Bear Powwa

With what hoopla involving Kobe Bryant and two potential suitors (Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks) I must say if Chicago is truly involved as much as the media seems to make me believe, then I am really disappointed. First, it was Ben Wallace, a blend of premier defender and premier no-offense. I and every Chicago Bulls fans saw first hand what Ben Wallace contributed to the Bulls during their second round shut down by Detroit Piston and let’s just say not much. I love his hustle and little things that he does under the basket, but if you saw the game, Ben was on the bench during the crunch time in most of the playoff games; it was as if Skiles didn’t trust that Ben will come through and save our playoff hopes. I will admit that I had some hopes that Ben will maybe find his offensive groove here. Chip in 10 points a game and I’d have been dandy. No, 8 points. But this is blasphemy. For a player that is receiving that much money and skewing the Chicago Bulls salary cap situation, unless he improves drastically and gets back to doing more of the smaller things that got him here, I say we screwed up big time.

And with this talk of bringing in Kobe Bryant, I think it’s unwholesome. I rode on the Chicago Bulls bandwagon if you will 4 years ago with the draft of Kirk Heinrich. John Paxon has since then built a nucleus of young Bulls “baby bulls” that consist of Kirk, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Tyson Chandler, Chris Duhon and Tyrus Thomas. However, we must now look to the future. First and foremost, we need another guard that can start alongside Kirk. Ben Gordon’s a good player, and maybe even an elite player, but he’s a streaky shooter with no defense. On a team that emphasizes defense, he’s gotta be gone, sooner or later. Another, Luol’s really come to his own this last season and he alongside Kirk should be two players who absolutely cannot be traded. Tyrus Thomas still has years ahead of him and we have only tasted the tip of his potential; he will improve. Now, the question is Chris Duhon. I love him, but he’s gotta go. He’s a good, true point guard, but good won’t cut it with someone who’s the first to come off the bench.

Sure, Kobe can make our team better — definitely. But on the downside, he brings his big salaries, big ego, and big mouth along with him and frankly I don’t want this Bulls team to steer off on the wrong direction. It’s like make or break. He can get us to the Finals, but then again he can also stunt the progress of our young bulls and that’s not something I look forward to be seeing in my Bulls. With that being said, we gotta get ourselves a 6-10, 6-11 Power Forward/Center who can score with ease. When is the last time someone’s won the Finals without a Big Man, whether that’s Shaq or Tim Duncan just past week. Not instead of Kobe, we should really be targeting Pau Gasol. He would make our team much better.

Just my opinion.