The next step in Butler's evolution?

[Keller61]

I'm not one to nitpick the situation but if you watch Rose in the butler highlight video from game 3 vs. the Bucks, Rose never once high fives Butler or goes to give him dabs after a nice play. He does do this for other players though. I think if there was a riff, it was mostly a passive aggressive type thing from Rose's end. That's just my gut feeling, I could obviously be 100% wrong.

[instagram]https://instagram.com/p/1uHYxQxh3j/[/instagram]

I don't recall there being any of these rumors when the Bulls were actually playing. It wasn't until the season was over that Bernstein decided to crank up the BS machine.

[PaKii94]

I'm not one to nitpick the situation but if you watch Rose in the butler highlight video from game 3 vs. the Bucks, Rose never once high fives Butler or goes to give him dabs after a nice play. He does do this for other players though. I think if there was a riff, it was mostly a passive aggressive type thing from Rose's end. That's just my gut feeling, I could obviously be 100% wrong.

[instagram]https://instagram.com/p/1uHYxQxh3j/[/instagram]

I don't recall there being any of these rumors when the Bulls were actually playing. It wasn't until the season was over that Bernstein decided to crank up the BS machine.

I think this must be the nail on the coffin. This is what it is behind the scenes this rift is so nonsense

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I like that quote tho: "Every game, Ima get um"

[bullsRlife]

Yeah, I never actually believed there was any animosity behind closed doors. Jimmy's the young guy, and he's a down to earth type of guy. I never believed he would try to undermine derrick, the same guy that encourages him to attack at every chance.

[GimmeDat]

One thing's for sure, I'm looking for more of this next season -

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpkFXAiI7mE[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nutSHuUONPk[/youtube]

They've yet to realize even an ounce of the potential they have in transition together.

[PaKii94]

One thing's for sure, I'm looking for more of this next season -

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpkFXAiI7mE[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nutSHuUONPk[/youtube]

They've yet to realize even an ounce of the potential they have in transition together.

Thibs offense definitely did bog down the transition opportunities a shitton. I'm excited for a more fast paced system.

[kodo]

It wasn't Butler/Rose that lost us the Cleveland series imo. Game 6 aside.

Not saying it was.. just saying that the "best backcourt in the league" should be able to outplay that group by a big margin, consistently. In fact, they did. In the NBA Finals.

Not saying our backcourt is > than GS, but there wasn't much difference between how GS's backcourt performed vs Chicago's backcourt against Cleveland.

Steph + Klay: 41.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 8.0 apg, 3.1 spg

Rose + Jimmy: 42.7 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 9.0 apg, 3.2 spg

Obviously the huge caveat is that GS won and we didn't...but I'm more inclined to say that Rose + Jimmy is not the biggest reason why we lost that series.

[TheSuzerain]

Our supporting players laid an egg the entire series. Rose and Butler straight up outplayed their counterparts in game 4, yet we lost because of the role players.

[johnnyvann840]

It wasn't Butler/Rose that lost us the Cleveland series imo. Game 6 aside.

Not saying it was.. just saying that the "best backcourt in the league" should be able to outplay that group by a big margin, consistently. In fact, they did. In the NBA Finals.

Not saying our backcourt is > than GS, but there wasn't much difference between how GS's backcourt performed vs Chicago's backcourt against Cleveland.

Steph + Klay: 41.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 8.0 apg, 3.1 spg

Rose + Jimmy: 42.7 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 9.0 apg, 3.2 spg

Obviously the huge caveat is that GS won and we didn't...but I'm more inclined to say that Rose + Jimmy is not the biggest reason why we lost that series.

You're looking at the wrong numbers... now look at Delly, JR and Shump vs. our guys and then vs. theirs.. the problem with our team was more defensive than it was offensive. Also, the overall numbers don't show the consistency, highs and lows, and timing, of bad defense and good play. And you aren't looking at efficiency on O for us and them either.

I think JR, Delly and Shump had a TS% of about .700 against us and and at or below .400 in the Finals.

Make no mistake, the Warriors back court defense was just superior to ours in every way. they forced TO's, disrupted flow, stopped the ball, contested shots. We didn't. We had our 2 guarding the best player on the planet most of the time and nobody else could even get in the way.

[TheSuzerain]

Not saying it was.. just saying that the "best backcourt in the league" should be able to outplay that group by a big margin, consistently. In fact, they did. In the NBA Finals.

Not saying our backcourt is > than GS, but there wasn't much difference between how GS's backcourt performed vs Chicago's backcourt against Cleveland.

Steph + Klay: 41.8 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 8.0 apg, 3.1 spg

Rose + Jimmy: 42.7 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 9.0 apg, 3.2 spg

Obviously the huge caveat is that GS won and we didn't...but I'm more inclined to say that Rose + Jimmy is not the biggest reason why we lost that series.

You're looking at the wrong numbers... now look at Delly, JR and Shump vs. our guys and then vs. theirs.. the problem with our team was more defensive than it was offensive. Also, the overall numbers don't show the consistency, highs and lows, and timing, of bad defense and good play. And you aren't looking at efficiency on O for us and them either.

