Heard the one yet about the low-post scorer?

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Sep 23, 2007 11:01 PM CDT in News Comment 9 comments

Very entertaining Bulls season preview over at Sham Sports, from an admittedly biased Bulls fan. Which gives those of us nice familiarity through a lead like this:

Has anybody ever told you that you need a dominant post scorer to win a title? If not, then you're not a Bulls fan. Since the dawn of time (or since the Eddy Curry trade, whichever), this edict has been hurled at Bulls fans and management alike by people of all races, creeds and IQ levels, and never more so than in the immediate aftermath of the Pau Gasol trade-that-never-was at the last trade deadline. Forget the fact that Detroit managed this supposedly impossible feat just three years ago: these people remain steadfast in their opinion. And why shouldn't they? People say it on the TV, after all, so it must be true.

I do have a quibble in that while Detroit didn't have a 'dominant post scorer', a lot of their players had post-up abilities. Not that the Bulls need to change up their movement-emphasised offense to suit post players, but the ability to just dump the ball inside once in a while would be nice. Could be Luol Deng or even Tyrus Thomas who can add this skill just enough to make a difference.

The preview (not sure if 'Mark' is indeed Sham) goes on to explain that while yet another summer went by with pundits scratching their heads over the lack of a big-time post scorer, the Bulls did quietly get post players who are better at scoring.

This is a similar rallying cry to last season's acquisitions, as while we knew Ben Wallace was no great offensive threat, he had the non-scoring skills to help the offense in ways Tyson Chandler didn't. The overall upgrade didn't shake out the way a lot of us thought (mostly due to the dramatic drop in production from PJ Brown) but overall this team has been steadily getting better in the frontcourt:

'05-'06: Chandler, Harrington, Songaila, Allen, Sweetney
'06-'07: Wallace, Brown, Thomas, Allen, Sweetney
'07-'08: Wallace, Smith, Thomas, Noah, Gray

The preview concludes with another endorsement of a Thomas-Wallace frontcourt:

Improvement in this area has to come from within, namely from Tyrus Thomas, He, along with Ben Wallace, carries a load of the pressure in terms of how far the Bulls go this season. Both were inconsistent last season, Wallace due to a combination of nagging back/groin injuries and old age, and Thomas due to rookie rawness. Yet on the occasions that they played decent minutes together, the makings of a decent pairing were formed. Both are good passers and dribblers of the ball, fine rebounders and exceptional shotblockers, and the duo's versatility allows them to match up with any other frontcourt pairing out there - Wallace's strength and Thomas's speed being able to overcome any exaggeratedly-important height disparity. I may have made some words up there, but you get the idea.

I do get the idea: it'd be really fun to see, dominant low-post scorer be damned. I don't think it will happen early in the season, but if Tyrus progresses and Wallace holds up it may be Skiles' best option.

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