Since I’m ranting about moron coaches, how can I not mention Bernie Bickerstaff ?? Yeah, I know his lame ass got fired like 8 months ago, but this thing has been bothering me for a while. Especially since there wasn’t much talk/outrage about it in the media (SI/ESPN etc).

“But this was a miracle shot” you say ? “What could he have done” you ask ? Well, according to the NBA rules coaches should be kinda familiar with, with less then 0.3 seconds left on the clock the only allowed shot is a tip-in. Watch again the video. Now tell me, why the hell were 2 Bobcats players “defending” the 3p line ? How many 3p tip-ins have you seen ? One of the Bobcats is 10 meters (30 feet) away from the basket. Are you kidding me ? He might as well have went for a hot-dog while he was there. Since you’re not allowed to catch the ball, the odds of “tipping” it from the 3p line are zero, nil, none, zilch, zip and whatever the fuck synonym you want to use. Even worse, the 2 guys left under the basket are Gerald Wallace (who’s indeed an amazing athlete) and all-world defender Matt Carroll.

What the Moronosaurus Bernix should have done was to have one player pressing the Knick inbounding the ball, and the other 4 standing in the paint forming a square with 3m (10 feet) sides. Have 2 of them on each side of the rim, and the other 2 in front of them. Is more likely for the tip-in to be attempted from the opposite side of the rim (in relation to the player inbounding the ball). Which is exactly what happened. If it was attempted from the same side, the player trying to tip-in the ball in would have to have his back turned to the basket or at least be sideways in order to be able to see the ball coming. So have all of them ready to go towards that area, to clog the area and try to get the ball. As soon as the ball is touched, the time expires. All the Bobcats have to do is tip that ball themselves, just not towards their basket.

If you watch the movie, Gerald has his back turned to the passer so he can chase Lee. He doesn’t see the pass and he only reacts to Lee jumping for the ball, which is too late. Tell Wallace that as soon as the pass is thrown, he has to get to it. The pass must be lobbed over the defender trying to stop the inbound, so it’s not gonna travel too fast. An athletic player with good positioning can easily grab or tip away that ball. Lee shouldn’t have even sniffed the ball.

What makes things worse from my perspective as a Bulls fan is that with one more Bobcats win over the Knicks would have had the Knicks tied with Portland and Minnesota at 32-50. Since the Bulls had the right to swap their picks with the Knicks and it was obvious they would exercise this right, there was 1 chance in 3 for the Bulls to actually end up with the 1st pick in the draft. (Portland won a tiebreaker with Minnesota and then won the lottery, and if the Bulls were tied with them, there would have been a 1/3 chance of winning the tiebreaker).

Interesting fact: later on in the season the Bobcats allowed Eddy Curry to win a game with a buzzer beater. From behind the 3p line. His only 3p shot of the season. His second in his 7 year career. But I don’t blame Bernie too much for that shot. You don’t worry much about Eddy Curry at the 3p line - although he’s 100% for his career (2-2). But that tip-in should have had him fired on the spot.

What the hell do you need to do in order to become a coach in the NBA ?? If you watch the league long enough, sometimes you’ll have the impression that the answer is: “Not much. Not much at all“. During the Lakers - Cavaliers game the commentators were discussing the foul trouble situation. Jeff Van Gundy notices Lebron has 4 fouls and has a really bright idea. For him. He says the foul limit should be extended to 7 allowing the superstars of the league to stay on the floor more, and then asks himself where’s the harm in that.

Well, since you asked, Jeff, how about the fact that the fucking games would be a hack fest ??? And they would last like 6 hours each. Nobody would pay to watch people (be they superstars or whatever) shoot free throws. Not for 6 hours in a row. Not to mention the fact that those shooting those free throws won’t be the Nash’s and the Iverson’s of the league. Nope. It would be the Shaq’s, the Ben Wallace’s and the Dwight Howard’s. With extra fouls to give, the coaches would be like “Can I have a Hack’a'Shaq ? Yeah, sure, super size me !!“.

Just in case you’re asking yourselves what the fuck was Jeff thinking about when he came up with this “idea“, well, this is the kind of basketball Jeff likes to coach (and you can actually see him doing some coaching in the lower part of the image):

PS: As you may already know, Lebron was just fine. He didn’t foul out and he played some excellent D on Kobe and helped the Cavs win the game.

