Chicago Correspondence

For selected matchups this season, your resident Timberwolves reporter will be consulting with various correspondents around other NBA cities to learn as much as we can about upcoming opponents. Our first correspondent is Chicago Bulls expert Mike Granieri, a Northwestern University graduate and fantasy sports guru currently living in the Windy City.

Heading into Friday night’s contest in Chicago against the Bulls, I thought it prudent to have Mr. Granieri give us a scouting report of his hometown squad. Here is the transcript of our conversation…

Trudell: What’s up Mike? Thanks a lot for joining us here on Timberwolves.com. Before we start this rhetorical train, please convince our readers that you are actually a Bulls expert, and that they have a reason to listen to what you’re saying.
Granieri: I’ve been an avid Bulls fan my entire life. I try to watch every one of their games, and attend several each season. I’ve been following the team closely since the days of Jordan in the early 90s, and aside from reading everything about the team, I follow fantasy basketball closely and am well informed about the rest of the NBA.

Trudell: Or so you say…give up a few of your sources to build more credibility…
Granieri: I consult ProSportsDaily.com, Bulls.com, Timberwolves.com (of course), ESPN.com -- specifically John Hollinger, Mark Stein and Chris Sheridan, all basketball writers. I also read the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times daily.

Trudell: Wow, Mike. You might want to drive a little slower on all that, but you have me convinced. Let’s talk some basketball.
Granieri: Yes indeed.

Trudell: OK then. Nice and simple: How do you see Chicago matching up with the Timberwolves?
Granieri: I think they’ll match up quite well. First and foremost, the Bulls play great defense, guarding the perimeter very well. You saw them give the NBA champion Heat a really tough time on the perimeter in the playoffs last year. Now with the additions of Ben Wallace and P.J. Brown, they have some big bodies down low to bang somebody the caliber of Kevin Garnett, clearly the Wolves’ big weapon. Wallace is a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and he won’t be able to stop Garnett, but should be able to contain him and make the Wolves beat the Bulls in other ways.

Trudell: Well, I’m not sure you can contain Garnett with an interior defensive stopper, even one as good as Wallace, because KG has shown what a great shooter he is. You know KG can step out and hit shots from just about anywhere, in addition to drawing fouls and getting to the line. However, Wallace will help keep him out of the lane more than most defenders do, and force Ticket to shoot from the outside more, so Big Ben’s presence is certainly a positive for Chicago. But what Minnesota has done the best so far is play defense. How do you see Chicago’s offense matching up with our defense?
Granieri: Well, a lot of the success in Chicago’s offense depends on their perimeter game, and having their shots fall.

Trudell: That’s not a good thing, right?
Granieri: It’s good and bad. Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon can be deadly from outside, but you’d like to have a little more consistency down low. Hopefully P.J. Brown, who is a good shooter, will help, and Wallace gets a lot of offensive rebounds and tip ins. But one weakness of the Bulls is the lack of a low-post scoring threat.

Trudell: Right, but there aren’t very many teams that have a great low-post scoring option. You can probably name the truly viable low-post scoring threats on one hand: Tim Duncan, Amare Stoudamire, Shaq, Pao Gasol, and maybe Yao Ming, when all are healthy...that’s about it.
Granieri: Indeed, but the old adage is that you have to win with a big man, and only one team in my memory – Jordan’s Bulls – without a big has been able to win.

Trudell: Except Detroit did do it with Wallace, and Rasheed Wallace isn’t exactly a low-post scorer at the power forward position. Moving on, give us a brief run down of the Bulls’ latest projected starting lineup.
Granieri: It’s Hinrich at the point, and he really looks great. He played well at the World Championships, and was putting up a very, very good 22 points and 8 assists towards the end of last year. At shooting guard, you have my man “BG,” Ben Gordon, who is a very talented scorer.

Trudell: Isn’t that all he does though?
Granieri: He’s been primarily a scorer, but he’s been working on his passing and his defense. We still want him to score, but in addition, we expect continued development on the defensive end.

Trudell: Wait a second Mike, do the Bulls know you’re saying “We” when talking about the team?
Granieri: Well, you know…as a fan I like to say we, but I’m not actually a “member” of the Bulls.

