Positivity Thread

[Rerisen]

We are going to start a new positivity thread for this game, as its very possible the posts would carry the last one over 100 pages mid-game.

[Jo-Anne]

Let's make it three consecutive wins

Let's Go Bulls !!!

[Rerisen]

Will be interesting to see if Kirk's low minutes (20 vs BKN) was just a product of his first game back, or if Thibs is going to stick with this as a rotational thing, playing DJ the bigger of the PG minutes, perhaps Boganizing Kirk a bit, while letting him remain the starter.

[RastaBull]

Will be interesting to see if Kirk's low minutes (20 vs BKN) was just a product of his first game back, or if Thibs is going to stick with this as a rotational thing, playing DJ the bigger of the PG minutes, perhaps Boganizing Kirk a bit, while letting him remain the starter.

I think so to an extent. DJ has a taken an opportunity and run with it, looks like he's REALLY impressed Thibs. If DJ gets 30 mpg at PG, that leaves 18 min for Kirk. What's likely to happen is Kirk eating some of Snell's minutes at back-up SG, so that Kirk still gets 24+ mpg.

All that said, the Bogans role is nothing to sneeze at. It would be a vital role to a contending team (if we were one). Kirk gets to be a perimeter stopper, like a mini Tony Allen. And in that sense it's best to start him at the PG, hopefully keeping the opposing PG from finding an early groove.

[coldfish]

Will be interesting to see if Kirk's low minutes (20 vs BKN) was just a product of his first game back, or if Thibs is going to stick with this as a rotational thing, playing DJ the bigger of the PG minutes, perhaps Boganizing Kirk a bit, while letting him remain the starter.

When given the opportunity, Thibodeau does play with lineups for match up purposes. Due to injury and roster construction issues, we have rarely seen the team in a personnel position where the coach has an opportunity to do this.

I suspect that if the team gets healthy, you are going to see Thibs "ride the hot hand" with DJ and Kirk as well as play both of them together at times in the right situations. This will lead to variable minute loads on a game by game basis.

[Mech Engineer]

This team is again showing how their performance increases exponentially if you get a couple of average ball handlers to keep the offense working. It can be system offense, average PG, less athletic guy etc......but, it makes a big difference. I know this is the positive thread. But, it also shows how inept the Bulls FO has been with this, IMO. For whatever reason, one would think they would have learnt from last year's experience of using two of the three guys at once(Nate, Kirk, Marco).

It also shows how Teague was killing the team with his play when DJ can make such a big difference.

[coldfish]

This team is again showing how their performance increases exponentially if you get a couple of average ball handlers to keep the offense working. It can be system offense, average PG, less athletic guy etc......but, it makes a big difference. I know this is the positive thread. But, it also shows how inept the Bulls FO has been with this, IMO. For whatever reason, one would think they would have learnt from last year's experience of using two of the three guys at once(Nate, Kirk, Marco).

It also shows how Teague was killing the team with his play when DJ can make such a big difference.

All good points. There are nuances of playing the point guard position that players learn as early as grade school that Teague never got. The guy with the ball has to put some pressure on the defense to move defenders around so that others can get shots. When you are just dribbling the ball down the court and handing the ball off, you are almost forcing someone else to score out of an isolation play and the Bulls don't have any isolation scorers.

I don't view this thread so much as the positivity thread so much as the "let's talk about basketball instead of saying tank, tank, tank, darn it we won" thread.

[Mech Engineer]

This team is again showing how their performance increases exponentially if you get a couple of average ball handlers to keep the offense working. It can be system offense, average PG, less athletic guy etc......but, it makes a big difference. I know this is the positive thread. But, it also shows how inept the Bulls FO has been with this, IMO. For whatever reason, one would think they would have learnt from last year's experience of using two of the three guys at once(Nate, Kirk, Marco).

It also shows how Teague was killing the team with his play when DJ can make such a big difference.

All good points. There are nuances of playing the point guard position that players learn as early as grade school that Teague never got. The guy with the ball has to put some pressure on the defense to move defenders around so that others can get shots. When you are just dribbling the ball down the court and handing the ball off, you are almost forcing someone else to score out of an isolation play and the Bulls don't have any isolation scorers.

I don't view this thread so much as the positivity thread so much as the "let's talk about basketball instead of saying tank, tank, tank, darn it we won" thread.

DJ's success makes it feel worse. For the life of me, I don't understand why the Bulls never got one of Jason Terry, Crawford, Mayo, Ellis or the worst case a Randy Foye. Those guys even though not elite or superstars would have helped out the team.

