What to do with Taj Gibson? -MERGED

MalikJoakim24 · Post #1 » by **MalikJoakim24** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:16 am

Many on the forum have expressed sentiments that the Bulls giving Taj Gibson the $8million extension was a horrible decision, I agree with this sentiment because he has severely regressed this season & did not perform remotely well in the playoffs.

Every year, we get reports that Taj Gibson is practicing / has a three point shot. This is not what he needs to be working on; Taj needs too refine his post work & his mid-range shooting as well. He needs to prioritize what he has to work on because he's basically been the same player since he came into the league.

Taj is going to become 28 (June 24) and it seems (from year to year so far) that his game will not improve more. His current contract counts until the 2016-2017 season (he will be 32 years at the end of his contract).

If the Bulls FO are serious about their 2014 plan with bringing Mirotic in and clearing up cap space to rebuild the roster to give Rose a contender, then Taj's contract is a burden because you can get a guy similar to him through the draft or a trade (a la Thomas Robinson who has more potential than Taj) which will not hurt the cap as much as Taj's contract will.

Do we keep Taj Gibson for the life of his contract or do we trade him before the 2014 FA?

dafunky1 · Post #2 » by **dafunky1** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:21 am

I have always contended that they should have given that money to Omer.But now that he has his money,it's time to start him or trade him.Bulls are paying about 25 million at the pf spot,

MalikJoakim24 · Post #3 » by **MalikJoakim24** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:22 am

dafunky1 wrote:I have always contended that they should have given that money to Omer.But now that he has his money,it's time to start him or trade him.Bulls are paying about 25 million at the pf spot,

Thibs won't start him - Thibs will only start Boozer.

dafunky1 · Post #4 » by **dafunky1** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:24 am

MnM24 wrote:
dafunky1 wrote:I have always contended that they should have given that money to Omer.But now that he has his money,it's time to start him or trade him.Bulls are paying about 25 million at the pf spot,

Thibs won't start him - Thibs will only start Boozer.

Yeah they will............if the Bulls dump Boozer.

Mr Funk · Post #5 » by **Mr Funk** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:27 am

Trade Taj? F*ck no.

Our defence/team/bench is a mess without him and this was very apparent when he was injured this season.

We'll have cap space by trading or using the amnesty on Booze.

JohnnyKILLroy · Post #6 » by **JohnnyKILLroy** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:29 am

Trade him for Tyreke.

johnnyvann840 · Post #7 » by **johnnyvann840** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:51 am

Start him.

patryk7754 · Post #8 » by **patryk7754** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:53 am

He hasn't regressed he's just getting paid more for the same thing. And you can't expect him to devolved because he's 28

Post #9 » by **HomoSapien** » Fri May 31, 2013 1:55 am

It was a tough situation because we couldn't afford to lose him on the open market like we did with Asik, but we're just not paying him enough to justify his contract. He had a bad year this season.

patryk7754 · Post #10 » by **patryk7754** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:06 am

Someone explain to me how he had a bad season. His offensive stats are better and defensively nothing's changed,

Post #11 » by **HomoSapien** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:18 am

patryk7754 wrote:Someone explain to me how he had a bad season. His offensive stats are better and defensively nothing's changed,

Maybe disappointing is the better word. Despite Asik leaving and us replacing him with basically nothing, Gibson only got two more minutes than the previous season. Watching him play, it was clear that he was often playing frustrated and without the same energy he typically brings. His PER dropped by about 2.5 points which is pretty significant. He also really laid a big egg during the playoffs. Injuries obviously hurt him, but he was a big liability out there.

MalikJoakim24 · Post #12 » by **MalikJoakim24** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:21 am

johnnyvann840 wrote:Start him.

Only if Boozer is traded / amnestied which is unlikely.

patryk7754 · Post #13 » by **patryk7754** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:22 am

HomoSapien wrote:
patryk7754 wrote:Someone explain to me how he had a bad season. His offensive stats are better and defensively nothing's changed,

Maybe disappointing is the better word. Despite Asik leaving and us replacing him with basically nothing, Gibson only got two more minutes than the previous season. Watching him play, it was clear that he was often playing frustrated and without the same energy he typically brings. His PER dropped by about 2.5 points which is pretty significant. He also really laid a big egg during the playoffs. Injuries obviously hurt him, but he was a big liability out there.

You can't completely blame taj for that though because he fed off of Asiks dominance in the paint

JohnnyKILLroy · Post #14 » by **JohnnyKILLroy** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:22 am

He should have got more of Noah's minutes. I thought for sure he would've been pushing 30 minutes a game.

jl342323 · Post #15 » by **jl342323** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:30 am

JohnnyKILLroy wrote:He should have got more of Noah's minutes. I thought for sure he would've been pushing 30 minutes a game.

i thought realistically he was going to get 28 minutes per game. who knew noah would average about 40 minutes per game for first 2 months of the season. that was a dumb thing to do a player who never averaged more than 33 mpg in his career. remember the bulls were a .500 team with noah and deng logging 40+ minutes per game. (first 2 months)

patryk7754 · Post #16 » by **patryk7754** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:33 am

jl342323 wrote:
JohnnyKILLroy wrote:He should have got more of Noah's minutes. I thought for sure he would've been pushing 30 minutes a game.

i thought realistically he was going to get 28 minutes per game. who knew noah would average about 40 minutes per game for first 2 months of the season. that was a dumb thing to do a player who never averaged more than 33 mpg in his career. remember the bulls were a .500 team with noah and deng logging 40+ minutes per game. (first 2 months)

Yea. the only knock on Thibs is Line-up management

heir_jordan22 · Post #17 » by **heir_jordan22** » Fri May 31, 2013 2:50 am

I like Taj and he definitely should have gotten more minutes this year, especially since we didn't have any other backup bigs who could spell Noah.

But looking into the future we will have to find a way to trade Taj. It makes no sense to keep both Taj and Boozer and pay them a combined $24M. It also doesn't make sense to amnesty Boozer and keep Taj, because getting rid of both will give us so much more flexibility in FA with Deng and Hinrich expiring.

I think we will end up trading Taj, keeping Boozer, and re-signing Deng to just under $8M/year. That would give us enough money to sign Mirotic if he comes over next summer. Then Boozer will expire in 2015 and we will be able to re-sign Butler. I really don't see any big FA pickups unfortunately,

PS: This all kind of flowed out of my brain once I started thinking about what Taj can contribute to this team.

mymysql · Post #18 » by **mymysql** » Fri May 31, 2013 3:18 am

Taj and Buckets are my two favorite players. They're the only two guys I would get depressed if we lost.

I don't think he's overpaid. He's only overpaid in his current role.

Former Roy · Post #19 » by **Former Roy** » Fri May 31, 2013 3:18 am

Move him as soon as possible pls! The jumper is broken and it ain't gonna get fixed!

Thanks

Former Roy

BullsHOF · Post #20 » by **BullsHOF** » Fri May 31, 2013 3:29 am

Have you guys been watching Indy against the Heat?

You want us to face the Pacers, and get destroyed in the paint? Keep Taj, unless you get a CLEAR upgrade, or an offer you can't refuse, like 2 1st round draft picks.