Chicago Bulls Thread

[air gordon]

Boo. I blame the loss on novu. Obviously he jinxed it
Upcoming schedule remains soft.

[NovU]

Sorry about jinxing Bulls, I won't do it again maybe.

This is insane. Look at both Noah and Pau's numbers tonight. Best frontcourt tandem in the NBA?

[Andrew]

Makes a nice change from Boozer.

[erudain]

So I guess there went our depth....or Thibs head was "we don't play until thursday so you can bet I gonna run you guys down".....5mins for McD, 5mins for Niko, 8 for Brooks after the game he had vs the Celtics, 0 for Snell.
Meanwhile Jimmy with 42mins...

In the 3rd quarter when the Pistons made their comeback, they played a small lineup while we had Derrick + Kirk + JB + Taj + Jo in the game....what happened? no outside shooting, lanes cloged, bad shots...bigs too spread on defense covering the perimeter.
Will Thibs dare to go small sometimes? Derrick + JB + McD + Mike at 4 + Jo? or if you don't want to go small Derrick + JB + Dun + Niko + Jo?.....force them to spread the floor, create driving lanes for Derrick and Jimmy.

[Moz]

They're having rebounding problems and you're suggesting a small line-up? Them rookies can't create their own shots and are defensive liabilities... The only thing I'll agree with you is giving Brooks some more minutes since Hinrich is not that effective these past few games (probably due to his shot selections) and he draws enough attention to the opponent's defense to be a reliable kicker... Mirotic, though he's getting some occasional blocks here and there, fouls a lot and a turnover prone while Mc Dermott is inconsistent and is pretty one dimensional so far and Snell left his shooting in the summer league... Butler, Dunleavy, and Taj are hitting their shots and are not burdened to force themselves to score more since Rose is in there so what's the problem with it?

[air gordon]

If rose would have said he is resting himself for playoffs instead of for meetings and kids graduation, he wouldn't come off as a complete idiot

[Andrew]

Good to see them win again on the road and defeat the Raptors, who have had a very good start, but disheartening to see Rose unable to finish another game after that slip. It doesn't exactly allay concerns about him being fragile, but he was walking under his own power, didn't go back to the locker room, and as the TNT guys pointed out, the trainers weren't working on him on the bench. That suggests it isn't too serious, perhaps precautionary as much as anything else, but it's discomforting to see all the same.

[air gordon]

Your thoughts on roses comments the previous 2 days?!

Strange game watching the teams taking quarter turns giving the ball away. That James Johnson guy seems to have these wow games against his former team. I'd love to have that guy on the Bulls

Maybe it's just me and my un affinity for the Gasol. Solid game for him overall. The way he gets a lot of those points- it's almost unsatisfying. Every contested shot he feels he fouled. It looks like he can be going up stronger. I know I should be content with his production....

[Murat]

Stop injuring Derrick Rose, NBA.

Please stop. I'm getting mad

[Andrew]

Your thoughts on roses comments the previous 2 days?!

Not much to say, really. He definitely could've chosen his words better, but I don't want to get caught up over-analysing or frothing at the mouth over it, just because he didn't say exactly what we wanted to hear. I'm inclined to take Noah's advice:

I just, I don't want to see him down. I know sometimes it's frustrating, you got injuries, you got tweaks. Every time something happens to him, people act like it's the end of the world. And that's f---ing so lame to me. Relax. Like, OK, he's coming back from two crazy surgeries. Obviously we're being conservative with him, and when things aren't going right, he's got to listen to his body more than anybody. So everybody needs to chill the f--- out. I mean, I'm sorry for cursing, but I'm really passionate. I don't like to see him down. And he doesn't say that he's down, but I don't like it when, like, people portray him and judge him. ‘Cause it's not fair to him. It's not.

"We're going to be just fine. We're going to be just fine. We just got to take it as — just, everybody needs to chill out. Chill out."

"We're a group that's gone through a lot," Noah said. "And it's just, looking at it as a teammate, it's just frustrating because I feel like he's sometimes portrayed as something that he's not. You don't come back from the injuries that he's coming back from without unbelievable commitment, you know what I'm saying?

"I'm just growing and just watching the power that you [media] guys have, sometimes it's just you guys can really portray somebody as something that he's not," he continued. "It's just that, to me, that's a little disappointing. Just because I know how much he cares about this game. I see it every day. I think we're all in this together and this is not a one-man team, but at the end of the day, we need him. We need him."

Noah and Thibbs (who's also defended Rose recently) know Rose a lot better than we do, or a lot of the people criticising him probably do. I'll take their word for it, and hope Rose can stay as injury free as possible. He could've expressed himself better, but it is what it is, what's done is done.

