After watching the last few games, the basic conclusion I reach is Deng's playing with the enthusiasm of a wet blanket. He might be collecting numbers, but every non-statistical observation I collect on him is that he's not doing stuff I know he can do. D up. Run. Rebound. Set a screen. In short, he's every bit the offense-killing black hole, no-defense bastard this organization claims to hate.
can we trade for injured players? and just to update: looks like we got no shot at acquiring Marc Gasol anymore
Deng would be a good fit for portland, and they have some expiring contracts to trade in return. What a shitty team we have now, it'll be even shittier.
Lets say we stay this way (horrible), and we end up getting, say, the fourth pick. Who would you guys like to go after, I honestly think that Cole Aldrich would do wonders here with joakim moving to the 4. He reminds me of Joel Pryzbilla (defensively) with Brook Lopez's offensive skillset (though not quite the same degree).
Deng is tired. He's playing 31-32 of the first 36 minutes every game. It's hard to have any spark in the fourth if you've played the whole game, been asked to guard the other teams best player, and be a primary offensive weapon. He's averaging 38 minutes even after the last 10 games where he's sat most of the fourth quarters. That's too many minutes. Case in point: Deng played 52:17 of 53 minutes tonight. The guy is running a marathon every night.
Gee, maybe they should bench him. That way, you know, he'll be fresh for the 4th quarter. That's what good teams do with their best player, right? But seriously. Every player that plays 38-40 minutes a game is running a marathon every night. Is Deng the most poorly conditioned of all of them? Salmons often seems to take the best defender on other teams anyway.
I sort of wonder how he'd fit in with Noah. Noah at the 4 frightens me, and I don't know that Aldrich can really shoot well enough to complement him. But the season is still young.
Yeah, they play 38-40 minutes of 48 minutes. Deng plays 43-45 minutes of 48. He played 33 of the first 36 again last night. Maybe you should go out and try it if you don't understand the difference. Those extra five minutes make a big difference.
He's basically being paid MAX of what the Bulls seem willing to pay, and he basically took a big paycheck for little production for two seasons. Why wouldn't they expect him to play all 48 minutes? Gordon played 40+ minutes 23 times last season, Rose did it 29 times, Salmons did it 27 times. Deng's done it 8 times this season (out of 22). In the four games before Golden State, he played 31, 30, 36, and 32 minutes. Iggy played 40+ minutes 46 times last season, and he's known for playing hard at both ends of the floor.
FWIW Deng's played 840 minutes this season, Salmons 810 DWade has played 810, Durant 833, and Trevor Ariza has played 864.
Maybe you should go out and look at the easily available statistics that indicate Deng averages 38 minutes, not 43-45 minutes. While he is 10th in the league in minutes per game and 16th in minutes played, your assertion is, well, factually incorrect. Looking at the other guys who play similar minutes as Deng, I see lots of guys who are pulling similar stints and not sucking it up.
Maybe you should reread my post. When Deng doesn't sit most of the fourth quarter in a blowout, he's playing 43-45 minutes. The fact that the bulls are down by 20 going into the fourth so often means that Deng only gets to 33-35 minutes in those games. He's still averaging 38 minutes. I quoted those easily available stats, maybe you should do a little more digging and get a better understanding of the problem...
Yea, Deng is the only heavy minute player in the association that plays more minutes in close games and less minutes in blowouts.
When he plays huge minutes and it results in a win, that seems to shoot down your theory that he's tired. Because, if he were truly gassed, the Bulls would have a hell of a time winning with him on the court. Couple that with the fact that the Bulls are pretty rarely in such a position these days, and the number of times he's actually facing that problem is pretty small. Either way you look at it, his tiredness or lack thereof appears to be a poor excuse and a non-issue. I'm more concerned with his inability or unwillingness... I'm not sure which it is, to set a credible pick.
The fact that the bulls have to play Deng that much is both the issue and the explanation. They've never had a decent backup for him, and it's exacerbated by the fact that Hinrich and Tyrus were out. Salmons can't play more than a couple of minutes at the 3 because he needs to play the whole game at the 2. Tyrus could also spell Deng for a few if he wasn't hurt. So they are pretty much forced to have Hunter or Pargo in if Salmons is the 3. And that lineup has sucked along with Miller. So VDN feels like he has to have Deng out there the whole game and runs him down and he isn't any good by the end against smart teams that force him to play at both ends. If you watched the Celtics game, they went right at Deng to open it up. Pierce took 4 of the first 6 or so shots. When teams don't force him to play on both ends he can rest some, but wasn't exactly a dynamic force in the GS game at the end. He was 0-3 in 12 minutes in the fourth. Contrast that with the Nets game where Deng sat 8 minutes in the third with foul trouble. He was 4-6 for 11 points in the fourth. It'll be interesting to see how VDN uses Tyrus when he gets back, because Miller is showing some signs of life with the lineup change, and Gibson has played about as well as we could hope for. But they clearly miss Tyrus's athleticism.
