Is it time to worry about Taj?

[DRoseCantStop]

He gone.

[Payt10]

Interesting numbers of Taj's efficiency at the rim.

I would like to see the number of shots he's had blocked and the number of dunks attempted in comparison to last year. I bet you would see a pretty big difference.

If it's his ankle (And I hope it's the ankle instead of normal athletic decline) then it makes sense why those numbers are what they are. He's getting zero lift.

I also think part of it can be attributed to scouting. Teams are sitting on Taj's moves in the post. He's not taking teams by surprise anymore. They know the spin is coming. All they have to do is wait for it and put their arms in the air. He has struggled against length.

[johnnyvann840]

Regardless Dan, you're calling me out for using on/off with Boozer and downplaying with Taj..I'm not, but do we really want to start comparing these? Not even in the same stratosphere. The bottom line is Taj is close to a net neutral layer this year. Boozer hadn't been that and been a HUGE net negative for a few years.

My point was the stat is saying the same thing that it said for Boozer albeit on a different scale; the Bulls were MUCH better off giving minutes to Taj over Boozer and now they're better giving minutes to the other bigs over Taj.

The difference between the two guys though is Boozer was bad because of lack of skill where as Taj is not contributing due to injury. I also think the rotations are fairly poor for all the bigs involved.

We really are not necessarily better off playing the other bigs over Taj though.. For instance.

Pau has been better with Taj than with Jo or Niko...

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... -2-man::14

Niko has been better with Taj than he has with Pau or Jo also...

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... -2-man::14



But for what ever reason, the teams best two man for the past few years, Taj and Jo, have been an utter failure together this year... ?? It's been so bad with those two on the floor together and I will admit I wanted them to start together.. I have been advocated for more of them together. This season, I was wrong.. They've been so bad, it's inexplicable
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... -2-man::14

[johnnyvann840]

to correct the last post, I should have said the Bulls, as a team , have been better, not necessarily the players themselves individually,

[mj234eva]

Interesting numbers of Taj's efficiency at the rim.

I would like to see the number of shots he's had blocked and the number of dunks attempted in comparison to last year. I bet you would see a pretty big difference.

If it's his ankle (And I hope it's the ankle instead of normal athletic decline) then it makes sense why those numbers are what they are. He's getting zero lift.

I also think part of it can be attributed to scouting. Teams are sitting on Taj's moves in the post. He's not taking teams by surprise anymore. They know the spin is coming. All they have to do is wait for it and put their arms in the air. He has struggled against length.

Code: Select all

          2-Pt Dunk   
Season    %FGA Md.
2013-14   .109  89
2014-15   .119  40


Code: Select all

                                         
Season     G FGA Blkd
2013-14   82       98
2014-15   43       42


From within 5 feet, he's been blocked 13.7% of the time, on the season. 15% since Jan 1st. Last season, he was blocked 18% of the time from within 5 feet. This season, he's averaging 5.4 attempts from within that range, last season 5.

[Ice Man]

Missing a shot by being blocked isn't any worse than missing a shot in other ways; in fact, it's better, because the chance of the offense recovering the ball is higher (Lord knows, the Bulls seem to give up a basket on the loose ball every damn time they block a shot). I don't worry about that stuff. I do worry that Taj seems to be half a step slower this year -- and lacking in his usual enthusiasm. He seems more hangdog than puppy dog this year, which is sad to see.

[mj234eva]

(Lord knows, the Bulls seem to give up a basket on the loose ball every damn time they block a shot).

This has been infuriating me all season.

[mj234eva]

double.

[kyrv]

Missing a shot by being blocked isn't any worse than missing a shot in other ways; in fact, it's better, because the chance of the offense recovering the ball is higher (Lord knows, the Bulls seem to give up a basket on the loose ball every damn time they block a shot). I don't worry about that stuff. I do worry that Taj seems to be half a step slower this year -- and lacking in his usual enthusiasm. He seems more hangdog than puppy dog this year, which is sad to see.

I agree with this and everyone else - not like Taj is killing the team but not liking this Taj, plus as jv said, Bulls really need Taj to play well in the playoffs. The Bulls just really do well when Taj is Taj'ing it up.

[Red Larrivee]

You go around for three years throwing +/- in everyone's face about how terrible Boozer was + how good Gibson was and now that it's Gibson with the negative net rating, you rely on the good ole eye test.