I am probably beating on a dead horse, but can anyone explain to me why Thabo only played 23:38 while Duhon got 31:58 against the Suns ? And Duhon is said to be injured. So was an injured Duhon so much better then Thabo ?

The boxscore says he wasn’t. Thabo had more points (10 to 5), shot better (4-8 compared to 2-8), rebounded better (5 to 1), had more assists (2 to 1) and less TO (0 to 2). The only area where Duhon contributed more: assists. Duhon had 3 assists to Thabo’s zero. Some may think this was a good reason to have Duhon in instead of Thabo. But that’s not true. Thabo is a shooting guard. He may not be a great scorer, but in this game he shot 50%, which means he could (and probably should) have taken a few more shots since they were dropping for him. You can probably compare him to Raja Bell who also wasn’t much of a scorer and especially 3p shooter till he started playing with Steve Nash.

Now if there are complains about the number of assists, then Hinrich is the main culprit. He is supposed to be the team’s PG, yet he had 3 ast and 4 TO in this one. I know he just had a couple of very good games in which he scored 38 and 31 points, but for what I am concerned his scoring outburst just confirmed what I’ve always said about him: he’s a combo guard. He’s not a playmaker. He plays PG out of necessity because there is no one else on the Bulls who can do it better (which doesn’t make him good at it). Actually, the coaches apparently think Duhon can play point better this being the reason why they benched Gordon and played Duhon next to Hinrich, but since they are kinda retarded, I wouldn’t give them too much credit. Hinrich playing SG is not a good idea because he’s too short and because he’s less aggressive than a lump of pudding in taking the ball to the hoop.

With Gordon out, Hinrich seems to be benefiting from playing alongside Sefolosha as he’s been playing better recently. Either that or he just broke out of his slump (is it a slump if it lasts half a season ?) against the all world defense of Tinsley/Diener and Nash. But despite his recent 2 good games, I’ll be impressed when he scores more then 10 points against Detroit, since so far in 3 Bulls wins he scored 8 points (3-11), 9 points (4-11) and again 8 points (2-7).

Since I wrote the post on Antawn Jamison I’ve been thinking about this “contract year” phenomenon. Seems like most of the players in the NBA suddenly find themselves extra motivated when they are in a contract year. I guess it’s easy to stop caring and play disinterested when your money is guaranteed. But sometimes the difference is eye-popping. And it’s not an isolated thing. There are many players who got paid a shitload of money after just one good season. Sometimes after one good half a season or even less (Jerome James comes to mind). And right after they got their money, they reverted to their donkey balls sucking ways.

Here are some examples:

• Erick Dampier
• Michael Olowokandi
• Bobby Simmons
• Larry Hughes
• Tim Thomas
• Rashard Lewis

But how can GMs fall for this time after time after time ? Are they really that stupid ? Well, it seems they are. So they need a tool to tell them a certain player is playing this well only because he’s got his sights set on a new fat contract. So who’s best at creating tools that analyze statistical information ? Well, none other then John Hollinger. He’s got the PER, formulas to predict the evolution in the NBA of college players and foreign players (they require ESPN Insider), the playoff odds and is pretty much the stats guru amongst the well known NBA analysts.

I think John Hollinger would be the best to figure out a formula to red-flag players who are “coincidentally” playing the best ball of their career in their contract years. Such a task may seem easy at first, after all guys like Dampier or Olowokandi are so easy to spot only someone like Kevin McHale would think they gonna keep playing like that or even improve on that. But then there are guys like Caron Butler who just had his best season in his young career in the 2004-2005 season. He then signed a 5 year, 46 million contract and he kept improving his game and this season he’s basically playing at superstar level while leading Washington to an unexpected 4th place in the Eastern conference.