I think JR, Delly and Shump had a TS% of about .700 against us and and at or below .400 in the Finals.

Make no mistake, the Warriors back court defense was just superior to ours in every way. they forced TO's, disrupted flow, stopped the ball, contested shots. We didn't. We had our 2 guarding the best player on the planet most of the time and nobody else could even get in the way.

It is highly debatable that our problem in the playoffs was more defense than offense. I'm not seeing much in support of that. We scored over 100 points once in the series.

[meekrab]

Cleveland only scored 100 twice. The game slows down in the playoffs.

[johnnyvann840]

It is highly debatable that our problem in the playoffs was more defense than offense. I'm not seeing much in support of that. We scored over 100 points once in the series.

OK...then the Warriors won the NBA Championship because they had the best defense just as much as because they had a good offense. We didn't even beat Cleveland because we were mediocre at both offense and defense. You have to be able to get stops at critical times. That is what separates the great from the good and the good from the suck when it really matters.

[Rerisen]

Thibs offense definitely did bog down the transition opportunities a ****. I'm excited for a more fast paced system.

When Thibs was hired he preached getting out on the break.

His half court offense should not have a single thing to do with the team failing to run or execute on fastbreak opportunities. That's on the players.

[AKfanatic]

Next step in Jimmy's evolution...

Singing duets with Taylor Swift?

[RedBulls23]

Thibs offense definitely did bog down the transition opportunities a ****. I'm excited for a more fast paced system.

When Thibs was hired he preached getting out on the break.

His half court offense should not have a single thing to do with the team failing to run or execute on fastbreak opportunities. That's on the players.

Thibs also talked a lot about spacing and yet he played terrible lineups that had little to no spacing at all.

Sometimes what Thibs said didn't actually translate to his coaching onto the court.

The pace the team played at was definitely in Thibs mold. He wanted a slower pace so it wouldn't compromise the defense.

[TruthSerum]

Thibs also talked a lot about spacing and yet he played terrible lineups that had little to no spacing at all.

Sometimes what Thibs said didn't actually translate to his coaching onto the court.

The pace the team played at was definitely in Thibs mold. He wanted a slower pace so it wouldn't compromise the defense.

Well, it's certainly true Thibs slowed our pace to win (with defense). Especially during our most offensively deficient years of '12-13 and '13-14. But, you gotta give him credit for at least trying to speed it up with our lethargic crew last season. Hoiball can't fix personnel. Thibs said 90's jumbo lineups wouldn't work. They don't. Thibs said rookies are garbage in the playoffs. They are.

You can't fix stupid.

[PaKii94]

Thibs offense definitely did bog down the transition opportunities a ****. I'm excited for a more fast paced system.

When Thibs was hired he preached getting out on the break.

His half court offense should not have a single thing to do with the team failing to run or execute on fastbreak opportunities. That's on the players.

HIs half court sets were quite good but he drilled them too much. Like the players have said, there wasn't much freedom in playing offense. Usually the set always took up 15-20 seconds of the shot clock trying to set it up and when our mediocre players couldn't execute, the offense stalled badly and our star players had to start putting up shots. When our mediocre players hit their shots, the offense hummed along (eg game 6 vs bucks)

[FriedRise]

Next step in Butler's evolution?

Pink nails, of course!
[tweet]https://twitter.com/OnlyTheNBA/status/635251745023762432[/tweet]

[Ice Man]

The pace the team played at was definitely in Thibs mold.

If you started Boozer/Pau next to Jo, and had Mike on the wing, you'd have a crappy fast-break team that played at a slow pace too.

Will Fred do differently? We shall see. I will say this, at least in spring 2014, after the Deng trade, with a rookie Snell, with no Niko and no McDermott, Thibs had no choice at all but to play slow. Nobody could have coached that squad and done any differently. (I also don't think that last year's squad would have been well served by playing faster, but I will grant that point is up for debate.)

[RedBulls23]

The pace the team played at was definitely in Thibs mold.

If you started Boozer/Pau next to Jo, and had Mike on the wing, you'd have a crappy fast-break team that played at a slow pace too.

Will Fred do differently? We shall see. I will say this, at least in spring 2014, after the Deng trade, with a rookie Snell, with no Niko and no McDermott, Thibs had no choice at all but to play slow. Nobody could have coached that squad and done any differently. (I also don't think that last year's squad would have been well served by playing faster, but I will grant that point is up for debate.)

Bulls have always played at a slow pace in Thibs era. I'm not necessarily knocking him on that, but it's just a fact. Last year was the fastest we had played and yet we still finished 23rd in pace.

[Ice Man]

Bulls have always played at a slow pace in Thibs era. I'm not necessarily knocking him on that, but it's just a fact. Last year was the fastest we had played and yet we still finished 23rd in pace.

I'd say that's on both the FO and Thibs. The FO signed two ground-bound, old school 4s as free agents, not the new school runners. The FO also signed Mike and Kirk as key roster pieces. I don't think any coach could make a squad with those guys play truly fast.

On the other hand ... yeah. Thibs made both lineup and tactics decisions that slowed the team. I won't argue with that, and I don't think anybody else would either.