This is true. I never put much stock into +/-. There's just too circumstances around it. All those +/- stats said we should be better on both sides without Boozer. So far, we aren't. It is good though to be able to evaluate Gibson for the player he is without using Boozer as a crutch for his value.

If we are using the eye test, Gibson doesn't look as good as past years, mainly because the defensive impact hasn't been as visible. Offensively, he's done fine, though I still think he needs better recognition on when to pass the ball out the post. Overall, Gibson still has value to our team and is clearly our most athletic big man. That's an important feature when your other three big men play below the rim. I don't thnk he's having a bad season though. His production is hitting career averages.

[Stratmaster]

I think that is underrating him because early in the year he played with horrific defense units with Brooks, Snell and McBuckets, that got murdered, and the stat usually regresses unknown players toward neutral if it doesn't know a lot about them.

yeah, his regression on D has been overstated. He's, BY FAR, been a better defensive player than Niko and it's really not even close. All you have to do is watch a game. You really have to break it down by lineups and who's he's playing with. A lot of those defensive metrics had Boozer as a better defender than Taj and Noah too.

You go around for three years throwing +/- in everyone's face about how terrible Boozer was + how good Gibson was and now that it's Gibson with the negative net rating, you rely on the good ole eye test.

Yeah, it is kind of funny how people in general cherry-pick stats to say "he's playing about the same", then when a stat is brought up that disagrees with them, it isn't a good stat, and then it morphs to "all you have to do is watch the game". I have been watching the games, Taj has not been nearly as good as last season. He was close at the beginning of the season and it has been declining since.

It may be because of injuries. The good news for Taj fans is that almost everyone is a Taj fan. So on this board that will be accepted and it will be "well, he has been hurt" or "he is frustrated with Noah and Gasol". Whereas for Noah it is "he sucks and should be benched so Taj can play" as if Noah is perfectly healthy and has no adjustment to be made in being moved to a virtual 4 spot.

[kodo]

Most of his personal production stats are almost identical to last year with some small decline.

PER 16.0 vs 16.1
TS%: 52.4% vs 53.1%
Rebounding Rate: 13.2% vs 13.5%
Opponent FG% at the rim: 46.3% vs 44.7%

He’s quite a bit lower in finishing at the rim:
FG% at the rim: 58.1% vs 63.8% (last season)

And scrapping more on contested rebounds but not getting more of them:
Contested REB %: 52.4% vs 42.4% vs (last season)

(I would guess this is the continued Boozer effect, we no longer have a brute strength shover/pusher under the rim, all 4 of our bigs are finesse bigs. And it’s killing us on allowed opponent offensive boards).

But overall Taj is really, really similar. His useage has gone down but we knew that would happen. I’m actually surprised Thibs was able to keep his minutes the same.

[dice]

But for what ever reason, the teams best two man for the past few years, Taj and Jo, have been an utter failure together this year... ?? It's been so bad with those two on the floor together and I will admit I wanted them to start together.. I have been advocated for more of them together. This season, I was wrong.. They've been so bad, it's inexplicable
http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... -2-man::14

small sample size makes it explicable

[dice]

You go around for three years throwing +/- in everyone's face about how terrible Boozer was + how good Gibson was and now that it's Gibson with the negative net rating, you rely on the good ole eye test.

This is true. I never put much stock into +/-. There's just too circumstances around it. All those +/- stats said we should be better on both sides without Boozer

all you had to do was watch the team without boozer on the floor for the last couple of seasons to realize that was true. and the numbers verified it. this year's team is totally different for a variety of reasons - tough to compare to the teams of the last couple of years

[dice]

Missing a shot by being blocked isn't any worse than missing a shot in other ways; in fact, it's better, because the chance of the offense recovering the ball is higher...

but typically with not much time left on the shot clock, whereas a typical missed shot re-sets the clock

[Salo23]

Gibson was noticeably thicker at the start of last season compared to the start of this season. The strategy to shed some muscle seemed to help with Butler but not so much with Taj.

Also I was at the Warriors game and he got injured in the 2nd quarter and was carried to the locker room by the Asian trainer. It looked bad. I don't recall it being on any injury reports but it looked pretty severe in person. He has lacked some explosiveness since that happened.

[jacoby1us]

Hopefully the All-Star break brings rest to all.

[PAUerful]

He just isn't getting consistent minutes, and he has been all but shut out of our offense scheme. Over the last 7 games Taj is averaging 24 minutes while Pau's getting 36. That is ridiculous.

[TimRobbins]

I smell a Deng-like salary dump coming.