It would have made the read/react offense much better with any of those guys being secondary ball handlers for 20-25 minutes alongside the main PG. I know Hinrich was supposed to be that guy but I still don't understand why they put so much trust in one guy who was coming back from a major injury and the other one who can't make a shot without falling down.

The Bulls could have used the Mavs model(Dirk, Kidd, Terry, Barea) as the shot makers/creators/ball handlers after 2010-11 especially when they saw their team fail while the Mavs won against the Heat. Rose getting injured has given GarPax the luxury to focus the spotlight on Derrick, Thibs, Deng etc..

[Rerisen]

The Bulls could have used the Mavs model(Dirk, Kidd, Terry, Barea) as the shot makers/creators/ball handlers after 2010-11 especially when they saw their team fail while the Mavs won against the Heat. Rose getting injured has given GarPax the luxury to focus the spotlight on Derrick, Thibs, Deng etc..

Not only didn't we learn the multiple on ball attackers lesson from the Mavs, we didn't even learn the spacing and 3pt shooting lesson!

Not only has the team never had a very capable 2nd option behind Rose, we've also never had a cast of elite 3pt shooters that would fit hand and glove with his very straight forward, drive and kick style. And when your top guy is elite at penetrating in, its a pretty no-brainer thing to go after.

[Mech Engineer]

The Bulls could have used the Mavs model(Dirk, Kidd, Terry, Barea) as the shot makers/creators/ball handlers after 2010-11 especially when they saw their team fail while the Mavs won against the Heat. Rose getting injured has given GarPax the luxury to focus the spotlight on Derrick, Thibs, Deng etc..

Not only didn't we learn the multiple on ball attackers lesson from the Mavs, we didn't even learn the spacing and 3pt shooting lesson!

Not only has the team never had a very capable 2nd option behind Rose, we've also never had a cast of elite 3pt shooters that would fit hand and glove with his very straight forward, drive and kick style. And when your top guy is elite at penetrating in, its a pretty no-brainer thing to go after.

This might sound crazy but I think the Bulls have placed too much emphasis on intangibles more than the tangibles.
MJ's success against Detroit in 1991 was somehow compared taking the next step for this team, Rebounds win championships mantra, if healthy they are a 70%(somewhere around that) win team, Learning from experience of losing etc.. While most of them have some truth to it, it was not a solution to sit around and wait for the intangibles to somehow click.

[DanTown8587]

If the Bulls get this game, the schedule breaks for them to get right back into the top of the East or the tank might be on if they're not higher.

@ Memphis, Toronto, Boston, Atlanta, Phoenix, @ Milwaukee, Charlotte, Washington, @ Charlotte, @ Washington, Philly, LA Lakers, @ Cleveland

[LoveDaBoo]

The Bulls could have used the Mavs model(Dirk, Kidd, Terry, Barea) as the shot makers/creators/ball handlers after 2010-11 especially when they saw their team fail while the Mavs won against the Heat. Rose getting injured has given GarPax the luxury to focus the spotlight on Derrick, Thibs, Deng etc..

Not only didn't we learn the multiple on ball attackers lesson from the Mavs, we didn't even learn the spacing and 3pt shooting lesson!

Not only has the team never had a very capable 2nd option behind Rose, we've also never had a cast of elite 3pt shooters that would fit hand and glove with his very straight forward, drive and kick style. And when your top guy is elite at penetrating in, its a pretty no-brainer thing to go after.

Well, they're giving too much money to Deng/Boozer/Noah/Gibson and of course Rose. Hard to get a bunch of shooters or ball handlers while eternally preserving the "core." You either got to re-allocate those funds, or keep making minor tweaks and never getting elite shooters and ball handlers. The FO just keeps doing the former. We love our guys.

[bentheredengthat]

This team is again showing how their performance increases exponentially if you get a couple of average ball handlers to keep the offense working. It can be system offense, average PG, less athletic guy etc......but, it makes a big difference. I know this is the positive thread. But, it also shows how inept the Bulls FO has been with this, IMO. For whatever reason, one would think they would have learnt from last year's experience of using two of the three guys at once(Nate, Kirk, Marco).

It also shows how Teague was killing the team with his play when DJ can make such a big difference.

All good points. There are nuances of playing the point guard position that players learn as early as grade school that Teague never got. The guy with the ball has to put some pressure on the defense to move defenders around so that others can get shots. When you are just dribbling the ball down the court and handing the ball off, you are almost forcing someone else to score out of an isolation play and the Bulls don't have any isolation scorers.

I don't view this thread so much as the positivity thread so much as the "let's talk about basketball instead of saying tank, tank, tank, darn it we won" thread.