How to differentiate between players who are only playing better because they look for more money in the summer and players who are going to keep working hard and improve on that after getting their new contract ? Well, here are a few things that should be taken into account when deciding if the improvement is legit or not:

• the improvement must be of at least 10-20%: the increase in production usually comes in points per game and rebounds. For example Rashard Lewis’ rebounding last season went up to 6.6 per game despite the fact that it went from 6.5 in 2003-04 to 5.5 in 2004-05 to 5.0 in 2005-06. That’s a 32% increase. He also had an increase of 11.44% in scoring from 20.1 to 22.4. It helps spot a contract year if the player is setting career bests, especially the 2 categories mentioned above. A prime example of this is Erick Dampier, whose rebounding almost doubled (from 6.6 to 12) and whose scoring increased by about 50% (from 8.2 to 12.3). He also had a career best (at the time) in FG%.
• there is spike in rebounding: unlike scoring which requires talent and plays getting called for you, rebounding takes first and foremost the will to go get the ball. You have to want that rebound more then anyone else on the court. So a player who is suddenly getting more rebounds in his contract year must have some extra motivation to go for all those rebounds. Unfortunately that motivation will evaporate before the ink dries on his new contract.
• there is a spike in FTA: a spike in FTA shows the player was more aggressive then usual. Just like with rebounding, once his motivation is gone, so will his aggressiveness. Here are a bunch of players who scored big contracts after a good contract year and their FTA for their contract year (in bold), a few years before that and the year after: Larry Hughes (3.6, 2.8, 5.5, 7.4, 5.4), Bobby Simmons (1.0, 3.0, 3.6, 2.7), Rashard Lewis (4.5, 3.4, 4.0, 5.5, 5.3, 3.4) - in this case Rashard may have tried to get an extension in the previous year which would explain the 5.5; as soon as he got his contract though he’s back to 3.4, Erick Dampier (2.9, 2.9, 2.7, 4.5, 3.9)

• player must be over 26 or have at least 6 years of experience: it’s expected from young players to improve on their stats, so if a young player does NOT improve his stats even in a contract year, or if the improvement is hardly noticeable, it probably means he reached his ceiling and the GM should not count on much improvement of the player’s per minute stats in the future

• numbers must be adjusted on a per minute base and take into account the pace at which the team is playing: scoring 15 points per game for Phoenix, Denver or Golden State is nowhere near the same as scoring 15 per game for Detroit or San Antonio

• the improvement must come against a trend set over the last few years: in the example above, Lewis’ rebounding was going south before his contract year. Naturally, after signing his huge contract in the summer of 2007, he’s currently averaging 5.1 rebounds per game. Sometimes players have a couple of good years, the contract year and the one before. Most likely explained by them trying to get a reach extension, and when they don’t get it they play even harder the next year for a new contract. For example Larry Hughes had a good year in 2003-04 with the Wizards. His scoring went up from 12.8 to 18.8, his rebounding went from 4.6 to 5.3. But the next season, in his contract year, he played even better recording 22.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, raising his assists from 2.4 to 4.7 and his steals from 1.6 to 2.9. As a result, he’s not able to steal the Cavaliers’ money. About 12 million per season. This requirement should filter out players like Caron Butler whose improvement continued a trend, a trend that kept going even after he signed his new contract.

• the improvement can not be (fully) explained by increased playing time, faster pace of the team, playing in a new system and/or for a new coach: Bobby Simmons received about 50% more playing time during his contract year and he upped his scoring from 7.8 to 16.4. That’s a 110% improvement and it can’t really be explained just by the increase in playtime. From 12.73 points per 40 minutes he went to 17.59. After signing his contract, he went back to 15.86 points per 40 minutes.
• the improvement can not be explained by increased role on the team (for example as a result of an injury to a star player): in case of Antawn Jamison his extra 1.5 points per game can be explained by his bigger role in the offense with Arenas out. But that doesn’t explain his career best 10.4 rebounds per game which represent a 30% increase over the 8 rebounds per game he got the previous season.

Now that the foundation is settled, is up to Mr Hollinger to come up with a formula that will let everyone know if a player will keep up his level of play or not after signing a contract. And, of course, it will be up to the GMs of the league to use that information for the benefit of their teams. But they won’t be able to say they were not warned or that they did not see that coming.

Despite not being fully recovered from knee and shoulder surgeries, Wade has been playing out of his mind in an attempt to stop Riley from taking another in-season vacation the Heat from setting a new franchise record for consecutive losses. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Heat were playing Indiana who was missing Jermaine O’Neal. Wade was all over the floor, shooting 3s, taking the ball to the hoop, making all kinds of shots against the Pacers defense. Truth be told, the same “defense” allowed Kirk Hinrich (who sucked so much this year he’s been getting offers to star in gay porn movies) to match his career high.

