<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> The Bulls' journey begins Tuesday with the first full day of training camp. Most of the team has been working out daily over the summer at the Berto Center. Only veterans Ben Wallace and Joe Smith, the team's newest member, had not arrived as of Thursday.</p> ''Ben Gordon had a phenomenal summer,'' Skiles said. ''He has been in here, basically, every day.''</p> Gordon led the Bulls with a 21.4-point average last season. Gordon, who Skiles said should see more time playing point this season, combined with Luol Deng (18.8) and Kirk Hinrich (16.6) to account for 57 percent of the offense last season.</p> Paxson and Skiles envision Gordon and Deng, who has put on weight and likely will get minutes as the 2-guard this season, only adding to their scoring averages.</p> ''They keep trending in that direction,'' Skiles said. ''I know teams are trying to stop them and they're becoming more of a focal point and all that. But I've seen the summer they've had and how they look in here now compared to the past couple years. The same with Kirk; he's constantly improving. ... We're excited because we think we have several players right on the cusp of being top players in the league.''</p> Paxson said the key word is ''continuity.''.</p> ''We've kept our core together,'' said Paxson, who also re-signed forward Andres Nocioni to a five-year contract in July. ''Some people have said that's not the right thing to do. But we've done it. Continuity of players and staff was always something I was comfortable with when I played. It has value. But it's not the be-all and end-all, I understand that, too. We continue to add valuable players to our roster.''</p> Paxson signed Smith, a 6-10, 12-year veteran free-agent forward, in July. He also signed Joakim Noah, the first-round pick in the June draft from Florida. Noah, who appears to have successfully rehabilitated a torn right rotator cuff, has impressed with his physical play during summer scrimmages. Both players are expected to play pivotal roles.</p> ''Overall, we've always been an unselfish team,'' Paxson said. ''We've never been identified by one player or two. I don't see that as a bad thing. Our other guys will fit in nicely the way we play. You need guys that command the ball, and have that scorer's mentality. Lu and Ben have [it].''</p> Skiles hopes the Bulls don't allow nearly as many turnovers as they did last season, when they averaged 15.98 per game.</p> ''Last year, we wanted to clean up our home record [31-10] and turn the ball over less,'' Skiles said. ''We did both, and still our turnovers are too high.''</p> Skiles considers his role through the preseason as important as ever if the Bulls are to avoid the slow starts they've had the last two years.</p> ''It's my responsibility to get things together a little quicker,'' he said. ''But that's where the continuity comes in. Last year we had eight new faces; this year we have four, including the three rookies. Theoretically, as I sit here just before camp, it ought to be a little easier for me to come out of the box playing the way we want to play. I have a comfort level with these guys and know what they can do. It makes the preparation with camp, I don't want to say easy, but more efficient.''</div></p> LINK</p> Some interesting tidbits. Luol Deng at the two guard? We'll start Hinrich-Gordon-Deng, since I don't see them moving Hinrich to the bench to let Deng play the two guard, and then Deng will play the two guard to end the first quarter/start the second quarter, with Nocioni at the three. Then Gordon comes in for the last 8-10 minutes of the second quarter, and then Deng takes a little breather, and we end the half with our regulars. It'd be nice to hear something on Tyrus, but I assume Deng getting minutes at the two guard means they are trying to get everyone minutes in that forward jam, and Duhon and Thabo's minutes might become very limited with Deng playing some two guard.</p>
Wow that is really interesting, Deng at the 2, never thought about that before. It would be really interesting if Gordon at PG and Deng at SG works out great and Hinrich's role deminishes. Highly doubt that BTW Gordon's ball handling isn't that great. It would actually be more realistic to see Deng do really well at SG and leave Gordon with an odd position.</p> Awesome read. Just thinking about line-ups I'm excited to see Noc-Tyrus-Noah on the court at the same time, think of the intensity! I'd put Duhon out there too b/c he seems to be good at throwing the alley-oop and BG to knock down some 3s while teams try to stop penetration. GOD I love how deep we are!</p>
