What do you think will be: 1) Rose's PPG 2) Bulls' team defense (rank 1-30) 3) Bulls' team offense (rank 1-30) 4) Mirotic's MPG 5) McBuckets' MPG
1) Rose's PPG - 20.0 2) Bulls' team defense (rank 1-30) - 3 3) Bulls' team offense (rank 1-30) - 12 4) Mirotic's MPG - 14.0 5) McBuckets' MPG - 24.0
Rose 15 PPG on low FG% Team defense 6 Team offense 25th Mirotic MPG 24, only if Noah misses games McBuckets 12 MPG
Pau missed 22 games last season. From the way Noah was limping last TV game, he may miss a lot of the early season. Plus there is some chance McBuckets plays some PF.
Yeah, these are all wild ass guesses at this point. I infer from your responses that you believe that reports of Thibodeau's nearly phobic avoidance of playing rookies meaningful minutes are NOT exaggerated. As for Noah, he was limping so badly that I had to ask myself why the hell the team allowed him on the bench without some prosthetic help.
I think Thibs plays 100% to win today's game, and he'll deal with tomorrow's game tomorrow. I haven't seen from either rookie that they're ready to contribute more than guys ahead of them. If anything, Snell may even be ahead of McBuckets in the rotation. I'm judging what I saw in the two preseason games.
Rose PPG - 18. It'll be closer to 15 at the beginning of the season and closer to 20 at the end. Team defense rank - 1. We were second only to Indy last year and they got worse and we got better. Team offense rank - 8-14. I can't see us being elite on offense this year, even if every ball bounces our way. I do think we'll be good, even if we catch some tough breaks. Mirotic MPG - 20. I'm incorporating Noah's injury probabilities into this. He was limping the other night. I assume this is going to mean missed time and a slow start. McLips MPG - 20. I think he and Dunleavy will end up splitting the time at SG, but Dunleavy will get a head start on the minutes.
That's a pretty bold team defense pick there. However, where do you get off with that 8-14 team offense pick. I don't recall being given a range option.
This is the DefRTG ranking for the Bulls under Thibs: 2010-2011: 1 2011-2012: 1 2012-2013: 5 2013-2014: 2 Predicting #1 isn't outlandish. We're 4 deep in the frontcourt. No need to overplay anyone. DRose + Kirk is an improvement at the PG position compared to the last two years. And no Boozer! I put in the range because last year the difference between the 9-14 positions on offense was about one point per 100 possessions. There's very little separating them. I expect the Bulls to have a DRTG in the 96-99 range and an ORtg in the 103-105 ppg range this year.
This is a stab in the dark, but: Doug: 9 ppg 45% 2P 39% 3P 4 Reb 1 ast 0.4 stl 0.4 blk 57% TS Mirotic: 8PPG 5 RPG 46% 2P 37% 3P 55% TS 1 APG 0.7 SPG 0.7 BPG I think both will have very respectable per36 scoring and rebounding rates given their role. Doug will have higher shooting rates because the types of shots he takes will be more limited. Mirotic will also have more variation in the minutes he plays given the situation with our frontcourt. I think when he comes off the bench he'll be a gunner but his usage will go down when he's called to start and has to play more minutes. Mirotic will be better covering space on defense and get more steals and blocks. More rebounds too since he'll play PF.
I'm expecting both of them to have very respectable seasons. It'll be a bit of a build up, but they're both being put in very good situations to do what they do well. I think Dougie's PER will end up between 12-14, and Mirotic's to be between 14-16.5, mostly because Mirotic's rebound/steal/block rate will be higher. Mirotic might have a slightly higher assist rate since it looks like he's poised to be a better creator this season.
I'm with you man. Rose will bump up his efficiency after the all star break. I think our offense will be the 20th best in the league, think bottom five is a bit much.
I'll say this much. Dougie looked really average in the starting lineup tonight, and that's a serious accomplishment. I remember Rose looked like a meddling player out of the gate, as did Elton Brand, and both of them were killing it by the end of their rookie seasons. I thought McBuckets played well enough tonight so that you couldn't say there was huge gap between his production and what Dunleavy usually gives you. I'm looking forward to seeing what McDermott gives you once he figures out how to get open consistently. I never thought he'd look this good on the defensive end.
His defense is definitely what's most surprising. I thought it'd be a gaping hole, but I can't believe how good it's looked. I was never worried about his shot. It's clear that it's good, and it's also clear that teams game plan for it accordingly. I think the missing link for him will be learning ways to put the ball on the floor to keep teams honest when they overplay him for the jumpshot.
Doug looked like a star against the Nuggets, who admittedly don't even pretend to play defense. Still, t'was a nice showing. Thibodeau is going to have a really hard time bringing him off the bench and starting MDJ. The starting lineup needs some scoring punch and the bench needs some veteran leadership. I just hope he shows more of an ability to score in isolation situations as time goes on. A lot of that off the ball vocabulary isn't available in the playoffs. Niko like Doug has looked better each game. He's starting to settle in on defense. I thought he played poorly tonight on offense but he filled up the box score. There's something to that.