Wade finished with 35 points (12-20 FG, 2-5 from the 3p line), 8 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk and 3 TO. He was helped by Haslem (12 p on 6-11, 9 reb) and Dorell Wright (14 p on 7-11, 10 reb). Not helping much were Jason Williams (4 points on 2-9 in 36 minutes) and Ricky Davis (2 points on 1-7 in 27 minutes). At least Williams contributed 8 ast and 6 stl with just 1 TO. Ricky only contributed with some bad defense.

What is surprising is that Miami has been sucking so bad recently despite excellent play from Wade. He isn’t anywhere near 100% (and in fact Riley should sit him till he’s recovered and “fight” for a higher pick in the draft) and you can see that especially on D where he’s not as active. He’s also a step slow on offense too, but his talent enables him to still be able to score at a high rate. So if Wade is playing great even if injured, why is Miami so bad ?

Well, even if Wade has been spectacular on the offensive end, he had little help. Jason Williams is only making 38.3% of his FGA (and that isn’t even his worst season shooting percentage-wise). Williams manages to have a career worst in points scored at 9.1 per game. And that is despite playing over 31 minutes per game and Miami not having too many scorers on the team. And what would be a “who sucks” list without Ricky Davis ? It would be an incomplete list, that’s what it would be. Ricky is shooting only 43.4% from the floor, but that doesn’t seem to bother him or maybe make him pass the ball more often. He actually averages 2 assists LESS than he did last season. After all, he has a shooter’s mentality. Too bad he’s not really a shooter. With such contributors, no wonder the Heat are 3rd last in the league in point differential and last in points scored per game.

Unfortunately for them, is not only the offense that sucks. The defense is just as bad. There are very few teams that allow more points per 100 possessions than the Heat: Warriors (tied at 109), Grizzlies, Bucks, Wolves, Knicks and Kings (tied). The rebounding is also bad, as Miami is 5th worse in the league in rebounding differential and dead last in rebounds per game. The problems with defense and rebounding can be partially explained by the injury to Zo and Shaq taking his annual 30 games break. That left Mark Blount as the starting C, and he responded by not letting his height (7 feet) stand in his way to averaging 2.8 rebounds in almost 17 minutes per game. I think that statistically there are more chances of one person getting hit by lightning AND a meteor at the same time then Blount getting a rebound.

Looking at the bunch of misfits Riley has assembled you almost understand Shaq’s lack of interest in playing during the regular season. After all, he’s saving himself for the playoffs.

With the Bulls the second biggest disappointment of the season (thanks only to Miami and their elite suckage), it’s time to ask: “What the hell happened ?”. The blame can not rest (as Skiles tried to place it before getting a nice pink slip from Santa) with the players alone. Even if they’re not playing at their best of abilities, it’s the coach’s job to get the best out of them. And if the players suck, well, it’s the GM that drafted/traded for them. So in the end, John Paxson is ultimately responsible for the way the team plays.

The 2 moves Paxson was most criticized for were the signing of Ben Wallace and the trading of Chandler for the contract of PJ Brown. Of course he also traded Curry away, but there were valid concerns about his health and so far the Bulls seem to be winning that trade even if Tyrus Thomas and Noah have not yet reached their full potential. If they do, it will go down as another major screw-up by Isiah. He also gave up too soon on JR Smith, but with Hinrich, Gordon, Duhon and, of course, coach favorite extraordinaire Adrian Griffin in front of him in the rotation, he wouldn’t have had the opportunity that he had in Denver.

But the problem is not a certain trade but the lack of a clear plan. The question that John Paxson did not have an answer for was: “When are the Bulls supposed to win ?“. Once you have the answer for this question, you can act accordingly and make the necessary moves to help you reach your goal. To cut it short, there are 2 options for a team: Win now or Build for the future.

If you are building for the future, that means trading away whatever players you have that might have some value for teams that are contending for expiring contracts and as many draft picks as possible, especially from teams that you think will end up with really bad records. If you are in “Win now” mode, then you’ll have to sacrifice the immediate and medium term future for short term gains. It’s a risk, but a risk that is worth taking when you’re after the big prize. It’s something Riley has been doing in Miami more than once, and in the end he hit the jackpot when he traded for Shaq and got a title. Now Miami’s future is messed up, but the organization and fans sure don’t regret the trade.

