What would your rotation look like?

[BigUps]

I'd argue 80% of the board is frustrated with Thibs' rotation(s), so the question is simple, what would yours be? Bring a solution to this mess, because right now its just a bunch of people complaining.

Here's what I'd like to see.

Starters:
PG: Rose - Obvious choice, no need to overthink it.
SG: Butler - Obvious choice, no need to overthink this either
SF: Snell - He has the size and between him and Jimmy they can switch to allow Jimmy to defend the more dangerous SG/SF player on the opposing team.
PF: Taj - Noah is looking better, but he's still not right. Taj can rotate well enough to make up for Pau's awful defense.
C: Pau - Obvious choice, no need to overthink it.

Second Unit:
PG: Brooks - Obvious choice, no need to overthink it.
SG: Kirk - Slotting him next to Brooks allows him to guard the PG in the oft chance that Brooks can guard the SG
SF: Moore - I'd give the kid the spot and let him run with it. Many will want Dougie and I'd be fine giving him a few minutes, but Moore has shown more than Doug did with his limited time earlier this year.
PF: Niko - Obvious choice, no need to overthink it
C: Noah - I like him in the second unit because it moves him back to C and lets him become the playmaker he was last season.

Now, even if Thibs changed the rotation to my liking it STILL has a massive hole in the starting lineup. The roster in general doesn't have enough shooters, but I think this gives us the best first and second units.

[musiqsoulchild]

We are getting beat in 3 areas:

1) Giving up second chance points to teams..need to shore up our own rebounding
2) Our 3 point shooting which generates spacing
3) Our defense

So, my starters are:

Rose
Jimmy
Niko
Taj
Noah

You have to play 2 strong frontcourt defenders next to Niko to enable his poor defense.

The bench is:

Brooks
Kirk
Doug
Taj
Gasol

Its really that simple until Dunleavy is back.

[DanTown8587]

Hinrich (primary ball handler/PG) - Rose - Butler - Gibson - Gasol start
second unit of Brooks, McDermott, Mirotic, Noah
Snell, Moore, Mohammed, Bairstow are dead to me

When Dunleavy comes back, he's in for Kirk.

[kodo]

Brooks - Butler - Mirotic - Taj - Gasol.

Rose, Noah, McDermott/Snell til Dunleavy gets back.

[Fl_Flash]

This is like one of the easier threads I've seen

Rose / Butler / Dunleavy (when healthy) Snell (Currently) / Taj / Noah --- I pair Taj and Noah together because they've worked together for years and trust each other. I think they can be an effective pair.

Brooks / Snell (Healthy Dunleavy) Hinrich (Currently) / McDermott / Niko / Pau --- Not much of a defending unit but it they have their ish together and move both the ball and player this five could really do some damage. Lots of assumptions with this unit.

This is pie-in-the-sky thinking as I just don't see Thibs benching either Noah or Gasol. Too bad because it looked like there was a little bit of chemistry between Pau and Niko.

[FriedRise]

My first order of business would be to split up Pau and Noah. Both of them are centers so playing them together always causes one (usually Noah) to play out of position. Noah is a natural at the 5 (and has said in the past that he doesn't mind coming off the bench), and I can't see Pau not starting.

Starters:
PG - Rose
SG - Butler
SF - Snell, until Dunleavy returns
PF - Taj
C - Gasol

Bench:
PG - Hinrich - he's not a scorer but has solid ball-handling and passing ability
SG - Brooks - instant offense for the second unit being our best 3P shooter
SF - Snell (if Dunleavy starts). Otherwise Moore / McDermott
PF - Mirotic - stretch 4
C - Noah

That said though, an attitude adjustment needs to be made:
* Taj - who is now starting - needs to stop hogging the ball when he's triple-teamed. PASS!
* Mirotic needs to start shooting wide open jumpers and stop pump-faking
* Snell needs to be more consistent in knocking down those wide open 3's. This will help space the floor for Rose and Butler. Not so much an issue when Dunleavy returns.

[League Circles]

Until MDJ comes back:

Rose 32, Brooks 16
Butler 28, Kirk 10, Moore 10
Snell 28, Butler 8, Niko 12
Niko 16, Taj 32
Noah 28, Gasol 20

When MDJ is back:

Rose 32, Brooks 16
Butler 36, Kirk 6, Moore 6
MDJ 32, Snell 16
Niko 20, Taj 28
Noah 28, Gasol 20

[drosestruts]

Starters:

Rose
Butler
Dunleavy
Mirotic
Noah

Let Noah play/defend the position that helped him earn First Team All NBA and Defensive Player of the year. It's 2015, the benefits of spacing are well known, we get it in this lineup through the combination of Dunleavy and Mirotic.

Bench:

Brooks
Hinrich/Snell
McDermott/Snell
Gibson
Gasol

We've seen Gasol explode in certain games this season when matched up against inferior front courts, why not give him these match-ups every night? A heavy dosage of Gasol/Brooks pick and rolls would be the focal point of this offense. Space it out with Hinrich/Snell/McDermott on the perimeter and let Taj go back to his hard hat and lunch pail ways. We don't need Taj post ups everyo other time down the court, let him be active energetic Taj again.


^ That's my fix.

