PG: We have more than enough... bad play

[Sports Geek]

I hope Rose is ready for 40 mpg in the playoffs immediately upon returning, because any other PG is bound to lose us games fast.

Maybe Butler can play PG...

Brooks's warts are showing more and more as we go along, though they were always there for those paying attention. It's almost unbelievable how bad his feel is for playing point. Kirk of course is just done.

But Rose isn't the solution too, we need a pass first point guard.

No, they need an attacking point guard. Rose was doing that, but not to the degree of which he use to, probably due to issues with his knee.

You want a pass "1st" pg, start Kirk, then see how well the offense is "run."

Man, Kirk is nothing right now. Not a passing first PG, not a scoring PG. Start the 5 years ago Steve Nash instead of him and let's see how we play.

We need to share the ball and we can do it, but our PGs are selfish. We have maybe the best two passing big men in the league. So pass the freaking ball, not just play 1on1 or 2on2 situations. I watch Warriors, Hawks, Spurs games,..., and I envy them. They share the ball, they play as a team, as a whole and they are maybe the best teams in the league. Same thing when I remember Webber and Divac's Kings. They shared the ball, they all could pass and they did it. We have the hardest thing to find: smart passing big men, we could play like that. We just need to change our mind. And we don't have any player that can make a difference by being selfish, not even Rose (not this Rose). So let's pass the ball, we have a lot of good shooters and passers.

[mj234eva]

I watch Warriors, Hawks, Spurs games,..., and I envy them. They share the ball, they play as a team, as a whole and they are maybe the best teams in the league.

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

[Ice Man]

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

Our offense would look just fine if we could hit jump shots. The turnovers would drop too, because if we could hit from the outside we wouldn't force as many passes inside.

[Sports Geek]

I watch Warriors, Hawks, Spurs games,..., and I envy them. They share the ball, they play as a team, as a whole and they are maybe the best teams in the league.

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

So put ours in the rotation. Man, Brooks, Snell, Niko, Pau, Mike, Jimmy, Doug,..., they are at least over the average in terms of shooting skills for their positions. I would give that passing style a try. I know it is impossible, because it is too far away from where we are now, and we are close to the play-offs, but I would try a different style for the next season.

And I'm not blaming Tom, I think he is doing his best and is a great coach for his style, it's just I would play a different basketball if I was him.

[mj234eva]

I watch Warriors, Hawks, Spurs games,..., and I envy them. They share the ball, they play as a team, as a whole and they are maybe the best teams in the league.

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

So put ours in the rotation. Man, Brooks, Snell, Niko, Pau, Mike, Jimmy, Doug,..., they are at least over the average in terms of shooting skills for their positions. I would give that passing style a try. I know it is impossible, because it is too far away from where we are now, and we are close to the play-offs, but I would try a different style for the next season.

And I'm not blaming Tom, I think he is doing his best and is a great coach for his style, it's just I would play a different basketball if I was him.

2 rookies, and a 2nd year guy, who didn't score for a month. You see the issue? It's not a fair comparison when you look at how successful other teams have been, this season. The Bulls effectively do not have what those other teams have, even if on the surface, it appears so.

[mj234eva]

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

Our offense would look just fine if we could hit jump shots. The turnovers would drop too, because if we could hit from the outside we wouldn't force as many passes inside.

When our guys are all healthy, I do not believe our offense is all that bad. We get it done in different ways, but overall, they're still top 8 in OffRtg. Doing so, despite Rose playing inconsistently, and Kirk playing 27+ MPG, Jo being bad for a lot of the season, Snell Snelling up the place for a month, and MDJ missing like 20 games or so.

[Sports Geek]

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

So put ours in the rotation. Man, Brooks, Snell, Niko, Pau, Mike, Jimmy, Doug,..., they are at least over the average in terms of shooting skills for their positions. I would give that passing style a try. I know it is impossible, because it is too far away from where we are now, and we are close to the play-offs, but I would try a different style for the next season.

And I'm not blaming Tom, I think he is doing his best and is a great coach for his style, it's just I would play a different basketball if I was him.

2 rookies, and a 2nd year guy, who didn't score for a month. You see the issue? It's not a fair comparison when you look at how successful other teams have been, this season. The Bulls effectively do not have what those other teams have, even if on the surface, it appears so.

