NBA Archetypes and The Chicago Bulls

Upside and Motor made a chart of NBA Archetypes that is very insightful. Your initial reaction to it will be "Oh, that's cool, but whatever". If you give it a few seconds though and really look at it, you will realize how interesting it is. Here's the chart:

The pyramid is a tiered system, so players on the top are obviously more valuable than players towards the bottom. Although a lot of players fit neatly in one category, a lot of them can fit into 2 or more. What does this mean for the Bulls? I thought it would be interesting to see what categories the current Bulls fall into, so here goes:

Derrick Rose: Right now Rose is in the rising star category, although he clearly has shown the potential to be a premier point guard in this league. When I think of premier point guards, I think of Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Steve Nash. Rose is clearly not at that level yet but could be. For now, rising star is where he belongs.

Ben Gordon: Although Upside seems to classify him as a "megalomaniacal small guard", I think BG is more of a pure shooter, though that would seem to put him awfully high on the pyramid.

Kirk Hinrich: Hinrich is a scoring combo guard. Although he brings up the ball and generally thinks pass, he is not a pass-first point guard with his ability to score in bunches (at least before his jump shot abandoned him).

Lindsey Hunter: Veteran Floor General. No question about it.

Larry Hughes: Chucker. Even though he's been shooting a bit better lately, this guy is a chucker. Some have compared my game to his in that I like to shoot a lot but very few of the shots go in.

Thabo Sefolosha: This one is difficult. I was discussing this with my brother, and he pointed out that Thabo did not really have enough minutes to tell. For now he falls in the question mark category. However, with more minutes he could be a decent wing-stopper or even a rangeless slasher (though his slashing abilities are questionable at best).

Luol Deng: Luol was very tough to categorize. The best I could think of was "explosive wing". It pains me to say it, but we spent 70 million on a 4th tier player. Ouch.

Andres Nocioni: Hustle player. Easiest one to categorize.

Tyrus Thomas: High talent low IQ. He is the prototype of this category.

Drew Gooden: Gooden was also a tough one. He clearly fits into the "skilled but flawed post" category, but it seems a bit high on the pyramid for Drew. He is an effective player, however, and with our shitty front line we need him.

Joakim Noah: Raw Project Center, Brute Rebounder, Under Construction. Noah can fit into all those categories. Unfortunately none of those categories is "good".

Aaron Gray: Even though he has a different skill set than Noah, I think he fits under the same raw project center and under construction categories.

So there is your 08-09 Chicago Bulls. Besides Rose and Gordon, not much to build around. Still, every team needs role players and the Bulls have plenty of those. Here's to a .500 season!