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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spo ... 32580.html

From TrueHoop

Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle on Rafer Alston: "Last season, Alston finished on 49 percent of his drives, about 12 percent off the NBA average. This season, he is at 59 percent, roughly the league average and well ahead of the average for guards. That doesn't make him Steve Nash or Tony Parker in the lane, but it has led to a better Alston." The difference may be a series of finishing drills the Rockets put him through routinely -- mastering angles, spin, arc, and big-man avoidance -- that are left over from former Rocket assistant and current Bulls head coach Jim Boylan.

From the Article

But he did take steps to improve. Alston went to work with Rockets director of player development Kenny Atkinson and vice president of player personnel Dean Cooper. They put Alston through the "daily dozen" drills held over from the Rudy Tomjanovich years that former assistant Jim Boylen brought from Michigan State.

Makes you wonder if Boylan's been implementing his own guard driving drills.

That's pretty interesting. Gordon definitely has been slashing and pulling up in the paint more often.

I have a good feeling about Boylan. I think by the All-Star break Thomas and Sefolosha will be consistent role players. I think he's going to be our coach.

I wonder whether or not Boylan has implemented this drills with Kirk. Out of all our guards, I'd say that Kirk would benefit most from the constant practice of driving and scoring. That's the main element of his game that hurts him from being one of the NBA's best PGs. If he could be a threat to drive and score, his passing opportunities in the lane would increase and his defenders would give him more room on jumpers.

question is, why wern't these used before, under skiles?

and though Hinrich isn't a good driver, his passing, and decision making(over-dribbling falls in here) are bigger flaws in his game, he needs to create better for the other guys and while being better at driving the lane would help with this alot, these other things weigh in heavier than that IMO.

So this whole time we've had a Guru for attacking the basket sitting on our bench?

What did our assistants do during practice?

Man, if Gordon was just an average finisher for an SG, just mediocre, I'd love to imagine what sort of scorer he could be.

He can get to the paint at will 1-1, but he doesn't have a lot of creativity once he gets there. He has some nice pass and head-fakes, and knows how to go under the basket, but his angles are poor, and if it's not a normal layup or a floater, he doesn't have any idea what to do.

No, it was a giant conspiracy

Well, I've noticed that when Hinrich gets in the lane he has been at least trying to put the ball on the rim more under Boylan.

Frankly, with guys like Wallace, Noah and Thomas out there, our guards should always try to put in on the rim when they get in the lane.

El Gato wrote:question is, why wern't these used before, under skiles?

and though Hinrich isn't a good driver, his passing, and decision making(over-dribbling falls in here) are bigger flaws in his game, he needs to create better for the other guys and while being better at driving the lane would help with this alot, these other things weigh in heavier than that IMO.

God...its been 5 years and I have to say this is an accurate report on our starting Point Guard

It's finishing that is the problem. Gordon can get the basket but can't finish.

-Hinrich: Not exactly lightening quick and is neither tall or athletic enough to finish strong around the rim. Players like Nash and Paul have similar problems yet they are extremely creative with the dribble and penetration, Kirk lacks the awkwardness and unpredictability to get by defenses with just average ball handling, size, speed and athleticism.

-Gordon: He was fairly athletic in college, he still is. Just we never see him attack the basket like he can, we are actually seeing more of it now probably because the shackles are loose and he is playing more relaxed it seems. Anyway Gordon is small, definately undersized for his current position and never seems to be able to use or control his athleticism at the rim. His biggest issue is body control, we have seen him jump and dunk but why can't he use that to finish against bigger defenders? Because he doesn't know how to control himself in the air, TJ Ford for example does it perfectly, he has great control over his body and he knows how to time his jump allowing him to hang in the air. Gordon is straight up and down, he has no ability to hang drawing contact.

Deng: Good size but slightly slow footed, Pippen hit the nail on the head in saying that he plays too upright. Also he has little ability to create space for himself off the dribble, he is much better going to the basket without the ball on the cut rather than dribble driving his defender to the basket. Deng is pretty athletic, he just lacks explosiveness.

Nocioni: Not bad really except he is always out of control often getting called for charges, his handle is pretty bad too.

Duhon: Does a surprisingly good job, can't help but feel that this is because he catches defenses off guard, he kind of gets forgotten out there so when he makes a good move to the basket it comes as a big surprise.

Thabo: Confidence? Oh and he has almost no ability to change gears, by that I mean he moves at one speed. Still he size, strength and decent enough handle to be able to penetrate effectively, he just is to scared to attempt to attack.

I have a feeling that Skiles worked on staying withing the offense and making passes based off the offense, no freelancing so you don't screw up the play(he would let Gordon freelance if we were far behind though). You could see this in Ben Gordon's drives, he either went straight to the right side of the basket for a layup or he did the little teardrop shot.... either case, you can predict what he's doing and figure out how to stop it pretty easy. You watch players like Gilbert, CP3, Kobe, RJ, V.Carter and so on, you never know how they're going to finish, they'll attack the lane from different angles and they'll also change direction when they get to the lane using momentum against the defenders for easier shots.