Cold, where the hell have you been in this thread the past 3 weeks. We've needed you man.

[kdapiton]

Wouldn't mind if Deng sits this one out still. Need that leg healed.

Taj on Dirk, JB on Monta, and we'l be alright. DJ should be able to take advantage of Calderon.

[bentheredengthat]

What is funny is that I suspect that Boozer would be more effective in a bench role. Playing against second units in specific match ups would help him. I don't even look at it as a Bogans situation because Bogans sucked no matter when he played. Carlos "bumslayer" Boozer can be effective in the right situations.

Augustin was a nice pick up and is now getting the "random PG playing for the Bulls" bounce. He is actually playing better than Derrick was to start the year.

No one played more than 34 minutes yesterday. If the Bulls get fully healthy sans Rose, it will be interesting to see how the minutes play out.

Overall, the biggest thing I can take away from the game yesterday was the body language. For weeks after Rose went down the Bulls looked like zombies, even Thibodeau. That seems to be dissipating.

I've been fairly pro-tank in terms of what I hope happens, but while watching the game yesterday, I realized that rooting like that was stupid and not fun and why the **** do I follow sports if its not fun?. So about half way through that run in the 3rd quarter, I realized it's a lot more fun to just ride the wave of where this team goes. If it rebounds and makes the playoffs and can get out of it's own way in terms of the Heat/Pacers in rd 1, maybe Derrick thinks about coming back.

The Bulls trail the #5 seed (and homecourt in the first round) by 2 games where as two games worse would make them all of 8th in the lottery standings. While Indiana is a fantastic team, the Bulls are much better equipped to play against them than Miami. I'm not saying the Bulls without Rose will be able to handle the Pacers, but if Derrick comes back like April 1 (which would be a 4.5 month recovery) than who knows.

And if the two game stretch is a mirage and the tank is still on? So be it.

Regarding Boozer v Taj, what is Taj doing any differently in his career here? I mean a week ago he had a four game stretch of 8-28 then he regresses a little and people are like "let's bench Boozer!"

I love this board and it's nature; after every good game Taj has it's he's better than Boozer and every bad game, crickets. I don't see the reason to start Taj because when he's playing well and playing better than Boozer, he stays in the game. When Boozer plays well, you want to maximize that time on the floor.

Yes!! I love it.
If you could have seen how excited I was yesterday just to see the team playing well and to see the guys enjoying winning. You would have thought I'd won the lottery. Tha win literally made my Christmas Day.
Seriously it would be like ripping my heart out of my chest for me to be happy if we lost that game especially after they way the guys battled and hustled in that game.

My favorite part was the clip of Thibs in the huddle. He puts his head down, wipes the sweat off his forehead and with the tone of his voice like he was mad as hell & we were getting thrashed, he was saying "BUILD THE LEAD MEN, BUILD THE LEAD!!!". Pretty sure we were up by 16 at that point.

Just had to smile and shake my head at that.

[GoBlue72391]

I don't view this thread so much as the positivity thread so much as the "let's talk about basketball instead of saying tank, tank, tank, darn it we won" thread.

Exactly the way I feel.

[bearadonisdna]

We are going to start a new positivity thread for this game, as its very possible the posts would carry the last one over 100 pages mid-game.

last i looked it was at 80 pages. Sure its reasonable to predict the possibility of going over 100 but by my estimation it had no chance in hell.

[Alcatraz17]

I don't view this thread so much as the positivity thread so much as the "let's talk about basketball instead of saying tank, tank, tank, darn it we won" thread.

Exactly the way I feel.

And me!

[RastaBull]

This might sound crazy but I think the Bulls have placed too much emphasis on intangibles more than the tangibles.
MJ's success against Detroit in 1991 was somehow compared taking the next step for this team, Rebounds win championships mantra, if healthy they are a 70%(somewhere around that) win team, Learning from experience of losing etc.. While most of them have some truth to it, it was not a solution to sit around and wait for the intangibles to somehow click.

I was just explaining to my Pops that the reason people think about trading Deng for a consistent shot-creator that the Bulls have too many guys "you don't have to draw up a play for". That's usually a compliment to guys like Noah, Gibson, and even Deng. They impact the game without have a play drawn up for them. But in our case, we've got to many of those guys and not enough that really excel when they have play drawn up for them.

[RastaBull]

We are going to start a new positivity thread for this game, as its very possible the posts would carry the last one over 100 pages mid-game.

last i looked it was at 80 pages. Sure its reasonable to predict the possibility of going over 100 but by my estimation it had no chance in hell.

Yeah, this thread grows slow and methodically haha.