BIG Ben

So, the Bulls have inked ben Wallace to a 4 year $60 Million dollar deal. That's a lot of Afro cuts in anyone's league. The big question remains - Is he worth it?

Ben Wallace brings to the Bulls a great defensive player and a guy who will kick ass 82 times a year. His work ethic is legendary and for a young team with little interior presence, he will make them a superior team to the one which was entertaining this past year. Given that they may end up with the first pick in the lottery next year (Thank you Isiah for this early Christmas present) the Bulls are on the right road. BUT, is ben worth $15 Million per?

His offensive game makes Rafael Araujo look like a one on one champ and his free throw percentage rivals that of Shaq. The Bulls, with little interior offense this year, are still pondering a way to score inside. A proposed trade with Charlotte does not totally address this problem and the Bulls might be left to find this kind of scoring in the draft next year. But how long can ben Wallace last. As a somewhat undersized center in the prototypical sense, he depends on energy and he is not at an age where I see him being effective by the time the contact is over. If the Bulls get at least 2 years of great service out of him they have probably put themselves in a position where they can be an elite team in the East and while I don't see them winning the NBA championship during that time, they will have a horde of young players who will benefit by having worked under the tutelage of Ben Walalce and if one of those young studs becomes Greg Oden, they may be able to make the transition from the Ben Wallace era to the Greg Oden era without interruption. Again, they can thank the Knicks for their situation because they can take chances knowing they have a slew of lottery picks including this years. Tyrus Thomas, Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Thabo Sefalosha, Captain Kirk etc - this sounds like a real nice team, with the prospect of getting much better.