Chicago Bulls Thread

[George7]

I believe it would be really great for the defense if Bulls manage to understand and learn correctly this defensive tactic Thibodeau uses.
Though as it seems it needs time...

[puttincomputers]

very cool! but why did the guy pick a pic of boston losing to the lowly nets!

[Murat]

Derrick Rose can be only the All-NBA 3rd Team's PG.

[Andrew]

i thought originally expected out 6-8 weeks after his surgery which was early October?

You're probably right, which in the best case scenario would see him miss the first month of the season. My mistake.

[George7]

Wow! I'm impressed by Deng! He had started great this pre season and now scored 29+8 boards against Indiana!

Hopefully he can keep it up

[air gordon]

Errick Rose's mid-game was 5th, but all 4 players above him were PG's (Nash, Paul, Collison, CJ Watson) Not to take anything away from this accomplishment, but the mid-range game is dying for a reason. Worst place to take all your shots from. *cough* Aldridge *cough*

lol you just did...

the long range 2 is the worst place. get it right, mr hyperbole

[Valor]

the long range 2 is the worst place.

Thank god Luol Deng is starting to get that and is inching out either a couple feet back or forward when he's taking his shots...pretty good results too

[benji]

Lamrock is doing as bad on this page as he did in the autodraft for the Epic Fetch league.

Rose might not even be the best point guard in his division (Rodney Stuckey duh) so he shouldn't be in any kind of MVP discussion (especially since the Bulls have some talent outside of him that's as good or better), but that's no reason to confuse the long two for mid-range shots which aren't anywhere near as bad shots because they tend to come on better looks while long twos are bailouts or idiocy.

I mean he cites Aldridge and that guy took almost twice as many long twos as mid-range shots last season. And nobody even pointed out he's a big, when guards just by nature are taking more shots from farther out. Of course leaders in taking jumpers will be guards or pansy bigs. There's a difference in trying to penetrate from the outside and being forced into or chickening out with a jumper and fleeing the paint even though you've got blatant post skills. (Jermaine O'Neal, Aldridge, Kevin Garnett unless he's pissed, etc.)

The criticism of Rose's shooting is that he needs to add a serious three point shot because few could guard him if they couldn't back off once he was outside say 18 feet. It's his primary flaw. And Bulls fans do have a point, Rose was basically all they had to create offense last year after Gordon left, with Boozer and more balanced teammates he should probably have that visible improvement in his game that he was supposed to have last year. Deng and Salmons were fourth options masquerading as second options most of the year. I haven't seen evidence Rose can pace any offense by himself despite the hype he gets on this front but I see no reason that if he didn't have talent next to him he couldn't distribute for the first three quarters and go on the attack in the fourth ala Isiah Thomas. The question is whether the Bulls realize they have someone probably more like Isiah than a dominant superstar like Chris Paul.

[air gordon]

the long range 2 is the worst place.

Thank god Luol Deng is starting to get that and is inching out either a couple feet back or forward when he's taking his shots...pretty good results too

there were reports of Thibbs stopping practice whenever deng would do take "long 2" shots.perhaps we should now call deng= d3ng lol

d3ng has said in interviews he's happy to be able to go back to slashing/moving without the ball.. sounds like a swipe at Vdelnegro. regardless.. not to be Captain obvious here but the bulls need another guy to step up while Boozah's out. and of course they need the 3pt shooting

this rose business... i personally don't think the 3pt shot is essential for him. anywhere near low 30's for a % is fine. how many Pg's can hit a 3 off a pick n roll? Deron W, Curry, Billups, Nash? it's clear that Rose isn't a pure shooter but he's made himself into a solid mid range shooter and defenses can no longer play him under the pick. what concerns me more is his inability to get to the line. his bread n butter is getting to the basket. he could bully most opposing PG's but when he gets to the 2nd line of defense he struggles.. though not having decent perimeter threats add to that problem

who else is in the epic fetch league?

[Andrew]

what concerns me more is his inability to get to the line. his bread n butter is getting to the basket. he could bully most opposing PG's but when he gets to the 2nd line of defense he struggles.. though not having decent perimeter threats add to that problem

I think you might have been the one to post the article, but I remember it being suggested that although he's good at getting to the basket, the problem is he tends to lean and contort to avoid contact for a clean finish rather than drawing the contact and the foul. Having seen him play in the pre-season, would you say that's (still) the case?

[benji]

there were reports of Thibbs stopping practice whenever deng would do take "long 2" shots

I'm hard.

this rose business... i personally don't think the 3pt shot is essential for him. anywhere near low 30's for a % is fine.

Rose shot 27% on threes last year. TWENTY-SEVEN! That's 38% on twos! And he didn't even muster one attempt a game. You don't have to defend him outside at all, you can back off completely.

