Bulls Woes

Discussion in 'Chicago Bulls' started by Denny Crane, Dec 4, 2007.

  1. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    Last year, the Bulls had unbelievable luck. They faced Philly without Iverson, Phoenix without Nash, and so on. It was rather remarkable how many teams the Bulls beat who were missing key players.</p>

    This season, it's a very different story. I do think the Bulls are actually a better team, man-for-man, but they're having to face teams who aren't missing a key player or two - and that seems to be the difference to me.</p>

    In fact, historically the Bulls under Skiles have beaten up on teams late in the season... Teams who had lost their will to win (season's a wash), who were already in the playoffs and coasting (avoiding injuries), or who were missing key players (again) for the rest of the season.</p>

    In spite of the 4-11 start, I wouldn't put it past this team to have some massive late season streak of games to make the playoffs. The East just isn't that tough to make playoffs.</p>

    Now, the more I see of Skiles as coach, the more I think he's meant to be a college coach and we've seen his best in the NBA. It's basically year 4 for Gordon, Deng, Nocioni, and Duhon - call those guys our "seniors." Hinrich "graduated" after last season. As these young men become ... just men... they sure seem less willing to put up with being treated like college freshmen. On the other hand, Skiles is using our losing games to give minutes to guys like Thomas and Noah, a freshman and sophomore, which is development.</p>

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  2. MikeDC

    MikeDC Member

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    I guess my theory is still that it starts up front. What the hell, you ask? How can the presence of a couple of non-offensive guys like AD or PJ Brown affect the shooting of all the perimeter guys?</p>

    Well, first look at the trends:</p>

    In 04-05 (47 wins), we had AD, a strong defender and very smart player who could control the paint, and we had Curry, who despite mediocre defense, could put his body on someone and generally box out. These guys, in turn, allowed Chandler to freelance to great effect. Offensively Curry was an option himself and AD was a guy that set screens and picks. Harrington at that point was still somewhat of an option coming off the bench.</p>

    We suffered obviously in 05-06 (41 wins) when we lost Curry and AD. Chandler was not only out of shape coming into the year and at odds with the coaches, he was forced to be the "big guy" up front and largely taken out of a role in which he'd excelled and put into a role he hadn't done as much of (three years on he's getting pretty good at it). Our AD and Curry "replacements" turned out to be no replacements at all. So the net effect there was a negative defensively and offensively. Offensively we obviously lost a scoring option in Curry, but we also lost Davis' strength and basketball IQ, which translated into a pretty good amount of effective things for our perimeter players; screens, picks, transition opportunities from rebounds, etc.</p>

    In 06-07, bringing in PJ Brown effectively gave us AD back, and Wallace largely got play the role that both he and Chandler excelled at. We controlled the glass and due to their abilities, set up lots of transition baskets and quality shots for our offensive players.</p>

    This year, we're back to the position where we don't have a strong, long and smart player. Smith isn't it (never was), neither is Tyrus (never will be) and Noah isn't (yet?). And it shows. The point of all this is, our offense seems to work a lot better when we have another good big on the court who complements our help defender (Wallace or Chandler) on defense and does the dirty work intangible stuff on offense. It creates more transition opportunities (through better boxing out and defensive rebounding) and more high-quality shots (through off the ball movement quality screens and picks).</p>

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  3. M Two One

    M Two One Halló Veröld!

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    They nearly beat Dallas last night and are looking to get back to form, I have no issues.</p>
     

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