When Paxson signed Ben Wallace it seemed to be a sign that the Bulls were entering the “Win now” mode. The trade for PJ Brown which was in fact a big expiring was one more step in that direction. The next logical step would have been packing one or 2 of the young players with Brown’s contract in a trade for a legit superstar. But Paxson stopped just short of that. Brown’s contract expired and the Bulls were left with little flexibility in the event they wanted to go after Kobe/Garnett in the summer of 2007. Paxson’s indecision left the Bulls with a team that is not really good to contend and not really bad to get much better through the draft unless a superstar falls in their lap midway through the 1st round.

Paxson’s indecision was again on display in the summer when he chose not to fire Skiles and look for a replacement although the signs of Skiles being tuned out were already on display. Furthermore, Skiles substitution patterns, Larry Brown like love for veterans who were hardly better than the rookies whose playtime they were eating and in your face attitude that the players were bound to get tired of should have made it clear to Paxson that Skiles needed to go. Instead of having to do it at Christmas time in a Grinch like manner, he could have done it in the summer. He would have had time to pick up a replacement coach instead of basically wasting 1 year with an interim. As an added bonus, this summer there was one coach who was available who was young, underrated and would have come cheaper than a big name coach: Stan Van Gundy. This is the guy that has the Magic on the 3rd place in the Eastern Conference. Also, Rick Adelman was available and even though he never won a title, he took 2 teams to the finals and his teams usually perform very well.

Of course, the biggest non-action of John Paxson was not trading for Kobe when he was available. His apparent insistence of making Deng untouchable is borderline retarded. And now the values of both Gordon and Deng had to suffer because of the Bulls horrendous start and their own poor play in the first part of the season. So much about selling high. Maybe Paxson talked his own players up to the other GMs in order to increase their value that in the end he convinced himself they were so much better than they really are.

Another mistake was bringing in Joe Smith. It’s not that he’s not been playing well. But right now with Wallace, Smith, Thomas, Noah, Gray and also Nocioni getting time at the 4 cause Deng is taking most of the minutes at the 3, there are too many players competing for minutes at PF and C. Unfortunately Wallace has been getting entitlement minutes despite very poor play. Normally he’d be the odd man out, with Noah and Smith starting and Tyrus Thomas the 1st big off the bench. Nocioni could spend minutes at the 3 (as a back-up to Deng) or 4 (as the undersized chucker that he is) depending on match-ups. Gray should also see some minutes when his size is needed.

Right now the Bulls are stuck with an average team, with a Skiles clone repeating the same message of love for the veterans, with the huge contract of Ben Wallace and his rapidly decaying corpse, a log jam at PF/C and with a bunch of tweeners at the G spots. There are not enough minutes do develop the young players as Jim Boylan insists of using the veterans in hope the team will win just enough games to make the playoffs (if only to get booted in the 1st round) so he can have a chance to get the full time job as head coach. Unfortunately for him, his best chance of making the playoffs and getting the head coaching job might be playing the young players. The fact that he’s letting them rot on the bench while playing Ben Wallace 40 minutes per game so he can get 5 rebounds only proves he’s not a good enough coach to get a head coaching job in the NBA.

And all of this because Paxson did not have the balls to go after Kobe and he fell in love with his own players. Players who may force a sign and trade during the summer after letting it be known that they felt disrespected by the way the Bulls organization conducted the “negotiations” for their new contracts. Well, Paxson will likely have at least this season and the next to fix things. Which is to say the Bulls better be back in contention the next season, so this summer will be crucial. If he keeps shying off from taking chances, it will draw the ire of the fans and, eventually, ownership. And if he can’t find the trade that can really improve the Bulls, he may have to go back to a rebuilding period, especially if Deng and Gordon force their way out. If the Bulls will have to try the lottery again in order to get a superstar, Paxson may find again he woke up too late and missed on a draft supposed to be full of talented players.

Here’s what the Bulls should do. Considering the team has been awful this season, fighting for a playoff spot is pointless, since it will most likely lead to a 1st round sweep. It’s not like the Bulls have any hope of coming out of the East. Since making the playoffs will not help the team much, it might be a better idea to tank the season. The Bulls could package Wallace with Deng and maybe Gordon or Hinrich in order to get an expiring and some picks. Also Joe Smith may be an interesting target for teams looking for help in the front court, especially since he has been playing well and his contract is more than decent. With Wallace, Joe Smith, and 2 or all 3 of Deng, Gordon and Hinrich gone, the Bulls could play a lot of Sefolosha, Tyrus Thomas, Noah and Gray so when summer comes they have a better idea of what kind of players they have.

