PG:Men amongst boys out there

[Polynice4Pippen]

And he made errors. That's my point. And Thibs has had superior talent before, as he will again in round one.

Thibs did not maximize his roster against Washington - are you disputing that? That's a short discussion that can start and end with the Taj Booz tomfoolery.

Every coach makes errors. You can get away with many more errors when you have a superior roster. Thibs has more often than not NOT had superior talent. The 2012 playoffs without Derrick and Joakim. The 2013 season and playoffs, the 2014 season and playoffs without Derrick and Luol. Even in 2011 the Bulls weren't thought of as having superior talent, Derrick and Luol and Joakim and Taj's games simply elevated under Thibs. Yeah, they had more talent than Indiana and Atlanta, but clearly didn't have superior talent to Miami.

Yes, Thibs could have started Taj over Boozer. And the Bulls still wouldn't have been able to score in the 4th quarters of those games once the Wiz threw Ariza on Augustin. And you can't do much if your defensive player of the year is getting dominated by Nene. Wizards had the superior roster last season. I can only count 2 playoff series where Thibs had the superior roster.

I know he could have started Taj over Boozer. More importantly, they should not have split time. You guys are both agreeing but arguing, not sure why.

What I said was simple and correct.

Unless you want to argue that playing Taj and Boozer equally bettered the team's chances, we agree.

Pretty obvious observation on my part. Not really controversial. I doubt the FO failed to notice. I doubt Taj and Noah failed to notice. Identifying and playing the best players should be easy for good NBA coaches.

You're saying this as if coaches don't make countless mistakes in playoff series. I'm pretty sure the Spurs front office and Tim Duncan and Tony Parker noticed when Pop took Duncan out in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals and had no one big in to keep Bosh off the offensive boards in the final seconds. It happens. Keeping your best rebounder and an all-time great defender in in that situation should be easy for a good NBA coach, right?

[bullsnewdynasty]

You are unrealistic if you think Taj and Boozer were equal players in that series. Taj was pretty decent. Boozer was pretty bad.

Having a good player split time equally with a bad player is not maximizing the roster.

I'm not arguing that. I'm saying it wasn't perfect by any means but ultimately Thibs did an excellent job even getting the team to the playoffs last year. Boozer played 24 minutes a game that series, what amount of minutes would have satisfied you? 20? Taj played 30.8 per game, would having him @ 40 per game changed the course of the series?

That roster on a whole was pretty freaking close to being maxed out.

Yeah, it would have. Boozer was a net negative for every minute he was on the court, Taj was a net positive. You get 10 more minutes of Taj over Boozer, that's nearly a quarter of the game where you're outscoring the Wizards instead of being outscored yourself. Not hard to believe that could be the difference in the series.

[Susan]

Yeah, it would have. Boozer was a net negative for every minute he was on the court, Taj was a net positive. You get 10 more minutes of Taj over Boozer, that's nearly a quarter of the game where you're outscoring the Wizards instead of being outscored yourself. Not hard to believe that could be the difference in the series.

What grade would you have given Thibs on a whole for the past 2 seasons (2012-13 and 2013-14)?

[johnnyvann840]

Taj minutes vs. Boozer was not the issue in that series as much as Jimmy being gimpy, Noah needing surgery, which he is STILL recovering from, obviously more serious than we were told months ago. DJ shat the bed entirely on both ends, Really Kirk, Taj and MDJ were the only Bulls who even showed up for the series.

Taj didn't start and played almost 32 MPG. Quite a bit more than he was used to in games in the regular season. Boozer played almost 8 minutes less and he was the starter. Taj couldn't of done much more in the series.

And don't forget Kyrv, we were really short bodies. Nazr and Snell were playing significant minutes. Taj was backing up Boozer and Jo. Taj also got hurt at the end.

edit- Nazr didn't really play much but Boozer was our 7th player in minutes played and Snell was 8th at 46 minutes for the series.. so that tells what Thibs was working with.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... #CHI::none

[bentheredengthat]

I'm still chuckling over us being up by 20+ & Thibs losing his mind over a turnover ( think by Snell). You could see him yelling God damn it!!! WTF with his face all red & veins sticking out.

He looked absolutely miserable. U

What the heck is wrong with that man?

It'll be his undoing as a coach. At some point players need more than just negative feedback. Players tune out constant negativity after a couple years.

Funny thing is you read other team's game threads and they are in admiration how hard Thibs is coaching in the winding minutes of games, while their coach is often sitting there like a bump on a log, esp if they are losing.

Grass is always greener I guess.

You know I'm fine with "coaching". It's the constant scowling and swearing demeanor that I'm talking about. He seems to take himself out of games for moments at a time because he can't control his emotions.

It happens after bad calls, missed shots, bad fouls by his team or any number of different things that just send him spinning.

Coaching through the end of every game is one thing, losing your mind over very typical events in an NBA game is another.

Its strange because it goes against his "focus on the next play" mentality that he expects from his players.

[bentheredengthat]

thibs is going show who he really is in this playoff.

My opinion on thibs was always the same. Lets see if he can lead this team Far.

I think the FO is looking at this playoffs as make or break for him. Not sure if that is fair to him after all the injuries.

Something tells me Thibs has at least learned to save some plays and strategies for the playoffs instead of letting it all hang out in the regular season. We'll see how it goes.

[pylb]

We haven't run the end of quarter handoff in some time, or the Jimmy (/Snell) half court curl->alley oop either. We've barely used the elevator play too.
I don't know if teams will cover the kickout to Pau in the corner for 3. He's been shooting a great percentage, but it's a low volume and probably preferable to a Rose/Brooks/Butler layup.

e: Actually I think we ran the curl->alleyoop for Butler in our last game against Orlando, Olidapo fouled him but wasn't called for it.