I'm not even talking about him turning into Billups or Deron who are simply godly players. I'm talking about maybe getting himself closer to Jonny Flynn levels. He'd be much more of a terror if he could hit about 32% and take one or two shots from there with confidence. If defenders have to stay out on Rose at the line he'll be blowing past 90% of them to the basket. (And thus getting to the line more.) As is, they can back off until he gets into mid-range and then you can play him for the shot because he's not going to try and get closer nor back out, you just focus on shutting him down in the mid-range.

what concerns me more is his inability to get to the line. his bread n butter is getting to the basket. he could bully most opposing PG's but when he gets to the 2nd line of defense he struggles.. though not having decent perimeter threats add to that problem

Yes, but also as I noted, I can play him at one area only basically and live with it. I don't have to guard him farther out, and once he gets inside I have help from my bigs. If I have to guard him farther out, that's more room for him to beat me and face only one defender closer in, which does lead to more free throws. That was my point about the three point shot, it lets Rose take advantage of his better skills, it's the same reason LeBron had to get a real three point shot so defenses couldn't pack in.

Also to add, if I have to defend a pick and roll where I have to pay attention to Rose rolling off it to the three point line instead of also having to move towards the basket, I'm going to worry a lot more than I would currently. That's why Nash/Amare was so devastating you couldn't make the right decision on the fly.

who else is in the epic fetch league?

Jae, JaoSming, shadow, Lamecock, Kaboom, ratarc. I screwed up and completely forgot to invite some others who would have been interested, it would have been at least ten teams had I not got distracted by real life.

There's a high probability I'll do it again next year, I'm not a huge fantasy guy and it was more of a reaction against Yahoo's completely insane point system one night, but it seems to have some amusement value. Such as Lamrock's horrific autodraft which saved me, and the whole Yahoo ranking Kwame Brown behind guys who won't play this season even though there's a chance he winds up as the starting center with Larry Brown around.

Probably will be tweaks to the scoring next time, but the whole thing as I said stems from how the scoring in the "unofficial" league wants you to get players who basically just shoot threes, get steals and blocks. (Thus why Jason Kidd is completely untouchable on my team since he finished third under that scoring system last year.)

I did also make a joking suggestion about a league where you follow the real life restrictions and at the end of the season I use the full stat stuff of the season to pick records and a winner. Sorta like doing a full league draft before doing a season in NBA Live/2K. I'm getting off topic though.

[air gordon]

wait til i tell the story of Kurt Thomas braiding Noah's hair

So yeh, like I said- Rose needs to shoot in the low 30’s for a 3pt%. thanks for the indepth analysis

the Bulls should be running a lot of pick n roll this year. And probably a lot a little bit inside the 3pt line. The spacing could be tighter but with some decent 3pt shooters and a mad bomber in Korver, maybe Rose will have the room to get to the basket. in the preseason- after playing him under the screen- a few teams tried chasing him/trapping him off the screen. A lot of opens looks for bogans

fantasy…anything less then 10 teams is kind of ridiculous. The teams are just too stacked. I’d be interested if you guys still do it next year.
but yeh- 30’s in 3pt%

Andrew- hard to say… the Bulls played mostly poor interior defensive teams. He was aggressive to the basket. on many instances he was just too quick to the basket that the big men didn’t have a chance. when they played Orlando- they got shellacked. We’ll just have to see once the regular season starts. Not too many hard fouls given in the the preaseason

[air gordon]

lol double post. how sad

Durant only 9-24 but he rocked the Bulls. his last drive/dunk on Deng looked pretty effortless. Everyone asses, sans rose, were clinched bigtime in the 4th qtr. it was embarrassing they had a shot clock violation coming out of a timeout

hope it was only 1st game jitters for Korver

[Andrew]

Looked like it might go the other way for a while there but a 34-9 fourth quarter results in the first win of the season. Nice stat line for Rose outside the seven turnovers, Noah too. On the not so stellar side of things, 2/10 for Deng, Gibson also fouled out with zero rebounds in 18 minutes.

[George7]

I was really impressed by the effort JJ showed on the game.He was pretty tough and it seems he can fit into team's rotation well.
Rose was just great on that much and Noah keeps racking up the boards!he has 36 rebounds in 2 games,18 rpg!

[J@3]

Derrick Rose is going to get Joakim Noah a rebounding title if he keeps taking 30 shots a game.

[Oskar]

Derrick Rose is going to get Joakim Noah a rebounding title if he keeps taking 30 shots a game.

Watch the god damn game.. Deng was missing wide open layups, Noah scores the majority of his points on putbacks, Brewer can't get off more than 25 inches right now, Korver is in a slump, sort of. Gibson did some solid things, but some questionable ones too.