Trudell: Just wanted to clarify…so that was your backcourt, take us up front.
Granieri: Luol Deng will start at small forward, and he’s a talented kid out of Duke who was putting up 16 and 8 in April last year. The Bulls expect a lot more out of him. And at the four and five positions, you have Brown and Wallace. They got Brown mostly for his soon-to-be expiring contract (eight million off the books after this year means he probably won’t be resigned for that money), I think, but he’s a good leader and a solid pickup. Wallace is the new star of the Bulls, and he’ll fit in very well. His defensive mentality mirrors what the Bulls are trying to do, so I expect the same production out of him that he had in Detroit.

Trudell: Fair enough. Talk about the Bulls’ bench.
Granieri: The Bulls have a very strong bench, probably one of the better benches in the league. In the backcourt you have a very serviceable backup point guard in Chris Duhon, and this new rookie, Thabo Sefolosha, that they got with the 16th pick in the draft, whom the Bulls are extremely high on. He’s 6-7, 22-years old, with long arms, very good at penetrating and passing, and a great defender. He’s like a less-talented Scottie Pippen. The Bulls wanted to address height and defense in the backcourt, because Gordon and Hinrich are each 6-3 at best.

Trudell: Who? Sefolosha? You just made him sound very, very good, but Scottie Pippen? We’ll certainly be interested in checking him out. From what you’ve said, the Bulls will be bringing him off the bench to guard some other team’s two guards?
Granieri: Yeah, that’s what they want to use him for, to guard a Michael Redd, a Kobe, or a Dwyane Wade.

Trudell: Tell us about Andres Nocioni and Tyrus Thomas.
Granieri: Nocioni is a great player, and should contend for Sixth Man of the Year. He’s a tough-nosed Argentinean, is very versatile and is a personal favorite of mine. Thomas (T-Time) should get a lot of PT this year, and everyone here is really excited about both his and Sefolosha’s development. I’m thinking 15 minutes a game each for them.

Trudell: Is that what head coach Scott Skiles told you?
Granieri: Ha, no I didn’t have a direct conversation with Coach, but from what I’ve read, this is what they’ve said.

Trudell: I know, just kidding. We should talk about why the Bulls just seem to play harder than everyone else.
Granieri: Yeah, definitely, and that can be credited a bit to their coach. Skiles was a very hard-nosed player, and he’s brought that to the Bulls as a coach.

Trudell: Plus, he was great in NBA JAM along with Shaq or Nick Anderson.
Granieri: Anyway, he and GM John Paxson like a hard-working mentality here, and he definitely gets his players to go hard and leave it all out on the floor.

Trudell: It would seem Wallace and Brown fit perfectly into that mold. Wasn’t there something else to the P.J. Brown trade?
Granieri: Yeah, and it’s interesting, because the Bulls also got J.R. Smith from the Hornets in that deal for Tyson Chandler. Chicago immediately dropped J.R. Smith because they didn’t like his attitude and lack of defense, so they shipped him to Denver for Howard Eisley, whom they promptly cut. It was pretty much just a dump of Smith. The Bulls got rid of Chandler because he is a similar player to Wallace, in terms of the role he plays.

Trudell: I feel you. So what are you hearing about the Wolves, you with all of your reading of national basketball publications?
Granieri: Everyone is saying that Garnett is fired up this season, and has looked great in practice. You can confirm or deny this, yes?

Trudell: Clearly true.
Granieri: I’ve also been reading your stuff about Foye, and how exceptional he was as the MVP of the Vegas Summer League. People are calling him a poor man’s Dwyane Wade.

Trudell: Well, I think he’s going to be great, but you always want to stay away from comparing someone to a guy who took over the NBA and won the Finals MVP last season. Let’s let Foye get on the court in the regular season before we even open that discussion.*
*(From the editor) Mike and I went on to discuss the Wolves for several minutes, but you get to read about them every day, so we’ll move on.

Trudell: OK Granieri, let’s get you out of here with this: What’s the best way to beat the Bulls?
Granieri: Make them shoot jumpers, and hope they miss. On the offensive end, attack the basket and get to the foul line. The Bulls have had major trouble the past two years with FT disparity. In my opinion, they are going to have the best defensive team in the league. Their defensive field goal percentage allowed should be at the top (for the third straight year). The Bulls are really solid both around the perimeter and inside now, as we talked about earlier, and expectations are rightfully high there.

Trudell: Thanks so much for being with us Mike, it was fun talking to you.
Granieri: Cool, thanks for having me. Best of luck to the Wolves this year.

Trudell: All right. We’ll check back in with you next week before our preseason rematch in Minnesota this coming Wednesday evening at the Target Center.