http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba,150446Chicago 99, Detroit 91
I haven't really talked about it much, mainly because there's no point in dumping on the Chicago coaching staff every chance I get, because the group is pretty well insulated. They're not going anywhere. But I have to point out that the biggest crime we've seen perpetrated with these Bulls in this season is the team's 17th-ranked defense, a mark that has actually come up a few slots over the last couple of weeks. Now, a piss-poor offense, we can handle. It shouldn't have to be that way, a great coach could get this team in the top-10 (the Bulls are 18th) now, but we're so frustrated by the beat guys/TV guys/radio dorks prattling on about how "the defense stinks" when Chicago shoots 40 percent and turns the ball over 19 times, that we've had to learn to save our bullets. The defense stinks, but the offense has always stunk way, way worse. And it needed to be pointed out. So now that we've gone a little while without paying attention to local Chicago media, it's time to pile on the defense. There's no reason that the Bulls, who were first in defensive efficiency in 2006-07, should be ranking this poorly, this season. Because you know it wasn't all Ben Wallace, back in 2007, because Chicago ranked sixth in defense the year before Wallace came on board, and second the year before that (and stat guys will tell you that Tyrus Thomas was the biggest helper in 2007). This is a group that should be dominating games defensively, and yet it comes and goes. And it really went in the second quarter of the team's win over the Pistons, on Tuesday. Chicago went to a zone for long stretches, leaving Mike Fratello (otherwise, very reticent to overtly question a coach's decisions, and that's not a slam) to question why, exactly, Chicago was sticking with that plan.The "plan" resulted in 25 points for the Pistons, in a slow-down quarter. This team was taking the air out of the ball, and still finished with 25 points. In the second half, the Bulls started checking their own men, and guess what happened? They gave up 48 points, but pace had a lot to do with that. Namely, Detroit getting to shoot more, because the Bulls were getting quick stops, running with the ball, scoring, and giving the rock right back to Detroit for another chance.
103 points per 100 possessions for the Pistons, they were without Rip/AI/Wallace, but this was a group that was on its way to a 130 per 100 game with the zone in place. Chicago has talent. They should be able to come through with games like this regularly, but too often do not. Derrick Rose was out with a bum right wrist, so Kirk Hinrich filled in ably with 24 points, eight assists, and three steals. Tyrus Thomas was all over the place, finishing with 18 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, three turnovers, a steal, and a block. Those assists interest me, because I've long said that Thomas is this team's best pure passer. He is, but I noticed his assist ratio on Monday night (assist ratio being the percentage of possessions you use up -- scores, assists, trips to the line, turnovers -- that end up in an assist) was a lowly 7.5. That's worse than what Drew Gooden averaged with Chicago. He is the team's best passer, though, even if it doesn't end up in an assist. He's the best entry passer, he's the only one who will make the needed pass in transition (where Hinrich has long been hesitant, costing Chicago scads of points over the years) to guys like Luol Deng, and he gets players to the line with extra feeds. This, anti-stat guys, is why we scout, as well as stat. I'm sure you noticed Chicago's uneasy run to end the game. The Bulls seemed to be improvising in the final minute, devising ways to score a bucket when the game was nearly put away and the Bulls stuck at 98 points. The result of those improvisations came in the form of a mini-Pistons run (with all those extra possessions), 99 points in total, and a torrent of boos once Kirk Hinrich (once again, finishing with 24 points, eight assists, and three steals) missed a free throw in the final seconds. This is because the Bulls, and VP of Business Operations Steve Schanwald, have instituted a promotion that gives a free cheeseburger to ticket-holders if the Bulls score over 100 points. Now, this goes on in just about every other arena, but because the United Center is so typically full of fans that are there on hand-me-down tickets (tickets bought by corporations, then handed down to clients or employees, then passed on again), the din following Chicago's failure or accomplishment in securing those 100 points is louder in Chicago than any other arena in the NBA. I know. I watch the games. Even Toronto, an expansion team that isn't yet 15 years old, passed the Bulls years ago in terms of tact.
Maybe Schanwald thinks it's OK for the players that he's charged with promoting are being booed every time (every ... single ... time) they get stuck at 98 or 99 points as the final seconds tick off. Doesn't matter if it's a blowout, close game, or blowout loss. The team gets booed by the majority of the fans left in the building, it's obvious on the TV and in person, and the loudest and most organic cheer of the night comes when the team tops 100 points. Not when Ben Gordon hits a corner three to seal it at 92-79 with two minutes to go. Now that stinks. And it's been going on for years. And Schanwald, seemingly, doesn't care. And he doesn't seem like the type to care, either. He's the guy that pipes in ear-splittingly loud, incredibly inappropriate (as if there is ever an appropriate time for Bon Jovi) rock music to close out a touching and thoughtful ceremony to honor Johnny "Red" Kerr. He's the guy that changes up Chicago's intro music (the otherwise laughable Alan Parsons Project) for a dated 2007 remix because ... well, just because. He's the guy that has to protect his phony-baloney job by tweaking and tweaking and adding and changing. He is, in effect, just as bad as someone like Jerry Krause. Out to prove that it was the organization, and not Michael Jordan, that kept those seats filled. Well, the seats were filled in the post-Jordan years. The tickets were sold. The ticket-holders -- or those who ended up with those free ducats once they were handed down the corporate ladder a half-dozen times -- may not have always showed up for those games, but he made his bosses money. You won, Steve. And you should be proud of that. It was damned impressive. Now, shouldn't that be enough? At what point does the "fan experience" become so over-saturated with nonsense that the players are going to start resenting their fans? And by "fans," I mean dorks who seem to care more about a steamed "beef" sandwich with thousand island dressing on it than the biggest win of their hometown team's season. It's pathetic. And the blame, as it has for years, falls on one man. So Steve, if you come across this post someday in a search engine, kindly consider a change. Move it up to 110 points, down to 90, maybe 50 points by halftime, or dump the thing altogether. It was interesting for a spell back in the 1990s, when Jud Buechler or Joe Kleine were the ones nailing baskets to send the Bulls over the 110-point mark, winning the fans a taco. But now that the seats are full of the type of non-fan that you've doggedly chased over the years, the reaction is different.And the reaction from the players, and I know you can see this, has changed. They hate it. It's the last thing they should be thinking about toward the end of a game like Tuesday's win. And at some point, little things like this are going to add up, and cost the team a good player. Or prevent the team from signing a player that it would like to have. Just so the punters can pick up a free sandwich here.
