)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 17 2007, 09:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Other than the first two games in a hostile Detroit, the Bulls competed with the Pistons in every way. Most of the games we were either tied or leading and you cant say we couldnt score on them also, because if you take away that 20 point lead that ends up in a home loss, we would have come back from 0-2 to take them to a game 7. The only thing we really showed is inexperience against an elite team. Next year everyone will be better on our team and towards the end of the series we figured out detroit and it became a very close series. I see no reason why with our entire team full of rising talent we cant take down the pistons. Also the Heat were not a bad team at the end of the year, throughout the end of the season they made a strong push that put them back in the playoffs after not even being seeded most of the season(and shaq was healthy come post-season but ben wallace outplayed him and mourning)</div>That final game, you guys had a great 2nd quarter, but that was really the only part of the game where you guys showed you could play with them. That wouldn't have happened without a great second quarter from PJ Brown either, as he put up one of the best scoring quarters of his career that game. They outplayed you guys the entire rest of the game, and proved that they can shut down Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich throughout the game. In the 20 point game, they showed that at home they can give up a 20 point lead. The Pistons showed that they can score and stop the Bulls from scoring at any time they want to. The Bulls couldn't score enough to keep the lead, and they couldn't stop the Pistons from scoring enough to make up a 20 point lead.The only two games that anything was proven about the Bulls being able to play with the Pistons was games 4 and 5, and that was only because the Pistons stopped really trying. They stopped attacking with the same intensity, and stopped playing hard after going up 3-0. If they kept playing hard like the first two games, and the second half of the 3rd game, the Bulls would have been swept.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (valo35 @ Jun 17 2007, 11:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>That final game, you guys had a great 2nd quarter, but that was really the only part of the game where you guys showed you could play with them. That wouldn't have happened without a great second quarter from PJ Brown either, as he put up one of the best scoring quarters of his career that game. They outplayed you guys the entire rest of the game, and proved that they can shut down Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich throughout the game. In the 20 point game, they showed that at home they can give up a 20 point lead. The Pistons showed that they can score and stop the Bulls from scoring at any time they want to. The Bulls couldn't score enough to keep the lead, and they couldn't stop the Pistons from scoring enough to make up a 20 point lead.The only two games that anything was proven about the Bulls being able to play with the Pistons was games 4 and 5, and that was only because the Pistons stopped really trying. They stopped attacking with the same intensity, and stopped playing hard after going up 3-0. If they kept playing hard like the first two games, and the second half of the 3rd game, the Bulls would have been swept.</div>Thats a cop out to say they'' stopped playing hard '' I dont believe any team stops playing hard in the playoffs. It was a matter of the Bulls being the best team agaist oppenants field goal %(two years running now I believe) and Deng and Gordon going on fire in those games. We live and die with the jumpshot you are correct, but Deng is developing some inside scoring/penetrating skills I didnt notice until the Miami series and I think by next year he will be able to burn the pistons much like Lebron did seeing as how Rasheeds help defense has diminished significantly since the Spurs-Pistons Finals series and that no player on their team will be any better then they are now, and will most likely decline if anything.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 17 2007, 10:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Thats a cop out to say they'' stopped playing hard '' I dont believe any team stops playing hard in the playoffs. It was a matter of the Bulls being the best team agaist oppenants field goal %(two years running now I believe) and Deng and Gordon going on fire in those games. We live and die with the jumpshot you are correct, but Deng is developing some inside scoring/penetrating skills I didnt notice until the Miami series and I think by next year he will be able to burn the pistons much like Lebron did seeing as how Rasheeds help defense has diminished significantly since the Spurs-Pistons Finals series and that no player on their team will be any better then they are now, and will most likely decline if anything.</div>There was a completely different demeanor in their games for both game 4 and game 5, compared to how they played in the first two games, the last game, and the second half of game 3. You could tell from the lack of excution and how they generally looked to just be going through the motions that they was not trying near as hard as they had in any other game, because they thought they already had the series locked up. It took two wins for them to go back to playing that same way, on your guys home court. They just stopped playing as hard, you can call it a cop out, but anyone that watches basketball could tell they just wasn't playing with the same intensity.Rasheed Wallace has never been a good help defender, he was the man to man defensive player because he was a better man to man defensive player than Ben Wallace, and Ben Wallace was the help defender because he was the better guy at shot blocking and rotating. So that is really not an excuse at all for why the Bulls could not keep their scoring going. The Pistons perimeter players did a good job of staying in front of the Bulls perimeter players, and keeping them from getting things going towards the basket.
