It seems like I can't read any basketball conversation on BaB without someone saying Rondo is amazing because of his assists in his first four games of the season. I've seen two of the celtics games so far this season, and I've noticed a few things that completely inflate his assists.

1.) Defenders don't respect his offense. They sag off of him, giving him easy looks all over the court to find one of his three hall of fame team mates. He is given a ridiculous amount of room at the top of the key, because the defense knows he can't shoot.

2.) He has three future hall of famers on his team. Despite their age, Boston's big three is still pretty damn good. When Paul Pierce or Allen is feeling their shot, all Rondo has to do is run the ball up the court, hand it to Pierce, and collect assists as Pierce drains contested jumpshots. Having extremely talented team mates does not mean that Rondo is a good player.

3.) Quite a few of the assists Rondo has gotten (from what I've seen) are pretty ridiculous. On one play in particular, I remember him running the ball up the court. KG comes of a screen, Rondo hands it to him, steps back, and KG takes a contested long jumper. He drains it, and Rondo comes off with an assist. wtf?

I guess my point is this: first and foremost, Rondo is a bitch. and a dirty player. Second, he is not as good as his statistics would indicate. Third, it's four games into their season. I don't see people touting DRose as the next scoring champ because he led the league in scoring for two games. Let the season play out a little more, his numbers will drop back down to normal. And finally, he looks like an alien. How can anyone like him??

Addition: Here is the url for the 24 assist game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWvZlnhae3k

Look at 1:06, 2:23 (Pierce nails a three with the defender on him), 3:00, 3:10. Those are the ones I noticed skipping through it. Those are all questionable assists in my eyes. Watch it and judge for yourself.

I was just sitting here thinking about all the positive things the Bulls have to offer free agents come this summer. Then I had a thought. The Knicks have some pretty good assets to offer free agents as well. So I will do a small comparison of the teams with positives and negatives. (This is assuming that they all decide they hate their teams and that Chicago/NY are the only options. I know there are other teams, but I don't feel like checking up on the Nets or Miami.)

Chicago Bulls Positives:

-We have Derrick Rose. Nuff said

-Big City Market for free agents. Most attended games in the league, one of the most profitable orgs

-We have Noah and Deng to support FA + Rose.

-Our record is hovering ~.500, despite all our shortcomings.

-We have a modern legacy in having success with superstars.

-We have the $$

Chicago Bulls Negatives:

-First and foremost is the possibility that VDN may be back next season.

-Beyond Rose, Deng, Noah and Hinrich/Miller/Taj to a smaller extent, we have nothing. Our bench is god awful. And we don't have much chance to improve it. JJ is unpredictable, although showing some promise recently. We have no 2nd round picks for couple seasons. We're swapping first round picks with Milwaukee unless we completely blow the rest of the season.

-We have VDN

-Our organization is stingy with cash, to put it kindly. So it's unlikely we will go over the cap to build a championship team, unless we land Dwade or Lebron (because it's almost a given we get rings with one of those two +Drose. And if anyone disputes this point, I have only this to say: As of right now, Drose is averaging 20.3 ppg being the known main offensive threat with nobody to draw double teams off him. If he has another scorer, he gets to the basket more, gets more open shots, more assists, etc. and our offense would be unstoppable with Wade/Lebron + Noah to mop up any misses. Defense can be worked on.)

- We have VDN. It's important to stress because we, as fans, can obviously see that Vinny's playbook consists of: 1. Give it to Drose and hope it works, 2. Give to Pargo for "instant offense", 3. Bench our hot players. If fans can see this, players definitely can.

Now it's time to asses the NYK.

Knicks Positives:

-They have Mike D'Antoni, who is known for being able to run a fast paced offense, and has a pretty damn good record (Excluding his time with the Knicks.) He was 21-40 in 04-05 with Phoenix. Then, he went 62-20, 54-28, 61-21, 55-27 the next four seasons respectively. Pretty damn good.

-They also have the Big City Market. However they have the Garden.

-The Knicks pieces include David Lee (I know FA this summer but im assuming they're going to work to keep him). They also have Al Harrington (18 ppg) and floor-spreaders in Eddie House (I don't know if he's there for more than this season) and Danilo Gallinari. After these guys there isn't much.

- They have a ALOT of cash. ALOT. Possible Scenarios: 1 max FA + signing a few 2nd tier free agents to support him + existing pieces, or 2 max FAs and existing crew plus draft picks. Neither are bad cases.

Knicks Negatives:

-They're god awful right now

-Been stuck in the dregs of the EC for a few seasons now

-It would take a tremendous effort by the front office and a good deal of luck for their plan to work their first season. More likely, it would take a few seasons to build a championship team. Since the max FAs want to win big during their prime, this is a big negative. The Bulls have the one up here because they are already decent.

-The Knicks have a terrible reputation right now, with their recent history.

Overall, I think the Bulls' chances are better, but not by far. What do you guys think?

(This is my first fanpost on Bab. I've been reading for awhile but just made an account. Lemme know how I did. )

Before the season even started, I believed, as did most people on BaB, that this season would amount to be a first round play-off exit, maybe a .500 team at best, or at worst being a complete bust in the hopes for a free agent in the summer. Surprisingly, so far, and I say so far, the season has been a pleasant surprise. Derrick Rose has become a beast who can dominate teams offensively at will (I.E. the Portland game last night). Joakim Noah turned out to be a rebounding beast and defensive mainstay. Even Deng, who I never really liked, has been playing smart recently. When his jump shot isn't falling he's getting himself to the free throw line. The play of these three has really gotten me excited not only for free agency, but also for the playoffs. I want to see if they have another level of play the competitive aura of the playoffs can bring out in them and make a Chris Bosh go, "Holy shit. They're pretty good without me. I can get paid, and get a shot at a ring there!"

On another positive note, I think everyone has been surprised by our new tradees. Warrick pretty much kept our team alive late in the first half of the Portland game, even though Flip Murray really didn't do much that game besides giving us an entertaining trip to the free throw line. They've both been consistently decent, which is more than I could say about Salmons, A.K.A. the swirling vortex of play stoppage. I mean seriously, you'd think the ball was glued to his hands. Anyways, Murray is definitely a better player and isn't afraid to shoot a clutch three ( I'm going to reference the Washington game even though we lost because Kirk was scared to take the open three and gave it right back to Murray, who drained it.)

On the critical side though, the Bulls need to get rid of those scary few minutes when it looks like someone is moving the basket every time they take a shot. It's usually late second or early third quarter that this happens, but it's enough to give bad teams the hope they can come back and win it. Is there an easy solution to this besides saying go for the easy shots? The ball movement usually stops in these times with either Pargo or Hinrich sitting at the top of the key dribbling it out until there's 8 seconds left on the clock. Then they either force up a bad shot with a hand in their face or they turn it over. The scary part is that it's not rare for this to happen. It happens for at least a few minutes every game. This type of thing has to go away if we want to have a shot of leaving the first round as a winner.

Overall I'd say it's a pretty good time to be a Bulls fan right now. The Bulls have problems, namely the fact that our bench is filled with Pargo's and Hunter's and Brown's and James's (the bad kind of James) who somehow are still being payed to play a game they fail at. But if you overlook these things, the Bulls are actually playing like a good team right now. Ask me how I feel in two weeks and my answer might be completely different.