And if playing the youngs will result in a lot of losses (as Boylan seems to think), then the Bulls will benefit from a high pick in the draft that may just be the superstar they’ve been missing. Preferably a superstar PG. A strong argument for this is what Chris Paul is managing to do right now: leading the Hornets to the best record in the West, ahead of the 3 powerhouses that ruled the conference for the past years (Suns, Mavs, Spurs). And the Hornets weren’t even projected to make the playoffs by most analysts. But as we’ve seen with Jason Kidd and Steve Nash before, a great PG can take a team to the next level all by himself.

On the other hand, if the Bulls give the young players a lot of minutes and win enough games to make the playoffs, then Boylan needs to be fired ASAP and never EVER given any kind of job in the NBA. And Paxson will have some cap-space and (presumably) mid to late picks to work with. Considering Gilbert Arenas will be a free agent, a team with Arenas, Sefolosha, Thomas and Noah would provide enough defense and rebounding to allow Gilbert to focus on providing the offense. And if the Bulls can swap Nocioni for the Suns’ Diaw and maybe in the process obtain the pick Atlanta owes them, Diaw could provide play-making from the SF position, taking the role of point-forward that Pippen used to play. This is just a scenario, but for sure there are many ways the Bulls team can be improved. It’s up to John Paxson to do it though. But if he’s not up to the job, then he’d better start packing his bags, cause he’s gotta go.

“And even then, there’s always the option of playing Adrian Griffin. After all, he’s a veteran. “

It was only a few days ago when I said this and Boylan couldn’t wait to go and prove me right. Against Indiana Adrian Griffin was on the floor for almost 28 minutes. And he justified those minutes by producing 5 points on 2-8 shooting, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal in those 28 minutes. Which is about 23 minutes more then he should see, no matter what the situation is. Speaking of which, Duhon and Gordon missed the game with injuries. Gordon had a sprained right wrist, and Duhon was apparently still not over Skiles’ firing and sobbing uncontrollably. But no amount of sprained wrists or broken hearts justifies this atrocity.

This would have been the perfect opportunity to give JamesOn Curry some burn. After all, how can you find out if you got a 2nd round steal if you’re not playing him ? If you can’t find time for him when you have a lot of injuries (especially at his position) and you’re playing a bad team who’s missing his best player and defender and its 6th man, when will you find time for him ? Apparently, you just don’t. Probably in the view of the Chicago coaching staff and front office developing young players is overrated anyway. Just take a look at the video below and replace Corddry with Skiles/Boylan, “children” with “rookies” and “money” with “playtime” and judge for yourself:

Are the youngs the franchise’s future ?? I mean, come on !!

Once he replaced Scott Skiles, Jim Boylan continued to do the things that got Bulls fans mad at Skiles: playing crappy veterans too many minutes and letting young players rot on the bench. Well, over the last 5 games he somehow managed to play Thabo Sefolosha at least 26 minutes per game. He may have been forced by Hinrich’s injury, but let’s not forget that he could have used the mummified corpse of Adrian Griffin. Griffin, after all, is a veteran, and Skiles and his assistants seem to have a fetish for veterans.

Well, given the opportunity, Thabo showed what the Bulls have been missing in all that time when they were playing Duhon and/or Griffin an obscene amount of minutes per game. He produced 13 points on 3-7, 13 rebounds (5 offensive), 1 assist and 2 steals with just 1 turnover in almost 36 minutes. And this was against the team with the second best record in the league.

His +/- was a team best +22, followed by Nocioni (+18) and Gordon (+13). The +/- stat may be misleading for 1 game, but over the last few games Thabo had the best or close to the best +/- on the Bulls:

• +9 (team best) in a L against the Warriors. He was followed by Noah (+5). Deng (-16), Duhon (-17) and Gordon (-8) where nowhere near.
• +21 (team best) in the W against the Heat. He was followed by Wallace (+20), Gordon (+17) and Noah (+17).
• +11 (best starter) in a L against the Magic. He was the only starter to have a positive +/-. The others were horrendous: Duhon (-16), Wallace (-28), Joe Smith (-20), Deng (-25). Only Tyrus Thomas (+13) and Khryapa (+13) were better, but this can be easily explained by them playing in junk time against the noticeably worse Magic end-of-the-bench players.

