Carlos Boozer – #5, Chicago Bulls

Scouting Report

This off-season was filled with many valuable assets. One of those players was Carlos Boozer. Even though the Chicago Bulls were gunning for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, there is plenty of reason to be happy in Chi-town thanks to the sign-and-trade that brought Boozer to town.

With Boozer coming over to the BUlls their biggest need, in my mind, has been filled. Instead of getting Wade or LeBron, even though they are clearly still hoping for James, the Bulls went after Boozer and got him (even though they probably did so to entice LeBron). Essentially, most of the Bulls’ players were offensively challenged last season and bringing in Boozer immediately gives them a second offensive option or even a first one if he is hitting his outside shot. With the trio of Derrick Rose, Boozer and Joakim Noah, the Bulls offense now has a lot more options to score than you’d imagine.

Carlos is a very versatile offensive weapon. He’s got a pretty jumpshot with a high arc that he can hit effectively from pretty much anywhere on the floor. He doesn’t have three-point range but he can nail a jumper with a foot inside the arc with no problem. Boozer has a solid post-game. He can effectively score on the block most of the time but he does have trouble finishing over length. When going up against the Lakers this post-season, this much was obvious as Boozer failed to get good looks off on his turnaround jumpers and almost never got good looks at the rim. Carlos is equally ineffective in isolation situations. Boozer isn’t very quick and even though he is strong, he can’t get by the majority of the bigs in the league using that alone.

Those problems can be negated, however, by getting Boozer involved in movement. Whether its in the pick and roll on a basket cut or in transition, Boozer is deadly.

On the roll or on the cut, Boozer is one of the best players in the league on catch and finish plays and is ambidextrous when it comes to scoring at the rim. This is the one area of his game where his strength isn’t counterbalanced by the holes in his game because all he is responsible for securing the ball and putting in the hoop. Getting by his defender and finding a path to the rim is created by the play and the passing of the guard running the play.

When you look at Chicago now, with Boozer, Rose and Noah run the pick and roll, Rose can take the jumper, dish it to Noah on the roll or find Boozer camping in the paint for an easy finish. Considering both Noah and Boozer are extremely effective catching and scoring on the move, the efficiency of a play like that would be through the roof for Chicago. Chicago can also reverse things and create even more options. A pick and roll with Boozer would be even more effective.

What will make that combination in the post even deadlier is Boozer’s (and Noah’s) ability to pass the basketball. Carlos is an extremely talented passer, able to put in a pocket bounce passes to a cutting big men, rocket one into the paint from the high post, or pass it back out to a three-point shooter. Because Noah is an adept passer himself, the chemistry between the two should develop quickly and when Boozer kicks it out to a shooter he’ll most likely be passing it to a former teammate (Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer), so the flow of the Bulls offense is going to look pretty next season.

Boozer is one of the best rebounders in basketball as well. He’s not a great athlete but he is strong and he has the timing of his jump down pact at this point in his career and that combined with his ability to grab the basketball with either hand makes him a hassle to deal with down low once a shot goes up.

Defensively, my perception of Boozer after watching him is that he is so-so. The numbers say he’s in the top 50 in the league but if you analyze the clips, a lot of times Boozer is getting credit for defending a player that ends up missing a shot that he didn’t contest. He is a strong guy, so he does muscle up his man at times, but that one attribute doesn’t make up for his lack of quickness and questionable effort.

Carlos was the perfect fit for the Utah Jazz. He was the goto lowpost scorer and the guy expected to lift the load off of Deron Williams‘ shoulders. In Chicago, he’ll be doing the same thing. He’s going to be getting the ball a lot and he’s going to be taking some of the scoring responsibilities off of Derrick Rose. If he can keep up the same level of production he had over the past two seasons, Chicago is going to be a dangerous team.

Statistical Analysis

Advanced Stats

Last season, with Deron Williams running the offense, Boozer was the roll man on 222 pick and rolls, scoring 1.27 points per possession, the 11th best mark in the league. But with Boozer, instead of the roll being the only option like it is with Noah, Carlos can pop out and hit an 18-23 foot jumper (he shot 44% from that range last season according to HoopData). Rose is not as good of a playmaker at this point of his career as Williams is but his success should be pretty near the same in Chicago.

Boozer’s PER of 20.8 puts him in the top 20 of NBA players and infront of names like Brandon Roy, Williams, Rose and many others. Because Boozer is so effective at the rim and has a good mid-range game to go along with it, Boozer’s efficiency will always be near the top of the league and so will his true shooting percentage (60% last season). According to 82games.com, Boozer’s PER at the power forward and center spots last season outweighed his opposition’s by 6.3.

One downside of Boozer’s 2009-10 campaign was his play in the crunch time (last five minutes of a five point game). According to 82games.com, Boozer went from having a net point value of +257 to a net point value of -44 when it was time to step it up. Carlos’ offensive rating dipped below 100 and his defensive rating went up to 109. Considering Boozer played in 96% of the Jazz’s crunch time minutes, those numbers are pretty staggering. Its not something that will change your overall perception of him a whole lot but there is something meaningful about the dip in his stats when it mattered most.

Player Grade

Offense: 9 out of 10 – Other than scoring in isolation sets, Boozer is a great offensive threat. He’s got the mid-range game, some post-up moves including a fading jumper and a hookshot, and he is excellent moving without the ball. He has trouble with taller, longer players but most of the time he has the advantage on his opponent.

Defense: 6 out of 10 – Boozer isn’t a great defender. He’s good and gets additional points because of his rebounding skills but he lacks lateral quickness to defend the more mobile bigs (he got abused by Nene often in the playoffs) and he doesn’t always give 100% on that end of the floor. Having a coach like Tom Thibodeau may help him but I can’t imagine Thibodeau is a better coach than Jerry Sloan at this point, even if his focus is defense.

Overall: 15 of 20 – Boozer is one of the NBA’s best post players and is a top five power forward in the league. He is walking into a role that he played in Utah for the past four seasons and he has some pretty good teammates around, perhaps better than the crop he played with during his tenure with the Jazz. He’ll be asked to score the ball and he knows how to do that and some of his defensive shortcomings will be hidden thanks to his frontcourt mate Joakim Noah.