Must Watch: Luol Deng Goes Home

I first heard about this via TrueHoop: Luol Deng Goes Home

"I've never been in a place where I've walked in the street and actually feel home, where I don't feel like a refugee." Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng says.

It's been two decades since Bull forward Luol Deng fled worn-torn southern Sudan, where he was born. Two million people have died, as the region was brutalized by government-sanctioned forces. In January, southern Sudan will vote on a referendum to secede from Sudan and become an independent nation.

Deng recently visited his native land for the first time in 20 years. The BBC documented Deng's trip, and produced a report you can watch on BBC World News America on Thursday at 7p ET on BBC America. An audio slideshow of the journey can be seen here.

I ended up DVRing it because I had softball playoffs last night. (We won.) I watched it this morning and it definitely worth a look. Here's an online version (Click for video):

NBA superstar Deng returns to his Sudan roots

Luol Deng returns to Sudan for the first time since he fled 20 years ago


Luol Deng is getting drenched. While most sports stars spend their off-season on the beach, Britain's NBA superstar is soaking up a Southern Sudanese wet-season deluge.

There is a solemn ritual to it. A United Nations Refugee Agency official hands him an umbrella. Luol accepts it, waits a few seconds, quietly walks over to a line of dripping schoolchildren and then hands it over. The children gaze up, and up and up, smile, and take shelter.


Watch our audio slideshow

Luol ambles back to the centre of the muddy field, where the welcoming ceremony continues. Within a minute, as his XXXL t-shirt turns ever darker with rain, a further umbrella is proffered, only to end up in the hands of another teenager.

Now that southern Sudan's most celebrated refugee has at last returned home for the first time in 20 years, columns of children run through their sweetly drilled routine. "Welcome, welcome," they sing. "We are happy to see Luol Deng today". As they sing, they march in lilting step.

Click-a-Bull (Noah; 7 Storylines; All-Stars?; 10 Bold Predictions; SF Ranks / Deng)

BBS post yesterday: Week 2: Cutler's S.O.S.




BBS post earlier today: Click-a-Bull (Derrick Rose Links)

VOTE: How many games will the
BEARS win this season? ---->

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Joakim Noah giving back to community

It's a few minutes past 4 p.m. on an August Friday and the excitement is palpable at the Variety Boys and Girls Club in Astoria Queens.

Several preteens stand in the lobby while a few parents and a photographer look on, waiting for the arrival of the day's special guest. Volunteers scurry back and forth trying to tie up some loose ends as other neighborhood children shuffle in and out of classrooms, some trying to figure out exactly what is going on. Small banners dot the walls announcing the special events that have already started taking place in the building. The old facility on 30th Street has a different kind of energy to it on this day.

It's not every day that an NBA player, who spent many of his formative years working on his game around the area, comes back to visit. It's also not every day that you see a 7-foot, 260-pound man with a curly ponytail walk around in a red tank top and blue checkered shorts. But then again, you never know exactly what to expect when you see -- and hear -- Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah.

That's why everyone has gathered here today, and that's why they're so excited when the happy-go-lucky big man walks up the steps and strides through the double doors. Seemingly everybody gets a handshake or a hug. He would stand and talk to everybody for a while if he could, but the events are underway and he's got to attempt to stay on schedule. It's his foundation's inaugural Stickman Day, after all, and everybody wants a moment of his time. So he heads down the stairs and down the hall with the same confident swagger he displays on the basketball floor.

Noah has control of any room he enters because of his outgoing personality, but this particular room in the far corner is a little different. That's because the arts and crafts room is filled with young girls, as well as two of the most important women in his life -- his mom, Cecilia Rodhe, and his sister, Yelena. Rodhe, an accomplished sculptor and art therapist, has spent the past couple hours working with the girls, and now it's time to show some of the finished clay sculpture to the man of the hour.

"Hello ladies," Noah says as he ducks underneath the doorway to enter the classroom.