[jmajew]

Until MDJ comes back:

Rose 32, Brooks 16
Butler 36, Snell 6, Kirk 6
Snell 28, Niko 20
Niko 10, Taj 34, Gasol 4
Noah 32, Gasol 16

When MDJ is back:

Rose 32, Brooks 16
Butler 36, Snell 12
MDJ 32, McDermott 12, Snell 4
Niko 20, Taj 28
Noah 28, Gasol 20

[Ralphb07]

With Mike out

PG-Rose/Brooks
SG-Butler/Snell
SF-Doug/Snell
PF-Nikola/Gibson
C-Noah/Gasol

[musiqsoulchild]

I And 1'd EVERY post in this thread....just to show how wrong Thibs is is.

There are so many ways of doing this better than he is doing. Its MIND-BOGGLING.

[Fl_Flash]

I And 1'd EVERY post in this thread....just to show how wrong Thibs is is.

There are so many ways of doing this better than he is doing. Its MIND-BOGGLING.

To piggy-back on this...

With this board as wide-ranging as it is, what are the odds that you'd get such a consensus of thought. Split Noah/Gasol. Play Hinrich less. As you said - it's mind-boggling!

[coldfish]

Brooks 30 / Hinrich 18
Butler 20 / Rose 28
Snell or Dunleavey 30 / Butler 18
Gibson 36 / Noah 12
Gasol 32 / Noah 16

[mattyj912]

With Mike out

PG-Rose/Brooks
SG-Butler/Snell
SF-Doug/Snell
PF-Nikola/Gibson
C-Noah/Gasol

This is pretty much exactly what I would do. It lets rose and butler attack right off the bat. You can post jimmy, rose can drive, and they can both kick out to McD or Niko for 3. Even if they aren't hitting you know their guy isn't going to leave them open so it opens up space. Jo cleans up the boards and never touches the ball otherwise.

When the bench comes in (which shouldn't be all five at once), feed gasol inside and let brooks create some offense.

I would play hinrich strictly at back up pg 10 minutes a game and give derrick some of the backup sg minutes, relegating snell to only back up sf minutes and nothing when mdj is back.

Rose 20/brooks 18/hinrich 10
Jimmy 38/rose 10
MDJ 28/doug 15/niko 5
Niko 20/taj 28
noah 24/pau 24

Something like that. Minutes for bigs would depend more on who's not playing like ass.

[FriedRise]

Splitting Noah and Gasol and letting them play the same position also has the added benefit of neither of them needing to put in long 35+-minute games. Hell, split them down the middle at 24 mins and you'll always have a rested, energetic rim protector at all times which can only lead to a better defensive output.

There are so many advantages to this, I don't understand how everyone can see this but Thibs? Is there something we're missing that only he knows?

[sco]

I think that Thibs has a hard job because I think there are two competing priorities that need to address if we have want to have a chance in the playoffs:

1) Guys like Rose and Gasol are not putting enough energy in on defense.
2) Assuming no trade for rotational 3pt shooting wing, one of McDermott, Snell, Moore or Mirotic needs to be a viable 25 mpg 3pt shooting threat (ie 36%+) and not be a defensive liability. That will require some developmental pain over remainder of season. To be fair to Thibs, I think he's given all but Doug a shot, and nobody has stepped forward yet.

I think there are some bad line-up combos to avoid:
Kirk - Noah, Kirk - Snell, Snell - Noah: Gives 2 guys that opponents can cheat off of on defense
Brooks - Rose - Pau: Provides bad match ups for us on defense

[malcrk]

PG: Brooks - 26 Rose 20 Hinrich 2
SG Brooks 15 Rose 15 Butler 16
SF Butler 20 MDJ 20 Mirotic 8
PF Mirotic 24 Taj 24
C Gasol 24 Noah 24

f yo statlines

[bulls_downunder]

I'm not defending Thibs because his rotations upsets me so much that I come close to losing my voice from yelling every time I watched the Bulls this season. But simply attaching minutes to players names is not realistic. I tried breaking down every minute of a game into 5 man units e.g. 1st QTR 12:00-06:00 (Gasol, Gibson, Dunleavy, Butler, Rose), 06:00-03:00 (Noah, Gibson, McDermott, Butler, Brooks), etc. It was a maddening process for 2 reasons. The first reason being the number of 1 way players that we have makes it difficult to have balance 5 man units. And the second reason is that you don't want to play too many different 5 man units every game because it makes it difficult to form chemistry.

[Wont PerDont]

Until MDJ comes back:

Rose 32, Brooks 16
Butler 36, Snell 6, Kirk 6
Snell 28, Niko 20
Niko 10, Taj 34, Gasol 4
Noah 32, Gasol 16

When MDJ is back:

Rose 32, Brooks 16
Butler 36, Snell 12
MDJ 32, McDermott 12, Snell 4
Niko 20, Taj 28
Noah 28, Gasol 20

So, while we are short handed at the 3 (no MDJ) you have no minutes for McDermott, but once he is back in the fold McD gets some burn? Not saying you're wrong because we are all just giving opinions here, but just think it deserves some explanation.

[BigUps]

Brooks 30 / Hinrich 18
Butler 20 / Rose 28
Snell or Dunleavey 30 / Butler 18
Gibson 36 / Noah 12
Gasol 32 / Noah 16

I had been waiting for the post that benches Rose in favor of Brooks. Please expand Dear Coldfish. Why would you go that way?