PG: Bulls outlast Nets

[kerry kittles]

just play markel brown, bogs, and karasev to see what they can do or raise their trade value . johnson and ellington have no future.
with this team.

thomas robinson has no confidence in his offensive game anymore, he was such a beast offensively in college when he was the man there. now he doesnt look to score or have any confidence.

We have until Saturday to pick up Karasev's option for next season. If we don't he also has no future with the team either and based on DNP last night I'd say it looks like he has no future here either.

[Net Sentence]

Larkin was awful last night. Look at Lopez's shot chart. Most of his touches came at the top of the circle. Larkin is the main reason we went 0'fer on 3pters. He wasnt even looking to score and the Bulls knew it. Their defense was staying home with our shooters and dared him to score. Once Sloan came in, the game flow changed. Sloan didnt play well either but he at least made drives to the rim. On defense Larkin had 3 steals but gave up a ton of easy baskets because he isnt big enough to defend at this level.

Johnson didnt have a bad game, he had a bad shooting game. He still contributed 10 rebounds, a steal and 3 assists to ZERO TOs. The Bulls were doubling him and at times triple teaming him. He cant be the offensive creator on the perimeter anymore because he cant split a double team. When Jack comes back he will be the guy we run the offense through thus making Johnson a catch and shoot player which I think he is best suited for at this point in his career. Talking about catch and shoot players, I warned everyone last week about Ellington. He is one of the few guys in the NBA who shoots better off the dribble. He passed up a number of open looks only to take a dribble or two and let the defense recover. He is an average bench player and should not be starting.

Bargnani played great on both ends. I called his signing and for good reason. He fits well on this team. The Bargs - TRob - RHJ frontcourt had a lot of chemistry going. Bargs needs to play with guys like this and both RHJ and TRob benefited from Bargs being the scorer. They were able to focus on what they do well when on the floor with him.

RHJ looked amazing for his first game. He wasnt forcing things but played very aggressive. He is a legit defensive player and looks like a steal for where we got him.

[MrDollarBills]

Yeah Sloan didn't blow you away defensively or on the stat sheet but when he came in he pushed the rock and made it a point to attack the paint.

[Dirk]

Considering the awful start and how shaky some players were, it was a good effort overall. The 3pt discrepancy decided the game. Bulls were able to create good looks all game and they were nailing the threes. The Nets had a lot of shots that were in and out and some blown layups. It wasn't a bad game, no blowout, although it did feel like the Bulls were in control as they rotated their team a lot.

Larkin just always plays like this most of the time. He's undersized and to make up for it, he'd really need to have a much high bball iq that he doesn't have, but he still doesn't seem to have evolved much and runs around like a headless chicken too many times. There was a key sequence where the Nets were coming back and he fumbled the ball on the break... he is always pressed it seems... the Bulls recover that ball... and score another three(I think Moore after a pump fake) - it was symbolic. It's interesting that his game looked worse than what his boxscore shows... 8 assists. Only 9 threes taken. None made. Maybe that's an indication of the many broken plays.

The only hope is that Hollins can force Jack into being a passer and run the team as opposed to thinking he's a big time scorer.

[CalamityX12]

if anything, first game jitters... I would give it awhile for the new guys(entire roster?) acclimate with one another...

Practice can do so much but game experience is a real player in learning and growing.

[MrDollarBills]

Again, the main thing I wanted to see is effort and we have guys on this team that brought it as soon as they hit the floor.

[Prokorov]

My thoughts from the game:

- Crowd sucked. i assume alot of that had to do with the mets game. but arena was emptier then some of the preseason games.

- our offense has major problems. and no shuffling of the deck is really going to fix it. we need to bring in a G who can create offense. Brooka nd joe are the only 2 guys who command a double team, and brook still is just ok when it comes to moving the ball quickly out of it. and joe just doesnt finish on those 4 -6 foot shots anymore. not really his fault, he is older, those are good shots, they need to fall.

- Larkin, Sloan... it doesnt matter. these are low level backups, not starters. same with jack although he is more a high level backup, id be fine with him as a backup. we dont have a starter. and all year people will be calling for one of the other guys to get time.... since these guys only look good in short spurts off the bench. anytime any of these gets big muntues they will be exposed. everyone loved larkin a few weeks ago. now its sloan, next it will be jack/the realization we have no one.

the PG awnser isnt on this team. which is why id suggest starting brown. none of our PGs shoot 3s so thats not an issue and at least we'd get a defener on the floor and more athleticism. but the PG awnser is not currently on this roster.

-Brook shot way to many jumpers. he was stroking them, so its not a huge issue. but moving forward he needs to be more agressive and our CS needs to be more proactive running sets to get him the ball. in the past id harp on lopez taking longs 2s or bad post shots but with our roster there is honestly no bad shot for him. his worst shot is till a better option then going to anyone else on the team. he looked good, still need to be more agressive. i want 8 FTA a game for him, if i was coach that would be a goal i set for him.

RHJ/Brown - love those dudes, play their butts off. same with robinson dude hustles. this team is so muche asier to watch lose then last years team cause they actually play with an ounce of pride.

bogs, bargs, thad, ellington - looked good at times, looked bad at times... thats what they are going to give you, its why they arent positive impact starters, no consistency on either end. which is magnified on a team like this with no starts to make up for it

i thought we were ok vs the bulls.... there will be few nights we have more talent then the opponent, but i thought the effort was there.

[jbeachboy]

brook needs to go inside and get the other team in foul trouble, all the players on this team are soft defensively or hustle for rebounds except rondae, markel, and even bargnani in first game. it looked like a first game with many new players just feeling their way on how the team plays and all. they are unable to raise their game at this point except our high energy guys like rondae, markel, thomas robinson at times, and even bargnani the first game