Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 at 9:00 am  |  196 responses

Carlos Boozer: Bulls ‘Can Accomplish a Championship’


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

Injuries and postseason failure may have ruined his first year in the Windy City, but Carlos Boozer sounds like he’s all fired up for this upcoming season.

Boozer promises Chicago Bulls fans and media that he’ll be a much better player this time around, going so far as to claim that the team will be good enough to win a title.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Boozer, maligned throughout the Bulls’ run to the Eastern Conference finals last season as he battled turf toe, has heard the criticism. And in a phone conversation from his offseason home in Miami on Tuesday, the former All-Star basically said bring it on. “It motivates me,” Boozer said. “First of all, I have high expectations for myself. I’m going to play a lot better than I played last season. The injury with the hand (in training camp) set me back. Then I thought I played well for a month or two. And then I had more injuries. A lot of things happened … I don’t look at criticism as a down thing or negative thing. I look at it as a challenge. That’s what athletes do: We challenge ourselves. I look forward to quieting the haters and helping my team win. That’s the most important thing.”

“I think we can accomplish a championship,” Boozer said. “I think we have the talent and the leadership in place. The experience of last year’s playoff run and the season we had has prepared us. A championship is the next step in our progression. Don’t get me wrong: There’s a lot of work to be done. We need to get in the lab and get to work. But if you ask anybody in that locker room, we have a championship-caliber team.”

Despite their bravado, no one outside of the Bulls’ locker room considers Chicago to be a true title contender.

Without a respectable option at the shooting guard spot, they don’t have enough offensive firepower to compliment Derrick Rose and truly challenge the League’s superpowers.

But, hey, what do I know? The players in Chicago seem to believe otherwise. And they’ll have plenty of opportunities this season to prove us all wrong.

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  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    If you don’t know about Boozer’s in-game quotes than you don’t watch much basketball. Or you don’t use the volume on your TV.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gametimeweezy Gametimeweezy

    never noticed I guess

  • http://bulls.com airs

    4:47 and 4:55 weren’t me.
    GIMME DAT

  • LA Huey

    Y’all just realize a Boozer-centered article just hit 100 comments? He’s in Kobe/LBJ stratosphere now.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzpOkVb5KN8 nbk

    Click my Name – GametimeWeezy. And anyone else trying to lol “gimme dat sh*t”

  • nbaNw8

    Im a Bulls fan and i think we can win this year….unless Boozer plays the same way he did last year.

  • http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/446494664201913051 Gametimeweezy

    I still haven’t really got a sure answer yet on why Boozer is such a bad player, injuries, yea I get. Defensive lapses, yea I get that too, even though he would still fit on a team that plays so much help defense. Maybe because he’s not a shot blocker and D Rose isn’t exactly a defensive stopper himself. Like I said when he’s healthy he’s productive.

  • http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/446494664201913051 Gametimeweezy

    nbk I clicked on your name… see I LIKE that ish I do the same thing too LOL

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    Funny you didn’t mention his playoff shortcomings

  • http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/446494664201913051 Gametimeweezy

    well I don’t know if I would blame him for losing the series granted I didn’t watch every game.. yea pretty funny huh

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Boozer is good in the regular season….. But Bulls fans are after championships

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    Thank you NBK, just hit this up and saw ya’ll were talking about Boozers tourettes. It’s a freaking rebound on a free throw and you stole it from your team mate ya dork! lmao!

    Gametime, you really don’t know why Boozer is mocked? He is a stronger “looking” Chirs Bosh that’s why. Dude is soft as microfiber. Makes Pau seem like an enforcer. Boozer imo opinion is a bit of a cancer. Not to say you can’t win allot of games with him and not to say he doesn’t produce, but it’s when he produces and how he produces.

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    The series?
    No, I said PLAYOFFS.
    Dude was horrible all postseason long.

  • http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/446494664201913051 Gametimeweezy

    Only Bulls fans are interested in championships? Enigmatic yep lets blame Boozer not the fact that nobody could hold Dwyane Wade

  • Red

    My bad Airs didn’t realize it screwed the names up, apologies, that was me.

  • Ses

    I see alot of non believers. These are the same bulls that were the best in the league last year. 62-20 doesn’t lie especially 3 – 0 (regular season) against the so called EC champions. We came up short for 2 reasons, a solid SG and boozer’s terrible defense (the heat PF’s had a field day every game!). If these adjustments are made then June parade here we come! D.Rose 4 MVP again haters!

