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.