I see that Pau, that player that has been almost an issue in L.A. the past couple seasons is having his best season. What I mean is that he was playing a type of basketball that didn't favour his skills. This year he has been playing where he has always been more than effective and he looks pretty young again.

Same thing with our young guys. We are really lucky of having 2 rookies that talented in the same year. And Niko has been a pro from long time ago. Make plays that give Doug an extra second to catch and shoot, make plays to isolate Niko when he is defended by a smaller player, make them feel confident, important and I'm sure they will respond.

So do you want to try to win the championship in a close future? Forget about Derrick. He is going to help you a lot, of course, but he isn't that Derrick anymore. Play as a team. 5on5. You don't have huge supèrtars, but a much more skilled roster than most of the teams.

[errisal]

I'm more concerned about Niko and Snell playing like dog crap the last two games. We actually need them to play well to win. Hell we need Niko to play great to win against good teams.

This should be the fans real concern. Snell needs to become more aggressive instead of sitting in the corner waiting to shoot a 3. I think Thibs needs to design some plays where Tony is the focal point and has to create some offense. Niko needs to gather himself and shoot the 3 more often. He is pump faking way too much and now it's expected. And I also agree with the poster who says the PG needs to get the offense in a better rhythm. Right now Brooks and Kirk are terrible at getting the plays ran in rhythm. I would start Moore for a few games just to see how the offense reacts to more of a true PG.

Moore is not a PG. He is an undersized SG

So is Brooks and so is Hinrich at this point. Moore would probably be a better play maker because he isn't as confident in his offensive ability as Brooks. Bulls need someone who concentrates on getting the offense moving quicker and getting other guys off first. Brooks is looking to get himself going more than anything else. Kirk is just incapable at this stage of his career.

[unknownnewbie]

I watch Warriors, Hawks, Spurs games,..., and I envy them. They share the ball, they play as a team, as a whole and they are maybe the best teams in the league.

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

So put ours in the rotation. Man, Brooks, Snell, Niko, Pau, Mike, Jimmy, Doug,..., they are at least over the average in terms of shooting skills for their positions. I would give that passing style a try. I know it is impossible, because it is too far away from where we are now, and we are close to the play-offs, but I would try a different style for the next season.

And I'm not blaming Tom, I think he is doing his best and is a great coach for his style, it's just I would play a different basketball if I was him.

If you go by average FG% by position, most of the Bulls are average to below average shooters for their position, not above average ones. The only player on the Bulls shooting 50% this season is Nazr. Only 5 guys on the team are shooting better than 44%, and 2 of those (Nazr & E'Twaun) have not been in the main rotation for much of the season). Brooks is barely over 40%, Niko and Doug are both below 40%. There is not one guy on this team that I would describe as a great shooter. Maybe Niko or Doug will turn into one, but I can't call them that at this point in their careers.

[Stratmaster]

Turnovers killed the Bulls, plain and simple.

We can talk about this player being horrible, etc. But the bottom line is, the Bulls take care of the ball they have a good shot of winning this game, even with Tony Parker destroying Brooks, Hinrich and Moore (none of them could guard him).

San Antonio had 35 fast break points. Most of those came off Chicago turnovers. The Bulls had 20 turnovers, and they were spread out among the players -- the only guys who didn't turn it over at least once were McDermott and Snell.

My other thought is that Thibs should have kept Nazr in to start the 4th, because he was the one who led the mini-run at the end of the 3rd quarter. But maybe he was exhausted. I would have kept him out there for at least the first 2-3 minutes to see if Chicago could get off to a good start to the final qtr.

Instead, they opened the 4th with 5 turnovers in the first 6 possessions...and that was pretty much all she wrote.

The Spurs are a very good team. They are going to give whoever they play in the postseason a tough time. People are crazy if they think SA will be an easy out.


One last crazy note. This is the first time in his NBA career that Tim Duncan failed to make a FG in a game.

This is exactly right. It's all about turnovers, and it has been all season. A few of us have been saying it all season.

Well, obviously it's all about Kirk Hinrich...but I mean other than that, it has been all about turnovers all season.

[pylb]

It's about Kirk Hinrich's turnovers.

[Rerisen]

José Calderón performed great in Toronto and his team wasn't full of self-creators. They were catch and shoot players. We don't have huge shooters, but except for Jo, all of them can shoot the ball. A good shooter only needs a PG that is able to give him an extra second to shoot.