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    You’re confusing me and probably confusing yourself as well.
    This whole thing popped off cause airs said Boozer was the free agent nobody wanted, you asked why, we proceeded to tell you.
    So how the hell did you go from asking why we didn’t want Boozer to saying he’s not the reason the Bulls lost to the Heat?
    Did I miss something?
    Who the f*ck said Boozer was solely to blame for the loss to the Heat?
    And what in the hell does this have to do with Dwyane Wade?
    I didn’t see Dwyane Wade out there against the Bulls when Boozer had 2 points and 5 rebounds in the series clincher against the Hawks.
    You putting words in my comment box, b.
    I’m trying to tell you why Boozer ain’t the future hall of famer you act like he is, and you trying to tell me to stop blaming him for the conference finals loss?
    Huh?

  • http://bulls.com airs

    all good red, no biggie.
    and boozer wasn’t even that good in the reg season!
    i expect 20 and 10 from him this season, and to disappear somewhere around april..
    or may…or june..or however this screwed up season ends up.

  • LA Huey

    “so called” Eastern Conference champs? They beat everyone in the playoffs except for the “so called” NBA champions.

  • http://bulls.com airs

    I think ppl forget about the game one blowout and how close all the other games were.
    The bulls aren’t that far from being a perennial ecf team.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    Wade avg. 18ppg on 38% shooting vs the Bulls, so the Bulls did a good job “holding” him. DRose and Wade basically canceled each other out, so that left Bron/Bosh vs Deng/Boozer. Miami won that matchup in resounding fashion and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

  • ripslam

    “no one outside of the Bulls’ locker room considers Chicago to be a true title contender”…what is this guy smoking?

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    He’s a Laker fan. Nuff said.

  • http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/a-quick-guide-to-the-issues-of-the-nba-lockout/2011/10/11/gIQAon1ZbL_story.html unf*ckwitable

    All i got out of that article is “aaarrggghh AND1!!”. Shut up Boozer go grab a rebound and shave your eyebrow.

  • shutupallenp

    @Enigmatic -Why does it sound stupid to put a scoring first pass second guard at the 2, it worked for iverson, and Derrick rose is bigger and has more hops than Iverson had, name a team with a score first pg that reached long term success? I’ll wait….

  • Red

    Last I check Bron was guarding Rose too JT but apparently either you’re an idiot or you have bad memory.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    The Pistons Isaiah Thomas & Chauncey Billups. The Spurs with Tony Parker. – Derrick Rose has been a PG since he started playing basketball, it is clearly his most effective position. And he is a PG, he wouldn’t know what to do playing primarily off the ball. Iverson had to play with a PG with a SG body, who could play off the ball. Essentially he played PG, but he had the vast majority of the teams plays run for him where he started without the ball in his hands basically there is no benefit to taking Rose off the ball, even if you dot like how much he shoots, plus with him next to a PG you lose the size advantage that you have almost every game at the guard positions just because you want someone worse making “better” decisions.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    Boozer gt the game tied up…shoestrings(LMAO Boozer is terrible)

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    *At least he was in the playoffs

  • http://www.nba.com VanCityBBall

    if Chi town can get another scorer to take some pressure off of Rose THEN they will have a legit chance

  • BBaller

    Boozer should concentrate on accomplishing an injury free season. What’s to say he doesn’t get injured again? The Bulls are my favorite team in the East, why oh why did they sign this undersized, injury prone Loozer.

  • BBaller

    Against Miami it was 1v5 on offense, the 1 being Rose. Noah and Deng did well on D but they must sign some other scoring options eg Brandon ROY,JRich,JR Smith, J Crawford and to a lesser extent V Carter, Iverson, or even less G Arenas.I give them no chance otherwise.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gametimeweezy Gametimeweezy

    @Enigmatic and AIRS love the comments guys keep it up… but no I was just reading a lot of hate directed toward Boozer before and I was wondering why (if it was justified) and then you answered Enigmatic (does that rhyme with Arithmetic? anyways) and it sounded like you were blaming him when you said “career shrink in playoffs machine” (that was funny post)… but other than that nah I get it Bosh killed him, your upset, now Boozer is horrendous just as you Supposedley knew before he signed last year. It’s cool. And those words came from my mouth, not yours.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    No comment.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gametimeweezy Gametimeweezy

    JTaylor21 with the DWade stats ya called my bluff good stuff!

