DASMACKDOWN wrote:kodo wrote:chitownsports4ever wrote:
Its Billy!! everyone else is playing checkers and hes playing Candy Crush
What's even more frustrating is that they wouldn't even be "developmental" minutes. Buzelis is the only positive PF (+0.2), Phillips is a -1.0, Terry is a -3, Craig is a -3, Patrick is -5.6. He's also shooting the 3 (33%) at mostly the same rate at those guys. Even Patrick is only 3% ahead, which is nothing given Pat's low volume.
The thing that should be the most worrysome for Bulls fans, is Billy will also do this to our next rookie. Whomever it is.
Even if we got Cooper Flagg, does anyone think he will avoid the Billy treatment? He would say, he needs to get stronger, learn the defense etc. Meanwhile he will pigeonhole him behind PWill, Matas and JP and say its hard to find minutes for him.

I believe Flag will be too solid to bench. The guy was schooling Matas in that 1-on-1 vid, and he's a year younger... But already bigger and clearly more polished.
In many ways, I don't disagree with tough love / short leash treatment for a rookie. It's just weird cause the guy(s) ahead of him have been a disaster, and we're sub-500. In the grand scheme, as frustrating as it is ... Billy's coaching isn't going to ruin a player's development or change our course of team trajectory. A good player with NBA resources should become a good player.
But game to game, it is very frustrating to watch, especially with the management's hand in this as we are stuck in a total dead-end if we don't either win more games (cough, miraculously play much better) or lose way more games and guarantee Spurs don't get that pick (and more importantly, put ourselves in position for more talented prospects). And on the margins, I do think the lack of defined roles (this obsession with "positionless" lineups) has made Dalen, Matas, even Coby, Pat and Ayo perform worse than they should. Cool - when energies mount up and we're short at the front court, play your best little guys together. But why do we keep coming out of training camp with guards playing in the front-court, and most the SF/PF/C backups getting totally iced?
You can instantly get a top-15 defense in this tank-crazy league by just playing Lonzo/Ayo-Terry-Phillips-Matas-Vuc. Yeah, with horrible Vuc at C. Or even Zach. But why would you play Coby, Giddey, Zach and Vuc together for long periods of time? Compounded by a sleepwalking out of shape Patrick? How many reps are you getting for them? In theory, there's 3P spacing there for a good offense. But it hasn't happened. Giddey, Pat and Coby clank a lot of looks, and the latter 2 make some bone-headed offensive plays. A 16th offensive rating isn't good enough for a bottom tier defense.