7 curious things about the upcoming season

The defense in Chicago
The Boston Celtics' return to the NBA's upper echelon was predicated first and foremost on their defense. They unleashed a pressurized force field designed and implemented by Tom Thibodeau, and ultimately adopted by other teams around the league, including the Los Angeles Lakers. This June, the Bulls tapped Thibodeau to fill their head coaching vacancy. He joins a Bulls team that put together a strong defensive season last season, finishing 10th in efficiency. Skeptics might look at Derrick Rose -- whose defensive instincts are a far cry from Rajon Rondo -- and Carlos Boozer and conclude that Thibodeau doesn't have the personnel to succeed the way he did in Boston. Yet in 2007, Thibodeau took a quintet that featured Ray Allen (who had a horrendous defensive reputation coming from Seattle), an undisciplined big man in Kendrick Perkins, a second-year point guard in Rajon Rondo who'd started only 25 games and made them one of the best defensive units in basketball. With Joakim Noah anchoring the interior, the lanky tandem of Luol Deng and Ronnie Brewer on the wings, Boozer's sharp basketball IQ and Rose's gifts, Thibodeau should have the tools to sculpt a top-5 defense. If the Bulls buy in, we'll have a better understanding whether Thibodeau's kind of tactical expertise is transferable -- and an inkling of just how dangerous the Bulls could be.

2011 All-Star Game: How Does Free Agent Movement Affect Who Goes?

With all the offseason movement this summer, a lot will look different this upcoming season. One of the biggest and most noticeable will be the new faces who might appear in the 2011 NBA All-Star Game.

The biggest differences will likely take place out West. With players like Amar’e Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer now residing on Eastern Conference teams, a few frontcourt positions have opened up.

But most importantly is how the moves affected the power rankings of the teams in each conference. A couple teams that made the Western playoffs could end up dropping out of the playoffs altogether, whereas a few teams that made the playoffs in the East last season actually improved drastically.

Reason why I mentioned the teams and how they presumably rose and dropped is because winning comes into the equation of selecting who does and doesn’t make the All-Star Game.

For example, Amar’e leaving Phoenix and the likelihood of the Suns dropping in the standings could knock a player like Steve Nash out of contention for a roster selection, whereas a player like Russell Westbrook could be in a great position if the Thunder get off to a quick start like expected.

Andrew Bynum might steal a roster berth if he gets off to a fast start, but then again, Yao Ming is back and will be the starting the season and Tim Duncan will get selected by the coaches regardless of what kind of season he is having.

In the East, Amar’e could find himself left off the roster if the Knicks don’t win early and often. Yet a player like Joakim Noah or Andrew Bogut could find himself on it if their teams improve on last season’s success.

Chris Bosh might miss the game if he isn’t voted in by the fans and it’ll be interesting to see how many fans don’t vote for Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.

All in all, I expect to see more than a handful of new faces at the game this season.

Here’s my picks of the players with the best shot at making it at each position.

Sky High: 10 Bold Predictions for the Chicago Bulls This Season

It's late in summer and most of the dust has settled, the smoke has cleared, and now it's time to look forward to the future.

Notably, the team we are going to be looking at are the Chicago Bulls. I will do my best to make 10 bold predictions for the Bulls' upcoming season in hopes that most of them, if not all, come true.

Keep in mind that some of these may seem a little too optimistic, but that's why they are BOLD predictions.

Without further ado, here are my top 10 bold predictions for the Bulls' upcoming season...

Ranking the small forwards, 11 through 1

8. Luol Deng(notes), Chicago Bulls (last year: 19th)

After a year or two in the wilderness, Luol finally got his wits about him in 2009-10, averaging 17.6 points and 7.3 rebounds alongside his typically sound defense. Deng also chipped in about a steal and block per game, and this is important: Luol came in at under two turnovers a game for the sixth time in a six year career. I understand that his mid-range, rarely-dribbling game doesn't see him taking many chances, but to be able to field a solid-scoring forward for nearly 38 minutes a game and see him turn it over just 1.9 times per? Good stuff.

Ranking Luol Deng

According to Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie, Luol Deng is the eight-best small forward in the NBA, behind LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Gerald Wallace, Andre Iguodala, Danny Granger and Paul Pierce.

Here’s Dwyer’s commentary: “After a year or two in the wilderness, Luol finally got his wits about him in 2009-10, averaging 17.6 points and 7.3 rebounds alongside his typically sound defense. Deng also chipped in about a steal and block per game, and this is important: Luol came in at under two turnovers a game for the sixth time in a six-year career. I understand that his midrange, rarely dribbling game doesn’t see him taking many chances, but to be able to field a solid-scoring forward for nearly 38 minutes a game and see him turn the ball over just 1.9 times per? Good stuff.”

