chitownsports4ever wrote:chefo wrote:Think how much better the ball moved and the O looked the first half of the previous year when Thad was the hub and rolled every effin' P&R with Zach. Teams that didn't respect his drive got scored on at a 60%+ TS. Teams that did and packed the paint got picked apart by Lauri bombing at a 60%+ TS. Teams that refused to double Zach got picked apart by him at a 60%+ TS.
Vuc then replaced Thad as the high-touch hub and the wheels fell off because:
* He almost always popped, which means the D could now pack and just make him shoot, which helped contains Zach's drives
* He's not as intuitive finding shooters on the wings
* He's slow so teams did not respect him rolling, which led to 1.) above
* His assists in Orlando almost always came from passing out of a double in the low/mid post, not from swinging the ball around
Before the trades last year and Thad's and Lauri's demotions, the Bulls had:
* Zach
* Lauri
* Thad
* Gafford
* Sato
All scoring at a 60%+ TS. Five rotation guys.
Post trade, Thad's advanced numbers cratered as he was replaced by Vuc as the 'hub', Lauri's raw numbers fell off a cliff because his minutes got cut in half, Gafford (a 19 PER guy that shot at a 70% TS locked for cheap) was shipped out. 4 of these guys are no longer on the Bulls. They were rendered pretty useless by the presence of Vuc, at least in managements' heads. They thought Vuc would be the best of Lauri and Thad rolled into one high-minute player. It turned out he's a much worse hub than Thad because of how he's used to playing, and he doesn't space like Lauri either. Fast forward a season, and you have a 70-touch a game C (that's first option touches) that's scoring at a TS% lower than what got Coby hated on by most of the fanbase.
All of the above tells me without doubt that the Bulls management values 'names' (Vuc, Lonzo, DD) and raw stats (DD, Vuc pre-trade) much more than they value surrounding their star(s) with super-efficient, low-error role-players. Or, they can't tell when a player is one, even when they have him on the roster, which would be even worse. Quality role players usually cost a pretty penny because teams have to overpay for them as the missing pieces, and the Bulls had half-a-team worth of them. AKME straight up did not want them around. Stars need specialists to surround them--that much LeBron has right. Have to be able and willing to shoot, or rim-run, or defend, or preferably both, but these last are difficult to find.
I said at the time of the trades last year that if Vuc replaced Thad and Lauri, instead of stealing touches from the likes of Val, Coby and Temple, the Bulls O would be worse off for it, no matter what their basketball minds tell them. Fast-forward and that's exactly what happened. It was simple math. The Bulls scored 7 fewer points per game on the same amount of FGA. Some of that was covid-Zach, but still, the drop-off was pretty meaningful.
Vuc was fine if you needed a name to make a splash and sell tickets (it worked in that sense), and raw stats last year. Vuc, who's never been a good rim-protector or being able to guard in space is a waste of $20M of cap space, given that the Bulls now have 2 high touch wings that like pounding the ball in DD and Zach. It doesn't matter if he gets back to shooting better. The Bulls need somebody to roll hard to make teams pay for doubling Zach and DD. Think Thad as the hub. Otherwise, teams would just pack the paint while staying home on the shooters and let Vuc launch a bunch of long 2s and some 3s, most of which he'll miss... and you're a happy defensive coordinator because 3 of the other Bulls players barely get to touch the ball or get in rhythm. Without rolling, or the threat of rolling, you need a savant play-maker and the Bulls don't have one on the roster, just to keep the shooters from getting iced out.
You are basically writing fanfiction here .
So you blame Vuc for the presence of Daniel Theis because thats who took Lauri's and Thad's minutes but its oh so convenient that you left him out with how many games he actually started in placed of those guys .
Most here know that the Bulls scored less points after the trade because Zach was out with Covid for a large portion of those post trade games but you keep writing that fiction .
Call it whatever you like. To you it's fan fiction. To me it's recorded history.
True or false:
Thad played hub on O pre-trade (57 touches per game in only 25 min / game)? True
Theis was not the main hub on O. Theis was a rim-runner (34 touches per game; 5th option-level touches) who replaced WCJ and Gafford in that functional role. True.
Vuc was a hub post trade (79 touches per game). True
Lauri was a spacing big all year. True
Guess who was also the main pop target (spacing big), apart from being the main hub. Yep, that was Vuc.
So, let's distribute touches pre- and post trade:
Pre:
Thad: 57
WCJ: 52 (which includes the first 10 where they tried to make him a hub)
Lauri: 44
Gafford: 19
Total: 172
Post:
Vuc: 79
Thad: 52
Theis: 34
Lauri: 32
Total: 197
So, let's examine what's the effect of giving 80 touches and 20 shots / game to Vuc (and scraps to Theis, to be fair), operating in the exact same functional spaces where Thad and Lauri formerly roamed with great success pre-trade?
Lauri was a 62% TS player last year. Pre-trade, Thad was also at 62%. That plummeted to 55% post-trade. His +/- and net rating also plummeted post ASB. Vuc, while getting absolutely gargantuan usage was at less than 55%. Let's do some mental gymnastics here.
Is your team better or worse on O, if you replace 30 pts / game at 62% TS (Lauri + Thad pre-trade), 5 at 70% TS (Gafford) and 10 at 58% TS with 34 pts / game at 55% TS (Vuc and Thad), 10 pts at 58% TS (Theis) and 10 pts / game at 62% TS (Lauri), with some of that coming from SF?
In the first case, your bigs scored at a 62% TS as a group, adjusted for volume. In the second case, it's 57% TS on higher usage, and that's with Lauri dragging the number up. Vuc was at an 55%. I don't think you realize how huge of a difference 60%+ to 55% is, especially given Vuc's usage.
To sum up, the Bulls bigs scored meaningfully less efficiently post trade on a meaningfully larger volume. Does that make the team O better or worse?
Zach missing some games was probably part of that, but then again the Bulls completely changed how they played schematically to incorporate Vuc in the O.
Call it whatever you like. The Bulls de-emphasized or traded away three of their most efficient players in order to give superstar touches and shots to a guy that ended up scoring at a below-league average TS%.