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| The Chicago Bulls' Tyson Chandler has yet to live up to expectations.
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Tyson Chandler is the last vestige of ex-GM Jerry Krause's youth-intensive rebuilding plan for the Chicago Bulls. That plan failed, miserably. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees,
At this point in his career, it's difficult to imagine Tyson making the trade that brought him to the Bulls (virtually straight up for Elton Brand) look good like a good move. Nevertheless, after a very solid 2004-05 season, Krause's successor John Paxson saw fit to reward him for his consistent improvement and ever-threatening potential.
At the time that Paxson gave Tyson a contract worth $64 million over 6 years, it seemed like a pretty reasonable deal - market value, everybody said. A very slow start led many to ask, in the words of a Timberwolves TV announcer, " Did he have a ski mask on when he signed that deal?"
Samuel Dalembert, who was discussed as a comparable free agent this past off-season, signed for slightly less and has produced considerably more. He leads the league in blocks as 3.33 and is only half a point away from averaging a double-double. Tyson's meager scoring average (5.5 ppg) is unacceptable given his contract, and after averaging 9.7 rebounds last year he should be averaging double-digits in rebounds, not 8.5.
To be fair, he has been much better lately (though that does reflect just how terrible the start of the season was). In the last ten games (through the disgusting loss to Sacramento on Thursday, Feb. 9th) Chandler has averaged 9.5 points and 13.8 rebounds per game - perhaps more impressive is his 19.3 reb-per-48-min. The league leader in rebounds is Dwight Howard at 12.6 (16.4 per-48). He's still scoring single-digits, but a whopping .727 shooting percentage means he's not taking bad shots.
In his best moments, Tyson looks like a taller Ben Wallace: completely dominant on the boards and the most active player on the court defensively. The biggest question remains whether these last ten games have been the real Chandler, or if the seeming weakling who started the season is closer to the real thing.
Naturally the only way to answer that is to wait; in the meantime, there are some things about his game that need work (even if this new-and-improved game is, in fact, his). Though his offense clearly is the weak part of his game, what the Bulls really need from him is defense, and the priority needs to be limiting fouls.
Even throughout his successful stretch, Tyson has been limited by foul trouble, and also repeatedly yanked by Coach Scott Skiles after taking a bad foul. He has gotten better at staying on the ground when opponents pump fake, but his defensive body control still needs work. If he can keep fouls at a minimum, Chandler's defensive game will be tough to beat.
On offense, Tyson Chandler is simply not playing at an NBA level. That's just about the only way to say it - it is mind-boggling to me that a 7'1" talent could exist in the NBA for four-plus seasons and still not have any moves with his back to the basket. All his points in the paint come by virtue of tip-ins or fast breaks. His lack of offensive game is not helped by the fact that (apparently) he has small hands for a big man, and is constantly having the ball knocked away.
On positive side, Tyson does a lot of things that don't find their way into the box score. While his blocks are down this year, he alters a great deal of shots without actually getting blocks. He doesn't have great assist numbers, but he is actually a very good passer for a his size. He often finds smaller guys on back-door cuts, and he does a good job of clearing rebounds once he gets his undersized hands on them.
This season is looking more hopeless with every blowout loss, and while Chandler's improved play is a bright spot, the Bulls need to be looking towards the future. Skiles and Paxson have criticized Tyson for not working out enough, not working to improve his game in the off-season. Things need to be different this summer.
If Chandler spends time working on some low-post moves and his upper-body strength, he has the potential to develop into a dominant rebounder and an excellent defender. The fear of every Bulls fan is that he will never progress, and that his performances will continue to fluctuate between impressive and irrelevant as the team doles out over ten million a year.
Still, there must be a reason that Paxson chose to lock up Chandler when he cleaned house of the rest of Krause's handiwork. That Tyson is the lone holdover after a transition from massive talent and unfulfilled potential to solid, hard-nosed, effort-based defensive basketball suggests that Paxson sees him as a player who is capable of fitting that mold.
In the end, it all comes down to consistency, and it remains to be seen whether Chandler can sustain his recent performance. If he can maintain his rebounding and defense while adding a bit of an offensive game, he can be one of the top big men in the league and help turn the Bulls back into championship contenders. Then nobody will associate Tyson with chicken.
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