I like the idea of Calderon as well and have for a while. Not because I think we need a pass first PG as our main guy, but just for a change of pace, to mix things up vs Derrick. As a backup, that could work well.

Jose and Pau would get our offense running if the main unit was botching it up.

[Rerisen]

I think franchise thinks in a similar way to Rerisen, they don't want true PGs

Nah, I'd say they mistakingly believed Kirk Hinrich was the true PG.

When really he was just a passable combo, but excelling in neither.

[KevinPandawong]

Playing Cleveland in the 2nd round might be better than Cleveland in the 3rd. Let's just get it over with. If we beat them, we'll make it to the finals. I think we can take them honestly. We just have to somehow contain their outside shooting.

That's what I've been pining for, I say the sooner the better as long as we have a full/healthy roster by the start of the PO's. We've seen time and time again EXPERIENCE being a key, and that is something we have in the boatloads over Cleveland. I'd rather face them while the disparity between experience is at its highest(1st round and onward).

[Stratmaster]

It's about Kirk Hinrich's turnovers.

Well, for this one game that is certainly part of the story. For the season though, compared to Rose and Brooks, Hinrich is head and shoulders above them in taking care of the ball.

But yeah, we know... as Hinrich goes so go the Bulls

[DRoseCantStop]

Playing Cleveland in the 2nd round might be better than Cleveland in the 3rd. Let's just get it over with. If we beat them, we'll make it to the finals. I think we can take them honestly. We just have to somehow contain their outside shooting.

That's what I've been pining for, I say the sooner the better as long as we have a full/healthy roster by the start of the PO's. We've seen time and time again EXPERIENCE being a key, and that is something we have in the boatloads over Cleveland. I'd rather face them while the disparity between experience is at its highest(1st round and onward).

I'd love it if we got them in the ECF. Nothing better than the feeling of realizing your team beat Lebron in the playoffs and you just made the NBA Finals.

[unknownnewbie]

I think franchise thinks in a similar way to Rerisen, they don't want true PGs

Nah, I'd say they mistakingly believed Kirk Hinrich was the true PG.

When really he was just a passable combo, but excelling in neither.

Maybe they thought Kirk was a true PG back when they drafted him back in 2003-04, but I doubt that's the case 12 years later. Even when he was playing at his peak from 2004-05 to 2007-08, it was clear he was a combo guard, not a true PG. Hell, even in college he played off the ball a lot once Aaron Miles got to the Jayhawks.

The Bulls don't have a true PG on their roster. Which isn't a huge surprise. Except for Chris Duhon, have they had a true PG on the team in the past 15+ years? At least one who actually played significant minutes? Jamal Crawford wasn't one. Jay Williams wasn't one. Etc etc. etc.

[Sports Geek]

They also have many shooters on their team, that are regular rotation players. Can the same be said, for the Bulls?

So put ours in the rotation. Man, Brooks, Snell, Niko, Pau, Mike, Jimmy, Doug,..., they are at least over the average in terms of shooting skills for their positions. I would give that passing style a try. I know it is impossible, because it is too far away from where we are now, and we are close to the play-offs, but I would try a different style for the next season.

And I'm not blaming Tom, I think he is doing his best and is a great coach for his style, it's just I would play a different basketball if I was him.

If you go by average FG% by position, most of the Bulls are average to below average shooters for their position, not above average ones. The only player on the Bulls shooting 50% this season is Nazr. Only 5 guys on the team are shooting better than 44%, and 2 of those (Nazr & E'Twaun) have not been in the main rotation for much of the season). Brooks is barely over 40%, Niko and Doug are both below 40%. There is not one guy on this team that I would describe as a great shooter. Maybe Niko or Doug will turn into one, but I can't call them that at this point in their careers.

I have never said they are great shooters. I said they can all shoot the ball and I think it is true. Don't look at the numbers, just fell it. Would you leave any of our players open in the corner for a three? Maybe just Jo, Taj and Nazr (and Taj has an efficient 15 footer). That's what I mean. We have an over the average team in shooting and passing skills.

Those kind of numbers usually lie. Compare DeAndre Jordan FG% with Pau's. 72% against Pau's 49%. Who do you think is a better shooter? You can't say who is a better shooter for his possition by just comparing their FG%.