Rose takes so many shots because there is no better option for the Bulls. If he takes 30 shots and hits 13 of them, the rest would hit perhaps 10 of the 30 and most likely 5 of these 30 shots that Rose would take, the other players wouldn't even get off thanks to turnovers and what not. When Deng puts the ball on the floor, on most cases the rest of the team can already run back on the defensive end 'cause something bad is bound to happen. CJ Watson launches long twos all night long and he's no Derrick, he's not the one to carry a team back. Deng still does it, too. In the preseason, he stepped back to the three point line, now.. I don't know why Deng has to suck so bad.

JJ was amazing off the bench, really great hustle and all. I'd honestly like to see him take Deng's starting spot for a bit, perhaps something like this can give Deng some advice to actually start working on his game more and use what he has between his ears during game situations. Last night, outside of Rose, Noah, JJ, Taj and Omer was just pathetic. Nice comeback to win the game and all, but you shouldn't need to come back against the Pistons..

[J@3]

Which game? The 12-31 one? Stop acting all passionate, you're 13 years old and live in Estonia.

[Oskar]

Which game? The 12-31 one? Stop acting all passionate, you're 13 years old and live in Estonia.

Haha, I was talking about the last one, in which he was 13-27 or something along these lines..

And I won't even bother getting into your discussion of age and whereever I'm from, I bet you're over 20 and still immature enough to not realize that age doesn't matter all that much about how passionate one can be about something.. Mad props!

[air gordon]

Luol Deng is going to get Joakim Noah a rebounding title if he keeps taking 30 shots a game.

fixed

I was really impressed by the effort JJ showed on the game.He was pretty tough and it seems he can fit into team's rotation well.
Rose was just great on that much and Noah keeps racking up the boards!he has 36 rebounds in 2 games,18 rpg!

yeh- JJ played a big part in this one. should be a big confidence booster for this guy. props to Thibbs for leaving him in there in favor of Dung.

Looked like it might go the other way for a while there but a 34-9 fourth quarter results in the first win of the season. Nice stat line for Rose outside the seven turnovers, Noah too. On the not so stellar side of things, 2/10 for Deng, Gibson also fouled out with zero rebounds in 18 minutes.

might? haha this game up until the mid 3rd qtr was terrible to watch from a bulls fan perspective. it was pretty embarrassing actually. just a bunch of hacking on defense and a bunch of missed layups by Dung

to the Rose haters:
that was 39pts on 27shots. including 3 from downtown & 13fta's

[George7]

Bulls clearly have many players underperforming those 2 games.

Only Rose,who is the basic player Bulls offense is executed so far ,and Noah who is fighting alone on the paint on many occasions helped on both games.

I really want Booze back(and hopefully away from suitcases for a long time) and Korver find his tempo soon. And Bulls will up 2 levels for sure.

Damn, Rose started doing those sweet moves again!As adidas ad says "fast don't lie!"

You won't see a player as fast with the ball and as explosive as Rose!

[Andrew]

might? haha this game up until the mid 3rd qtr was terrible to watch from a bulls fan perspective. it was pretty embarrassing actually. just a bunch of hacking on defense and a bunch of missed layups by Dung

I was following along for a while on the livescores but it was just too disheartening so I left it for a bit; can only imagine how painful it would have been to be watching. Checked in again late in the fourth to find them up after the huge comeback, leaving me feel a little more cheerful.

Knicks/Bulls is being shown here on One HD this Friday, followed by the Blazers/Thunder game. Nice doubleheader in my book, even those who are wringing their hands at the Bulls being on TV should be able to enjoy Blazers/Thunder.

[air gordon]

so D3ng thoroughly outplayed the highly touted batum. so much that batum was benched

Aldridge goes off but the Bulls shut out the league's top 3pt shooting team

Bogans did his best Artest impersonation on Roy.

a game full of surprises. good start to the week

[Andrew]

Not a bad way to make up for the 2/10 performance.

[Dan's Brain]

That was a badly coached game by Thibodeau. The Bulls had a chance to snatch it with 4 minutes left. But he left Rose, Noah and Deng on the bench. A win there would have given them some nice momentum going into Boston tomorrow. Those guys might have put a nice run together, but the stars would have been able to capitalise on it better.

During that 2nd quarter, I just wanted Boozer to pull the uniform on and get out there. Injuries be damned.

On the whole, offensively, great performance. 52% from the field and 47% on threes is going to get you a win almost any night of the week. And Rose was outstanding again (averaging 27 and 10 to start the year is fantastic). But defensively, it was just fucking hideous. Allowing 48 points from beyond the arc, when you were only allowing 18% shooting in the first 3 games

Full credit to the Knicks, though, especially Douglas and Gallo.