That seems fair. Now let’s take a quick peek at the comparitive 2010-11 salaries of Dwyer’s top eight SFs (from ShamSports): LeBron ($14,500,000), Durant ($6,053,663 from his rookie contract but jumping to $13,603,750 in 2011-12), ‘Melo ($17,149,243), Wallace ($10,500,000), Iggy ($12,345,250), Granger ($10,973,202), Pierce ($13,876,321) and Deng ($11,345,000).

This biggest knock against Deng is his supposedly cap-killing contract. And yet based on Dwyer’s rankings, Deng’s pay is roughly commensurate with his standing among the league’s elite small forwards.

This — in addition to all the recent talk about potentially trying to flip Deng (and other assets) for ‘Melo — got me to wondering how Luol ranks statistically compared to the league’s other small forwards.

Deng versus the Average Small Forward:
According to Hoopdata, the average NBA small forward gives his team 9.2 PPG, 3.6 RPG (2.7 DR and 0.8 OR), 1.4 APG, 0.7 SPG and 0.4 BPG while shooting 44.9% from the field, 34.9% from downtown and 78.6% from the line (on 2.2 FTA).

Last season, Deng averaged 17.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG (5.4 DR and 1.9 OR), 2.0 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.9 and 0.9 BPG while shooting 46.6% from the field, 38.6% from beyond the arc and 76.4% from the line (on 4.7 FTA).

At a glance, it’s clear that Deng is solidly above average. But let’s delve further. The following comparitive rankings also come from Hoopdata. I have compared Deng to other “full time” small forwards — that is, SFs who played 40+ games and 30+ MPG — across several categories.

Click-a-Bull (Derrick Rose Links)

NBA Floor Generals: Power Ranking the Top 10 Point Guards

So here is the first of six articles I will be writing on power ranking the top ten players from each position and the top ten benches.

I also list an honorable mention and a few of the young players to look out for in the future.

We will start with the leaders of the team, the point guards. These are the ones who are in charge of carrying this team and running the team's offense. Point guards are there to set up their teammates, as well as being looked upon to be the team's secondary scorers.

These players play a pivotal role when it comes to winning games. If your team doesn't have a great point guard, you are in some trouble, unless of course you have Dwyane Wade and LeBron James on your team. Point guards carry the burden of making decisions under extreme pressure, and are always under ridicule if they do not succeed.

Overall, the point guard is the one on whom everyone relies to make that game-changing decision, whether to pass the ball to the hot hand, or take it to the hole themselves. So here is a list compiling the top 10 point guards in the NBA.

Let the debates begin!



...


7. Derrick Rose: Chicago Bulls

Rose uses his great frame and fantastic speed to blow past defenders with ease. Then, once he is able to blow by the defenders, he uses his explosive leaping abilities to either dunk on defenders or just elevate over them.

He possesses great one-on-one skills that he uses to his advantage when driving to the basket. He is a good combo guard right now, but needs to learn to be a half-court type point guard where he is able to come in and make moves to set up teammates, rather than doing so in the open court/transition game that he is ever so good at already.

Lastly, Rose is another player that falls under the "must improve shooting stroke" in order to enhance his skills that much more.

Call me a biased Bulls fan, but D-Rose at 7?! Seems about 5 spots too low. This next article is more what I'm thinking for D-Rose ...





6 reasons Derrick Rose will emerge as the best PG in the NBA this year

Before any people want to disagree with my statement, hear me out. I will provide you with six solid reasons why there is a good chance my statement will come true.

Derrick Rose is already an established all-star and with the recent summer the bulls have had, it's time for Rose to flourish and take the next step into superstardom and stamp his name as the best PG in the NBA.

National Team Gives Chicago’s Rose Bigger Stage to Prove He Can Lead

Derrick Rose grew up on the South Side of Chicago, so he has a keen appreciation of Michael Jordan’s Bulls. Those teams were far different from the more recent incarnations, and Rose, who was 9 when Jordan was in his final season in Chicago, has seen many players come and go since then.

Derrick Rose, who hopes to play for the USA Basketball at the world championship in Turkey, was the Bulls’ first All-Star since Michael Jordan in 1998.

But when LeBron James and other high-profile free agents decided against playing for Chicago this summer, Rose was left as the face of the franchise. And now, as a member of the United States national team, he can show he is ready to stand out on a big stage when the Americans play two exhibitions this weekend in Madrid as they prepare for the FIBA world championships Aug. 28 to Sept. 12 in Turkey.

Rose is competing for minutes, perhaps even a roster spot, on a team filled with point guards. If he emerges with a role on the team, it will be a positive step toward becoming the player he will need to be for the Bulls.

