Will Ben Wallace make a major impact in the Windy City?: M.Smith vs. The Beast

Earlier in the week, M.Smith was quoted saying, "The Chicago Bulls are already awesome defensively, they struggled to score points... how does Wallace help?"' What I don't understand is how can you call a team that gave up 97 points per game awesome defensively. Over these past 5 years, Big Ben has made a huge impact on the defensive minded Detroit Pistons. Wallace gives the Bulls an immediate stopper in the paint, a consistant rebounder, and an occasional offensive threat. He is athletic and can run with the fat-paced Bulls. The Bulls have plenty of scoring with Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, and Andres Nocioni. They have the reliable P.J. Brown too. All 5 of these guys can score. Big Ben can score a little too if he can get the ball. Last year the O averaged 98 points a game. That may not be Pheonix-Suns-ish, but it is still rather good. The Bulls top scores, Gordon, Deng, etc. will most likely improve on that too. Its the 97 points a game that needs to decrease.

First, I had no idea that you could do a "showdown". Awesome feature.

Second, on to the topic at hand. The Beast focuses on PPG allowed and PPG scored, only those two statistics to determine whether a team is good defensively. Ahhh, if only it were that easy. PPG allowed is a weird statistic in that your pace of play, turnovers on offense, and rebounding have as much of an effect as defense does in many occasion. Lets say for example that there is a team that plays a quick pace, it gives more possessions per game to both teams and therefore raises the PPG allowed through no fault of the D. Now lets say that said team plays great defense at that pace, but also plays bad offense... it would mean that their PPG scored and PPG allowed could be similar even though they are playing much better on D.

I have just explained the Chicago Bulls. As referenced in other comments between the Beast and I... here are stats to prove my point.

Chicago led the league last year in FG% defense. Points allowed per 100 possessions - 104 (Mavs 105, Heat 105) Points scored per 100 possesions - 104 (Mavs 112, Heat 109)

So, Chicago scores 8 less and 5 less points per 100 possessions than the two NBA finals teams... BUT, they actually allow one point LESS than the two finals teams. Therefore, there defense was at championship level last year, there offense was holding them back... the PPG allowed is a result of there pace of play, not their defensive prowess.

Big Ben won't help the offense, he actually might hurt it. Big Ben is great on D, but how much can you improve a D that is actually better at stopping points each possession that the two teams that made the NBA finals the previous year?

I am afraid this is so simple M.Smith wants to amaze me and everyone else with all these special statistics. Look, last year, the Bulls gave up 97 ponts and only scored 98. Good defensive teams should be allowing around 85. Clearly basketball is scoring more points than your opponant. The Bulls scored on average on a point more than their opponant. The defense must allow less.

I win... WOOOOO! WOOOOOO! showdown massacre. oh the gore, its beastly.