Skiles got us to a certain level by having our team play a certain way within constraints, but what also made us good, also held us back and finally... made us too predictable. I don't know when the last time I saw one of our guards attack from the wing into the paint and actually thought, you know, he may go to the hoop... it was only a token drive to kick out to someone else.

Boylan will be a good interm coach, he'll transition this team from the strict Skiles(which we needed to get back to respectability) to playing up to our players potential under a regular NBA coach.

If there is one player on the team who could benefit from this, it's Thabo.

After watching him in the summer leagues and also seeing some of the clips from his games in Europe over the summer, I felt that he has virtually no mid-range game.

If he could learn to find seams in the defense after beating his man off the dribble (not only throwing up trick-shot layups) then he'd be a much better player.

Since Boylan appears to have decide that Thabo is suited to play SF, perhaps he can work on Thabo's finishing skills from that position and see how he develops.

When was Boylan with the Rockets? Hasnt he been with us for 4 years?

Now that you mention it, was Boylan ever an assistant in Houston?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Boylan

They meant Jim Boylen.

With an "e".


He coached at Michigan State, then with Rudy T and is now back at Michigan State again.

DuckIII wrote:Well, I've noticed that when Hinrich gets in the lane he has been at least trying to put the ball on the rim more under Boylan.

Frankly, with guys like Wallace, Noah and Thomas out there, our guards should always try to put in on the rim when they get in the lane.

Why wouldn't they either try to put it in the net?

I'd love it if Kirk and Gordon could get to the basket more, especially with the free throw % they have (92.1% for BG, 90.9% for KH.).

Magilla_Gorilla wrote:They meant Jim Boylen.

With an "e".


He coached at Michigan State, then with Rudy T and is now back at Michigan State again.

D'OH!

Sum peoples ain't dooin' they hoooooommmmewooooork!

http://www.nba.com/coachfile/jim_boylan/

http://www.nba.com/coachfile/jim_boylen/index.html

suckfish wrote:It's finishing that is the problem. Gordon can get the basket but can't finish.

-Hinrich: Not exactly lightening quick and is neither tall or athletic enough to finish strong around the rim. Players like Nash and Paul have similar problems yet they are extremely creative with the dribble and penetration, Kirk lacks the awkwardness and unpredictability to get by defenses with just average ball handling, size, speed and athleticism.

-Gordon: He was fairly athletic in college, he still is. Just we never see him attack the basket like he can, we are actually seeing more of it now probably because the shackles are loose and he is playing more relaxed it seems. Anyway Gordon is small, definately undersized for his current position and never seems to be able to use or control his athleticism at the rim. His biggest issue is body control, we have seen him jump and dunk but why can't he use that to finish against bigger defenders? Because he doesn't know how to control himself in the air, TJ Ford for example does it perfectly, he has great control over his body and he knows how to time his jump allowing him to hang in the air. Gordon is straight up and down, he has no ability to hang drawing contact.

Deng: Good size but slightly slow footed, Pippen hit the nail on the head in saying that he plays too upright. Also he has little ability to create space for himself off the dribble, he is much better going to the basket without the ball on the cut rather than dribble driving his defender to the basket. Deng is pretty athletic, he just lacks explosiveness.

Nocioni: Not bad really except he is always out of control often getting called for charges, his handle is pretty bad too.

Duhon: Does a surprisingly good job, can't help but feel that this is because he catches defenses off guard, he kind of gets forgotten out there so when he makes a good move to the basket it comes as a big surprise.

Thabo: Confidence? Oh and he has almost no ability to change gears, by that I mean he moves at one speed. Still he size, strength and decent enough handle to be able to penetrate effectively, he just is to scared to attempt to attack.

If I'm reading the "hot spots" chart on nba.com correctly (which I'm not sure I am), Hinrich is 29-61 in the lane this season -- which is 47.5%. Gordon is 41-96 in the lane -- or 42.7%. And Duhon is 27-54, or 50%. So IF I'm reading this correctly, Gordon is the worst finisher of the Bulls' 3 guards.

But all of them are better at finishing than Ben Wallace (44-119, 37%). And Duhon and Hinrich are better than Tyrus Thomas (48-103, 46.6%). So the Bulls need to do a better job of teaching EVERYONE who to finish better

girlygirl wrote:-= original quote snipped =-


If I'm reading the "hot spots" chart on nba.com correctly (which I'm not sure I am), Hinrich is 29-61 in the lane this season -- which is 47.5%. Gordon is 41-96 in the lane -- or 42.7%. And Duhon is 27-54, or 50%. So IF I'm reading this correctly, Gordon is the worst finisher of the Bulls' 3 guards.

But all of them are better at finishing than Ben Wallace (44-119, 37%). And Duhon and Hinrich are better than Tyrus Thomas (48-103, 46.6%). So the Bulls need to do a better job of teaching EVERYONE who to finish better

That's a bit misleading. That's like saying Anthony Johnson is a better point guard than Kidd because he averages less turnovers. Gordon's percentage is lower because he attempts signifcantly more shots. He's a scorer. Hinrich and Duhon aren't. His job is often to make something out of nothing, whereas Hinrich and Duhon attempt 'safer' layups if that makes sense. There's no question that Thomas is a better finisher than Hinrich and Duhon.