Drink Plenty of Malk

So, we lose Hinrich, and now we (likely) lose Rose while he recovers from being a badass and playing hurt for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. This is bad.

Get ready to see a lot of Thabo, because our listed depth chart is starting to just look funny. Take a look at this chart pulled after Hinrich's injury:

Backup PG: Thabo Sefolosha
Backup SG: Thabo Sefolosha
Backup SF: Thabo Sefolosha (Nocioni is still reeling from imaginary bullets)
Backup: PF: Thabo Sefolosha (Joakim Noah is an idiot)
Backup C: Aaron Gray (Irreplaceable)

And the sad part is, I only made up two of those. If anyone else important goes down, we may want to look into signing Jack Haley. I hear he makes everyone else around him play better...or is it that everyone else around him DID play better and simply made him look useful?

Look, I don't care about the logistics behind it as long as we win. Mavericks, coming to town.

Can we?

The Hawks come to town to play the Bulls tonight, and I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Not because we're going to lose (per se...) but because it's going to be a really REALLY boring game to watch.

The Bulls really like to play two kinds of teams - teams that are one-dimensionally offensive, or teams that are just plain bad. These kinds of teams bring out the best in the Bulls, and make them watchable. The Hawks are neither of these, as they have what could be considered the most staunch defense in the NBA (and are all about "fundamentals"). Their average opponent score is somewhere around 85 (they held New Orleans to an embarrassing 79 points!).

Worse, their offense isn't quite "there" as Mike Bibby can only do so much, and their big new force in Josh Smith will probably miss the game with a high ankle sprain. Joe Johnson will do his best to fill in, but you really can't expect them to break 85 tonight.

As for us, we all know Hinrich is out for a few months which means Rose will be seeing a LOT of playing time from here on forward. Here's hoping that we get it down tonight, and win in some sort of exciting fashion (I hope).

Also, here's a pic of a Hawks cheerleader because it's Tuesday...or something like that. Any excuse, right?

Bulls are awesome

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.