Bulls Preparing To Offer Buckets Max

[Mech Engineer]

Yeah...Noah's offensive movements/actions seem a moment too late in the flow when the defense can recover.

But, I also wonder why one of Derrick or Jimmy co-ordinate to take more Corner 3s and leave the top of the key 3s to MDJ.

I know it is not as simple as I write but both Jimmy and Derrick have generally been bad from non Corner 3s. Maybe, the driving lanes are better from non-corners and that's why they are there.

[Justrec]

Didn't read thread except the OP, but move Noah instead of Gibson

[DanTown8587]

As a side note that no one wants to read, because it involves basketball and stuff: Teams have changed up their defense. This is normal for the NBA and its why you want to actually play and take the regular season seriously. You know how earlier in the year teams were playing guys like Jimmy, Brooks, Taj and Pau straight up? Those guys would hold the ball and work for a shot in isolation and they were killing it. Some people here were complaining about the lack of two man game, Taj and Pau being a black hole, etc.

Teams about a week or two changed their defense. They now are doubling regularly against anyone who comes inside. The Bulls are not used to it, their new simplistic offense isn't set up for it and its not going well.

This is going to continue. This is not specifically a Butler issue but he is part of it and he is going to have to get used to being double teamed. All that offensive read and react stuff that is meant to punish double teams is going to have to come back and Rose (who the simple iso offense was put in for) is going to have to learn it.

I've definitely noticed that teams are paying much more attention to Butler whenever he receives the ball in the post now, he either receives an aggressive double, or there is always an extra defender hedging and providing at least a soft double. His post game has definitely made it to scouting reports around the league.

In addition, once MDJ went down with an injury, along with Mirotic's recent slump it has also allowed teams to pack in the paint a lot more which provides less driving lanes/space for the slashers, so not only does it make things difficult to operate on post ups for Butler, but it makes it difficult for him to find driving space.

Now all this being said, a guy who receives max dollars needs to find a way to counterattack all these changes, and that is going to be the next evolution of Butler now that he is clearly on the scouting reports as one of the top options for the Bulls on the offensive end. People need to realize that Butler was unlikely to have been on many scouting reports to start the season as a scoring threat, and as Jeremy Lin's Knicks run years back showed, sometimes it takes a while for teams to start game planning for players who have sudden upswings in plays, especially in the regular season unlike the playoffs where adjustments are made on a game by game basis.

I believe in Butler and I believe he is smart enough to find a way out of this current slump.

Great post.

People tend to come up with simplistic answers for the normal variations that occur during a season. Guys get hot and they get cold. Same with teams. There are usually reasons why this happens. In game adjustments take stuff that works and makes it not work.

I totally agree that if Butler truly is a max player, he needs to continue to evolve his game to be able to handle the added pressure. He is now being treated like an offensive first option. That's something most players struggle with at first when it happens. Not worth freaking out over.

I also agree that Dunleavey's absence has noticeably hurt the spacing on offense. Mirotic at the 3 isn't nearly the floor spacer that Dunleavey is or Mirotic is as a 4. Teams will cheat off Mirotic a little with fast players knowing that he takes his time with (and often will pump fake out of) 3 point shots. Its harder to cheat off him with slower players because it takes them more time to close when Mirotic gets the ball.

Jimmy Butler WITH Dunleavy

148/292 - .507 FG%
Asst'd %= .669

Jimmy Butler WITHOUT Dunleavy

79/192 - .411 FG%
Asst'd % = .620

[Mbrahv0528]

Didn't read thread except the OP, but move Noah instead of Gibson

You're joking right? The whole thread is about how Noah is quite obviously still recovering from injury and may still be hurt. Which means he is almost impossible to trade.