Mike Krzyzewski, the United States coach, said Rose had elevated his game, particularly on defense, since the team started training. “There’s no maintenance,” he said of Rose’s play. “You’ve got a guy doing all those things who you never have to motivate.”

In two N.B.A. seasons, Rose has started to blossom. He was the league’s rookie of the year in 2008-9, and he became the Bulls’ first All-Star since Jordan in 1998, Jordan’s final season in Chicago.

DERRICK ROSE BREAKING ANKLES

Week 2: Cutler's S.O.S.

It was just the 2nd preseason game. I have to keep reminding myself this. Hopefully, the bears can improve mightly in the 3 weeks before the opener. Here are what I took as the positives (not many) and the causes for concern out of saturday night's game:

Pros

1. The bears 1st teamers outscored the raiders first team 14-13 for one half of football. And this was basically without a kicking game because there didnt have a long snapper. The raiders may not be a great team this year but they will be solid and beating them at half is a positive sign for the bears 1st teamers.

2. Brandon Manumaluena can block and is a huge man. Mike Martz wasnt kidding when he described this guy as a 3rd OT at TE. He cleared the way for the bears running game with some punishing pancake type blocks. Matt Forte also showed us the burst that we all remember from his rookie season. Positive things happen in the running game.

VOTE: How many games will the
BEARS win this season? ---->

3. Julius Peppers is as good as advertised. He didnt tally a sack but he did cause havoc in the backfield on a lot of plays and flashed the ability that the bears are paying 13.5 million for.

Definite concerns

1. Is Orlando Pace still available? For that matter, can someone call John Tait and Rueben Brown back from retirement? Chris Williams, Frank Omiyale and Lance Louis got consistently beat in pass blocking. Williams was the worst offender. He made Cameron Wimbley and his speed rush look like oldschool Lawrence Taylor. But, Omiyale got pushed around on pass blocking as well. The 1st team O-line gave up 5 sacks and had Jay scrambling for his life. Now, some of it was Jay's fault as he failed to step up in the pocket and avoid atleast 2 of the sacks. But still, I'm not sure what the answer is to this O-line problems because i dont think a better option exists on the roster. It seems we must cross our fingers and hope for someone improvement from this young line.

2. Chris Harris can't play free safety. Harris can be a valuable player up in the box and near the line of scrimmage but the bears might be better off with me playing the deep safety. There has to be a better option on the bears roster at free safety than Harris even if Major Wright is hurt. Harris was late getting over and he just doesnt have the range to cover the necessary ground. After the game, he said that the safety spots were interchangeable in this defense but clearly they arent when every pass downfield had him getting there late from his deep coverage. The bears traded him 2 years ago because they knew he didnt have the range for free safety, why do they think he can play it now?

3. Someone has to step up on the defense. The Jason Campbell had too much time in the pocket on most plays, receivers were running down the stems open and raiders RBs were making people miss. Peppers looked good, Urlacher, Tillman and Briggs looked solid. But these are guys we know are going to perform. What will make this a good defense is if someone unknown can step up and make an impact. Tommie Harris had some flashes this game. But, I have pretty much given up on Mark Anderson to anything besides celebrate when his teammates do something good or for Danieal Manning to be anything but a confused athlete. Let's hope Irsael Idonije (who showed some flashes this game), Major Wright or Matt Toeaia (who i think can be a DT ala Chris Zorich) or anther defensive player can step up and become an impact player. Because without that, this defense is just middle of the pack.

Stay tuned for some updates on position battles and who to watch in next week's 3rd preseason game.

Click-a-Bull (Ira the Idiot; Rudy/Henry Update)

LeBron’s new spokesman? We nominate Wade

Dec. 2 and March 29 in Cleveland? The forecast is for considerable storminess.

Jan. 15 and Feb. 24 in Chicago? Apparently, clear skies.

Give Dwyane Wade credit. Amid a summer of Heat villainy, he continues to emerge as a voice of reason.

His returns to Chicago this season are setting up like nothing close to what LeBron James is expected to receive in Cleveland.

Thursday, Wade spent time on WSCR in Chicago, promoting his charity weekend there. During the radio interview, he was asked about his spurning of his hometown during free agency, after dropping numerous hints about the possibility of a return.

Dwyane Wade has spent the offseason saying the right things.

He was as smooth as, well, the anti-LeBron.

