Noch, taking an imaginary bullet to the midsection.The Bulls lost to the Mavs last night, 103-98 putting them dead last in the Central at 4-11 and second worst in the entire Eastern Conference (thank you Miami!).
The Bulls usually start slow, having overcome crappy starts to make the playoffs the last 3 years and I've read explanations ranging from lower PER's to psychological issues from the Kobe trade talk at the beginning of the season. After watching last night's game, I think there is a much more simple explanation.
Everyone knows our team shooting has been miserable (sub 38% on the season) and most fingers have been pointing at Hinrich at Gordan. Captain Kirk even got benched for Duhon to start the second half last night.
Now, I don't think either Hinrich or Gordon have been playing well but let's be honest, where the fuck is Ben Wallace, Tyrus Thomas or Thabo Sefolosha?
Hinrich is a great defender and runs the offense smoothly. Granted, he's been shooting like shit but that doesn't render him completely ineffective (like it does Gordon). Kirk even came back off the bench to drop 14 points in the 4th and keep it close with the help of a stellar late-game performance from the always sexy Noch machine. Where are our big men?
Every time I watch Thomas, he looks like he's about 10 seconds away from breaking out and completley dominating. Unfortunately, it's been like that for over a year. Compared to LaMarcus Aldridge (who we FUCKING DRAFTED) or even Foye or Farmar from the same class, Tyrus looks 3 years behind. He's so raw and unpolished that it's hard to make a real judgement call on his potential but if he doesn't start to produce SOMETHING, you've gotta start to worry. Sefolosha is shooting 28% from the field (down almost 50% from last year) and Wallace just looks old and crotchety, particulalry on offense where he just looks downright uncomfortable. Reminds me of a WR option pass... just not smooth (unless it's LT throwing).
I think we need to change our offense to be less reliant on outside shots and focus more on banging the ball inside. Deng can get to the basket and kickout to Gordon/Hinrich all day but until we put some confidence in Thomas or even Noah to score in the low post, we are going to struggle all season with tough jumpers. I wouldn't even mind letting Thomas go 0-15 from the post for a few games, just to see if it would improve our outside shooting by drawing one of the opposing guards a little tighter in the paint.
Tangentially, i'm becoming a bigger Noah fan every game. The guy brings serious spark to our sleepy team.
3 comments:
My theory is that the Kobe trade rumors created some kind of mystical hangover from which the starting 5 cannot recover. Also, Big Ben sucks. Let's face it, they are paying a center who is barely taller than their starting PF buckets of money to collect 8 rebounds a game and block some shots. He can't score from the post, or....from anywhere really, especially the free throw line.
Tyson Chandler looks pretty good now, doesn't he?
Not surprisingly, Tyson looks great. Jamal Crawford and Eddie Curry look pretty good. So do Brad Miller and Ron Artest.
I just hope we're not saying the same thing about Thomas and/or Noah in a few years when they're inevitably on a different team.
We're fucked either way. This team has no potential to win as is, so we're obviously going to have to trade away some of our core - which Paxson cannot do because he is gun-shy. However, if he does miraculously pull of a deal, the people we give up in the trade will instantly become hall of famers. We all know this.
Meanwhile, the player the Bulls get in return will not take them over the hump - EVEN if it's Kobe, because Kobe on the Bulls is the same goddamn thing as Kobe on the Lakers. And I'm not too psyched about the Pau the Gay Spaniard.
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