We could very well end up being the Blazers East. By that I mean 5 solid starters, one guy worth a damn off the bench. The Bulls' sub 15 PER guys last season: 1) Taj 14.4 2) Kirk 10.8 3) Nazr 10.8 4) Rip 10.6 5) Marco 10.4 6) Radmanovic 6.3 7) Teague 6.0 8) Cook 4.0 9) Amundson 0.0 I didn't count 10) Malcolm Thomas in that group, because he actually put up a 16.7 PER in garbage time of 36 minutes played. Sadly, we may well end up downgrading at Marco's position. If I'm not mistaken, we've got the mini-MLE to try and sign one of Nate and Marco. Plus the draft pick. Not even Noah contributed in a huge way right away, and he was a solid #9 pick. How do those guys stack up with Chris Anderson (17.4), Ray Allen (14.7), Mike Miller (13.5), Shane Battier (10.7), Haslem (9.9), Cole (7.9)? Maybe the PERs are similar once you get to Battier, but Battier is still a quality defender, as is Haslem. Cole produced in the playoffs like maybe only Kirk on our list might (but likely only for a game, maybe two in a series).
Obviously, the Heat's below average PERs are better than the Bulls' below average PERs cuz, well, they're the mighty Heat. Pfui.
Yes, because they're much better. However, they are not much better than us because of Chris Anderson, Ray Allen, Mike Miller, Shane Battier, Haslem and/or Cole. They are much better because of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
Hinrich isn't decent. I'd rather have every one of "Chris Anderson, Ray Allen, Mike Miller, Shane Battier, Haslem and/or Cole" instead. To compete with the Heat? We need a starter who can complement Rose at a high level of play. Then our first three guys off the bench need to be 13.5 PER or better players.
We need shooters. We have the defense, especially with Butler coming into his own. We will miss Nate and, if we let Marco go we will miss him as well. A Ben Gordon, Nate Robinson, even a Kyle Korver would really help this team. We made it to the ECF, although we had a better bench. We had Bogans as the starting SG! We match up better with Miami than you think. We just need more scoring.
Miami dumped its entire roster to sign the big 3 and had only MLE and vet minimum to fill out their roster. We dumped enough roster to sign 2 MAX guys, and we signed Boozer with 1 MAX and used the other MAX split up among Brewer, Korver, and Watson. Since then, Miami has added much better players and we've replaced our good ones (Brewer, Korver, etc.) with D-Leaguers. Asik is gone, too.
One upgrade for the starting lineup and two at least for the bench. Perhaps Butler will be the upgrade for the starting five if he is better next season also.