“Like I said, it was very close and I had to take my emotional side out of Chicago and not making an emotional decision,” he said. “But, at the end of the day, I think those guys understood, first of all, they have got a great team. They did an unbelievable job at getting the right team around them to get themselves in a position to compete for a championship real soon. They did a great job.

Leave it to a beat writer in Miami to get the pulse of Chicago Bulls' fans about D-Wade. What a f$%^ing moron. Maybe I'm in the minority of Bulls' fans, but I hate anything related to that punk group of chumps down in "South Beach". Wade can talk a good talk about Chicago being his home, but the only reason he's not the most hated athlete in Chicago is because we all hate LeBron just slightly more. Warm reception at the UC? I think we'll save the cheers for our own team.

The only reason I want Wade to be successful at all is because I'm hoping LeBron gets hurt near the end of the regular season and the Heat win the title without him. That way that little punk-bitch has to accept the ring that his teammates earned while he sat on the bench with a broken leg. And now I'm hoping he gets hurt colliding into this ass-hat Ira Winkleman and they both end up in wheelchairs. Stick to Miami and your hated Heat. Leave the real basketball, and the real fans, in Chicago where it belongs.




Odds and Ends; Rudy update and Henry's situation with Memphis

A couple minor news items came out over the past few days, and I didn't feel like creating a whole blog post for either, but on another slow August day (is there a worse month in sports than August? Seriously?) I figure it's worth an update.


First, Rudy Fernandez no longer wants to play in the NBA, or at least he's willing to say that in hopes of getting his release from the Blazers.

"He has indicated he would like to return to Europe to continue his basketball career," Miller told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday. "He is more comfortable in Europe. He'd rather be in Europe than the NBA. He understands the circumstances in which he wouldn't be coming back. I don't see any scenario in which he'd want to be back."


Well I can think of a scenario where Rudy would love to return to the NBA. One where he's not on the Blazers and isn't losing a couple million dollars a year over what Europe would pay him.

Rudy's gone on to discuss how he was depressed last season, doesn't like his role, and feels the Blazers broke promises. I'm not going to jump on him. This is a guy who probably lost about 6 million bucks so far by coming to the NBA and doesn't feel he's had an appropriate chance to play his style of game to earn a quality NBA contract.

I'm sure promises were made given how much he had to leave on the table to come over, and so he has every right to be pissed off that those promises were broken.

However, while I understand Rudy's plight, at this point, he's certainly made himself undesirable for teams to trade for him. That may certainly be his intention as it's likely he's being incredibly straight forward when he says this isn't what he wants, and he wants to play in Europe again.

As for Xavier Henry, he's still battling with Memphis over whether a few hundred thousand in his contract will be guaranteed or not, and what types of things need to happen to make that money guaranteed.

The center of the argument hinges on Memphis desire to make part of his money incentive based on achieving one of three metrics (all rookie team, rookie / sophomore team inclusion, or 15 minutes a game for 70+ games). It's common to have incentives in contracts (virtually every rookie contract now has them), but performance incentives are rare in rookie contracts.

Is Memphis pushing the envelope too hard here? I'd think they are well within their rights to try to push it however they want. As noted on shamsports creative financing in the NBA article, this is a tactic the Spurs have used all the time.

Derrick Rose + Skittles

Derrick Rose got his own, custom made Skittles machine. Top that Durant.

Skittles are where it's at. Forget Lamar Odom and his candy obsession, that's just one M&M in the bag. More NBA players than you think love Skittles.

I mean love. Michael Beasley sung their praises. Kevin Durant's neighbors bring them to him. There are many more NBA players who you can always catch with a bag of Skittles on them.




But Derrick Rose has taken it to a new level.


He now has a custom Skittles machine in his pad, as CNBC's Darren Rovell reports.

Earlier this month, they brought a custom, tricked-out Skittles vending machine to his house and promised to keep it stocked with Skittles for at least three years.

Rose gets the machine and the Skittles for free; the Skittles brand has a chance of getting more love from Rose; and the Bulls, I guess, hope Rose's sugar highs peak at the right time.

The folks at Wrigley would only confirm the following facts: The picture is real. The machine holds every variety of Skittles. And it even tempts him, in his own voice, whenever he walks by the machine.

Bulls 2010-11 Commercial (posted earlier today)

2010-11 Bulls Commercial: Rose & Noah (The Bulls Finally Got a Commercial Right!)

(Click-a-Bull links from this morning)