  • hscott

    BULLS 2012

  • http://www.facebook.com/gametimeweezy Gametimeweezy

    I think you guys missed the point though of my comment earlier I think Boozer as a vet thats had some reasonable success and has earned a decent size contract it’s up to guys like him to step up and say things like that to the media. I mean c’mon had it been Brian Scalabrine, well it would be okay cuz y’all love him on here for some reason.. see I’m hip to yas lol

  • shutupallenp

    Isiah thomas was not a score first point guard thats a bad comparison, rose is closer to marbury than thomas, parker or billups. parker defers to ginobili and duncan, billups defered to wallace and hamilton. Rose is the main and most times only scoring threat, I’m sorry if i see an athletic guard who slashes better than he shoots and scores better than he passes and dont consider him a true point guard. And yeah i think a playmaster running the offense with rose as the primary scorer would lead to a better team chemistry.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Thomas was a scorer who involved his teammates to win. He was a score first (you know, when it mattered) point guard. Something Rose needs to LEARN. Which he can do. And is better served to do than to be taken off the ball. He is the youngest MVP in league history, suggesting he should switch positions after he just won the award and lead his team to the best conference in the league is ridiculous, to put it politely.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Record* in the league.

  • http://360special.blogspot.com/ dev0

    Rose said he “could be MVP” in last years’ preseason. Maybe predictions come true in Chicago, maybe not for Booz though…

  • BBaller

    December 9 is like waiting for the lockout to end.I want to see action more than words

  • http://www.slamonline.com Slick Ric

    I see that Idiot EB**ch is running his mouth, when he has nothing to boast about.

  • shutupallenp

    I’m sorry if i dont see Rose being able to learn how to be a pass first point guard or learning how to play like isiah thomas, one of the greatest pgs the game has seen. Not trying to selll Rose short but he won MVP because of his scoring out put and team record not his ability as a point guard. Rose doesnt have the pieces around him like a parker or billups how can you be the teams #1 option and point guard? it has never worked in the NBA and i dont see Rose being the exception to the rule, and honestly if Lebron didnt go to Miami and play with wade he woulda won it again this year. And best record in the league doesnt mean anything if you dont make it out of your conference. I think the bulls over achieved last year and are silly to expect the same type of results this year, when their success last year has put a target on their back

  • http://www.slamonline.com Slick Ric

    I agree with Boozer, people conveniently forget Boozer and Noah was injured big chunks of the season, so they didn’t build that chemistry and cohesiveness in the front court. That’s the only reason the Bulls “struggled” against the pacers. Miami is not going to be a hard team to defeat, All the bulls have to do is make shots. The speed and quickness, and athleticism of the heat defense through them off like it did the mavericks the first couple of games, they never made adjustments though, so I blame Thibs for that but with his experience now, like Boozer said, they all should be better prepared.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gametimeweezy Gametimeweezy

    Im not saying he didn’t deserve it because he was ballin out of control.. but Rose also won the MVP no small part to media hype. He was no more valuable than Dwight Howard I thought.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Whether or not your right about who would have won the MVP, or whether or not Chicago as constructed won’t be better than last year, it is still clearly evident that Rose is a PG, should be a PG, and always will be a PG. What Rose accomplished last season, at the age he accomplished it, is proof that a team built around him can win. Rose wasn’t the weakness. And a team built around a SG also couldn’t win a title as of 1990. Or a team whose best player led the league in scoring as of 1990. And teams built around a jump shooting 7 footer couldn’t win until 6 months ago. Teams without superstars can’t ever win, until 05. A team of guys that are in their first year together couldn’t win as of 07. And on and on and on. Your theory is not only wrong, but it is proven to not be true. Despite what you want to say, people said a team built around a PG and an undersized one at that couldn’t win the title as of 1988. All people who said those things were wrong. Just like you are. Now whether Rose and the Bulls actually do win the title, idk, but it’s not impossible because he is a shoot first point guard. That’s stupid.

  • shutupallenp

    Dont get me started on Dwight Howard, I hate when people bring him into mvp discussions, he’s not even the number one option on his own team, and the team doesnt play through him. I cant stand Kobe and thought Kobe, James, Durant.

  • shutupallenp

    You do know Kobe is a pg?

  • shutupallenp

    I meant sg, your ignorance made me hit enter before proofreading

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