Jerry Krause
a Genius?
By V.Aravindan
Bombay,INDIA
When everybody from the media, sportswriters,
Bulls
fans, Basketball fans and even "The
Fat Lady Who
Sings" is cursing Jerry Krause,
am I stupid to call
Jerry Krause a genius. I am not
stupid and ,yes, I
have reasons to support my claim.
This year the Bulls
saved a lot of salary cap to lure
free agents. Many
big name free agents (Jones, McGrady,
Tim Thomas, Glen
Rice) visited the bulls. They enjoyed
a trip of the windy
city and the only people who the
Bulls sign are Ron
Mercer, Brad Miller and "BENNY THE
BULL". The media
lambasts Jerry Krause for not being
able to attract a
big name free agent. But did Jerry
Krause intend to
sign a free agent? No, He did not.
Next year the same
drama will be repeated with Chris
Webber, Michael
Finley and others and still nobody
will sign with the
Bulls. The Bulls this way will always
be way below the
cap. The only failure of Krause
this year is that he
did not get Jermaine O'Neal this
year.
The Bulls will Suck again this year.
They may win a
little more games than last year.
The Bulls will get
many draft picks (Probably No.1
also). Krause will use
these draft picks judiciously and
pick good college
talent. The Bulls already have a
young core of
players, Elton Brand, Ron Artest,
Marcus Fizer, Jamal
Crawford, Khalid El Amin and Brad
Miller. Add to this
young crop players with potential.
What you get is a
team of the future. There are impact
players who make
the transition from college to NBA
very easily (For ex.
Tim Duncan). Krause wont take what
he needs. He will
pick the best talent he can get
in the pick. In the
next two years the Bulls will have
the best young
talent. When Brand and Artest become
free agents,
Krause will use the cap space to
re-sign them. The next
thing Krause will do is to sign
a big name coach to
teach these youngsters to win. He
will also get
veterans to groom these youngsters.
The Bulls will be
playoff bound in the weak east in
two years and may
become contenders in next five years.
What Krause has done after the departure
of
Micheal and Scottie is to lower
the expectations of
people. If he had signed some players
then, they would
have had to deal with the expectations
of the fans.
The Bulls fans now will be jubilant
if the team make
the playoffs. Remember, the Celtics
have been
rebuilding years after Bird left
and they still have
not found success. What Krause has
done is he has
cleaned the slate and has started
afresh. I think the
sratergy of Krause will work.
People might say that since I am
from INDIA, I may not
know much about basketball or I
dont hear much news
about the NBA. That may be true,
but my views are also
not coloured by the views of the
media. I am able to
put things in a perspective and
think about it rather
than somebody giving me a view.
Jerry Riensdorf is not stupid to
keep Jerry Krause
after so much negative publicity.
He knows what Krause
is up to and supports it. After
some years when Krause
succeeds in his mission, the media
will forget
everything and call him a genius.
I will proclaim him
as a genius right now.
____________
InsideHoops Fan Contribution
9/29/2000
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