Just from the general vibes I've been getting so far, I imagine we are going to be rocking the following lineup to start the season:</p> PG-Kirk Hinrich (34 MPG)/Chris Duhon (14 MPG) SG-Ben Gordon (34 MPG)/Luol Deng (10 MPG)/Thabo Sefolosha (4 MPG) SF-Luol Deng (26 MPG)/Andres Nocioni (14 MPG)/Thabo Sefolosha (8 MPG) PF-Ben Wallace (18 MPG)/Tyrus Thomas (20 MPG)/Andres Nocioni (10 MPG) C- Joakim Noah (26 MPG)/Ben Wallace (10 MPG)/Joe Smith (12 MPG) So:</p> Kirk Hinrich- 34 MPG Ben Gordon- 34 MPG Chris Duhon- 14 MPG Thabo Sefolosha- 12 MPG Luol Deng- 36 MPG Andres Nocioni- 24 MPG Tyrus Thomas- 20 MPG Joe Smith- 12 MPG Ben Wallace- 28 MPG Joakim Noah- 26 MPG</p> That'll probably be our 10 man rotation for the regular season. It might get cut down to a 9 man rotation, with Thabo getting booted out of the rotation.</p>
i can't see Joke-im Noah starting. Joe Smith at least starting is more realistic. He's a proven veteran, not an unproven rookie, or a second-year player who's still developing and maturing...and him getting more minutes than Tyrus?</p> BG7, do you know somethin i don't about Noah?</p> other than that, everything else looks right, and that rotation looks great. i think they're gonna win the east in the regular season.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (peg182)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> i can't see Joke-im Noah starting. Joe Smith at least starting is more realistic. He's a proven veteran, not an unproven rookie, or a second-year player who's still developing and maturing...and him getting more minutes than Tyrus?</p> BG7, do you know somethin i don't about Noah?</p> other than that, everything else looks right, and that rotation looks great. i think they're gonna win the east in the regular season.</p> </div></p> Joakim Noah put on 14 pounds of muscle over the offseason. He is a good defender and rebounder, and a good passer. He will be able to fit in naturally in our offense.</p> Skiles is raving about Noah big time. While I think Tyrus was the guy they originally planned to start, I think Noah will outplay him in training camp and take the starting nod. Joe Smith isn't good enough to start. Joakim Noah looks to be poised to be a great NBA player. He was an absolute steal at the #9 pick.</p> </p>
That would be very uncharacteristic of Skiles to start Noah and to give him those kinds of minutes being a rookie. Wouldn't agrue if he did, especially if it works, but Skiles doesn't do that.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bulls=Amazing)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> That would be very uncharacteristic of Skiles to start Noah and to give him those kinds of minutes being a rookie. Wouldn't agrue if he did, especially if it works, but Skiles doesn't do that.</p> </div></p> Kirk Hinrich = 35.6 MPG Ben Gordon= 24.4 MPG Luol Deng= 27.3 MPG Andres Nocioni= 23.4 MPG Chris Duhon= 26.5 MPG</p> Tyrus/Thabo came in extremely unready to play. He gave Tyrus minutes towards the end of the year, when he showed he could play.</p> If Noah comes out and plays well, Skiles will play him accordingly. If anything, Skiles has showed that he is willing to play rookies if thats whats best for the team.</p> </p>
The starting lineup for the Bulls will be (I'm quite certain):</p> PG: Hinrich SG: Gordon C: Wallace SF: Deng PF: Smith</p> It wouldn't at all surprise me if Tyrus and Noah starve for minutes except in garbage time. Someone's going to have to play some backup PF and C for about 30 minutes/game.</p> If the Bulls really want to get off to a good start, they better come loaded for bear for the circus trip!</p> </p> </p>
The idea of Deng at the 2 isn't that he's going to literally play the 2, IMO. The Bulls have consistently played a 3 guard offense because they simply had to play 3 guards to have their best players on the court much of the time. Now they're deeper at the F positions, so they could play one guard, 3 Fs, and a C. In that kind of lineup, Deng would be the "2" - and I would expect to see it against really big teams like Cleveland.</p> </p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BG7 Lavigne)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Bulls=Amazing)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> That would be very uncharacteristic of Skiles to start Noah and to give him those kinds of minutes being a rookie. Wouldn't agrue if he did, especially if it works, but Skiles doesn't do that.</p> </div></p> Kirk Hinrich = 35.6 MPG Ben Gordon= 24.4 MPG Luol Deng= 27.3 MPG Andres Nocioni= 23.4 MPG Chris Duhon= 26.5 MPG</p> Tyrus/Thabo came in extremely unready to play. He gave Tyrus minutes towards the end of the year, when he showed he could play.</p> If Noah comes out and plays well, Skiles will play him accordingly. If anything, Skiles has showed that he is willing to play rookies if thats whats best for the team.</p> </div></p> </p> but the thing is, with those guys, he didn't have many other options with who to play. this time, he has Ben Wallace, of course, and a solid proven veteran in Joe Smith.</p> But if you know so much about the Bulls, Skiles, you're most likely right. I'm just going by how it usually goes in the NBA, and the general behavior of coaches in the NBA.</p>