[Moz]

Maybe it's just me and my un affinity for the Gasol. Solid game for him overall. The way he gets a lot of those points- it's almost unsatisfying. Every contested shot he feels he fouled. It looks like he can be going up stronger. I know I should be content with his production....

Word... and he's clumsy whenever he's involved in hustle plays... or perhaps he's not wasting too much energy on those efforts since he knows that Thibs will run him in to the ground...

[air gordon]

There's no media trickery here. He didn't get trapped into saying what he said and he left no doubt on what he was saying.

Noah has matured into a great leader for this team. He's come a long way. He knows a thing or two about playing through injury. One can't help but think privately that Noah is thinking rose is soft as a marshmallow and dumb as rocks.

Even the new guy in town Gasol said a few choice negative remarks on rose. Part of the reason Gasol cane here was because Rose assured him he was ready to roll

I don't want to see anyone get hurt, especially the team's franchise player. And I don't want to be lied to

Maybe he catches a break for being stupid if his group doesn't come up with a marketing scheme of his return a few years ago only to not have him return.

During the bulls playoff "run" 2 years ago players were quoted as saying Rose was dominating in practice.
Doctors were saying medically he was cleared to play and that playing is part of the rehab process

I don't know of any player refusing to play not counting the pippen incident.

As a bulls fan, I'm not sure if Rose is the right guy to be the franchise. You can't put your hopes on someone like that. No player with a championship pedigree acts like him or shares his attitude

[Jeffx]

Noah's 100% on the money. These loudmouth, know-it-all fans and media types need to sit down and STFU. Think about the hard work this cat put in coming back from these injuries. I would never, ever question Rose.

[Andrew]

Gasol and Rose out, on the road against a team that certainly had the ability to run all over them. Instead, they top the 100 point mark, and win by sixteen.

As it happens, I picked them to lose in the daily predictions thread. As a dedicated sports fan - with all the superstitions that it brings - I know what I must do, henceforth.

[Stress Fracture]

You've done it again, Andrew.

[Andrew]

That said, I picked the Spurs to win last year. Of course, I balanced it out by talking about LeBron leading huge comebacks every game.

[NovU]

Damn you Andrew. To think about it now, you and Sauru totally killed the Heat last season.


I don't know how much jinx power I have but I think the Bulls will win by blowout in next one against Big Cuz.

[erudain]

Great win, nice come back after being down big...yada yada.

Full stop.
45mins for Jimmy is not acceptable, specially if you have a backup you just refuse to play!
Hasn't this guy learnt anything after 5 years of running Derrick, Deng, Jo and last year Jimmy to the ground????

Man, I seriously hope Bulls are able to sign Ray Allen.
Otherwise JB will be death around april playing this kind of minutes.

[Stress Fracture]

I have a feeling that Butler may have a serious injury if his minutes isn't capped.

[erudain]

It doesnt have to be an injury, He'll be simply flat out gased.
We saw it last season....Jimmy had a great regular season, but with the ammount of minutes he accumulated over the year (specially after Deng was traded) he wasn't able to keep up with Beal in the post-season.

[Moz]

I love the spacing and the off-ball flow/ball distributions they have in this game... I reckon, since he's not confident with either Snell or McDermott, Thibs should try to play Mirotic at the 3 (and maybe slide Dunleavy to the 2, he tried it with McDermott earlier this season so why not him since he's pretty reliable these days) to relieve Butler... also Nazr is big and tough enough so give him some 5-7 minutes of playing time to give the Noah-Gasol-Gibson rotation a breather...

[air gordon]

Rasol and gose were out. It was expected butler was going to get a lot of minutes. Necessary evil.

I'm okay giving all backup big man minutes to gibson. He's is in his prime

I'm on board with nikola at the 3 depending on the matchup.

[Andrew]

Déjà vu with all these injuries. Or perhaps, the feeling you get watching a lousy sequel that's exactly the same as the preceding flick.

Get well soon, Bulls.

[Andrew]

Shouldn't have been as close as it was, but at least they eked out the win. Good to see Rose and Gasol back out there...here's hoping they're still out there and healthy when Gibson and Hinrich get back.

[Moz]

phpBB [video]

Glad that Thibs learned and ran a lot of plays for Jimmy (unlike earlier games when they're both on the floor) instead of pushing Derrick to create for their offense... Pau seems like he didn't miss a beat with that performance though he's kinda discombobulated at times on the defensive end... Nikola made some shots also but he needs to fortify his defense and be confident enough taking his shots instead of being too unselfish... Time to re-sync their defense now Pau is back...