That doesn’t mean he’s the best player on the Bulls, but a consistently good +/- stat shows that a player helps his team win in ways that don’t necessarily show up in a boxscore. Some may say that this is a fluke, but it looks more like when given enough minutes, Thabo (just like Tyrus and Noah) can really contribute. So why was this guy only averaging a little over 12 minutes in his first season and a little over 10 minutes this season (before the last 5 games) ?? Well, here’s the reason why: (Note: the bald one)

Unfortunately, in Chicago the coaching change did not bring a change in coaching mentality. Despite Paxson’s stated desire for the rookies to get more playing time, the veterans are still getting heavy entitlement minutes, despite their low production and often disinterested play *cough*wallace*cough*. This while almost every time they got meaningful minutes Tyrus, Noah and Thabo showed they can play. That’s why I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Thabo buried back on the bench as soon as Hinrich returns, unless Duhon’s injury is more serious and he has to sit some games. And even then, there’s always the option of playing Adrian Griffin. After all, he’s a veteran.

With Arenas injured and the Wizards playing above expectations, many started to wonder if the team is better without him. And those who claim the above statement is true, offer the following explanations:

- the offense is better because Arenas is not disrupting ball movement by being a ball hog and his absence allowed Caron Butler to blossom;

- the defense is better without Arenas.

But are the Wizards really better without Arenas ? Right now the Wizards are 21-17. At the same point last season they were 22-16 and on their way to a 27-17 record on January 30th, for a season best 10 games above .500. But during their win against Detroit on January 30th, the injury bug bit. Jamison was sidelined for the entire month of February. Not too long after he came back, the Wizards lost Caron and then Gilbert for the season. Not surprisingly they finished the season 41-41.

So the Wizards should go 6-0 on their next 6 games in order to be just as good as they were last season with Arenas. With games against Dallas, at Cleveland and against Toronto during the next 6, this is highly unlikely. Which is to say that in fact the Wizards are NOT better without Arenas.

But they are close which would not justify paying Arenas superstar money just for a couple of wins more per season. Especially since he’ll opt-out during the summer and look for a better deal, probably at least 15 million per season. So let’s examine the 2 explanations a little closer.

The 1st one just doesn’t stand up. Larry Hughes had his best year while playing alongside Gilbert, and that brought him a huge contract with Cleveland. And Caron’s evolution can be better explained by him getting more experience and reaching his prime. The second one seems to have some merit since, well, let’s just say that Arenas won’t be included in the DPOY discussion anytime soon, but is not necessarily true. You can find here a pretty good article that explains in detail why the 2 arguments are not true.

What the above mentioned article (and most of the people) failed to notice, is the clearly improved play of one Antawn Jamison. He’s very active on defense and on the boards, very aggressive on offense, he’s blocking shots, fighting for offensive rebounds, deflecting passes and generally playing at a high level. Right now, Antawn is averaging 20-10. Wish you had him on your fantasy team ? Yeah, me too!

Compared to last season, he’s scoring 1.4 more points per game (21.2) and pulling down 2.8 more rebounds (10.8). Yes, that’s right: almost 3 more rebounds per game. That’s 3 more then his career average and 2.5 more then his previous best season. Now, you may explain the 1.4 more points per game as a result of Jamison taking more shots with Gilbert out, but for sure it wasn’t Arenas pulling down those extra rebounds.

To get a rebound, you have to want it more then anyone else on that court. So what’s making Antawn want the rebounds more then he ever did in his life ? Could it be the fact that he will be a free agent this summer ? Is he working hard this season so he can fool a GM into paying him an obscene amount of money this summer ? Of course he is. Will it work ?? Of course it will.

There will be at least one GM who will think Antawn has just hit his prime. At 32. And that he will maintain this level even after signing a fat contract. If history taught us anything, this will result in angry fans, a much lazier Antawn with considerably worse stats and maybe a fired GM. By the way, I got dibs on heyantawnjamisongrabsomemorerebounds.com.