Should Hinrich be benched?

Should Skiles let him play through his current struggles or should he be benched in favor of Duhon?</p>

I liked the way the court opened up in the 3rd quarter last night, and the Bulls picked up the pace.</p>

I would like to see this team run more, and I think Duhon is currently the better choice in an uptempo game.</p>

He is more adept at running the break and finding the open man (rather than dribbling a whole in the ground), and he doesn't pull up for terrible 18-20 footers.</p>

I know Duhon's shooting is atrocious, but his shot selection doesn't harm the team, and he can manage to hit an open 3.</p>

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You guys bring up excellent points with the significant number of offensively challenged players on the team, and I think that only further supports going with an up-tempo, Duhon-led offense. We are never going to be great (or very good) in the half-court offense, so I would hope that an up-tempo offense would hide those flaws with some easy buckets. And when we dominate the boards, as we did last night, it makes it much easier to get out on the break.</p>

 

I like the idea of benching Hinrich on the grounds that it sends a message to Gordon that he wasn't being singled out (even though he obviously was).</p>

Hinrich is deifnitely hurting the team, and playing horrible. If we don't bench him for Duhon, we should bench him for Gardner when Gardner heals up.</p>

 

Yeah, let Hinrich come off the bench so he can get back into his groove. Something's thrown him off this season, and until he figures out how to fix it, he's a burden to the team with his sub-par defense, poor shot selection and percentages, and poor job of running the team.</p>

If Duhon works, start him.</p>

 

Here's what I wrote about it:<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC)</div><div class='quotemain'>Kirk Hinrich to the bench, Chris Duhon to the starting 5. Du hasn't played great by any stretch of the imagination, but he's closer to where he needs to be than Kirk. Duhon is also our best pure PG and in the past he's had success as a starter and success settling the team down and distributing the ball to our scoring threats, who are Gordon and Deng. A bit of PT mixed with a leading role in a turnaround will also increase his trade value. We know he was being shopped this summer, and I think the odds of him being re-signed seem fairly low since we'll likely be forking out quite a lot of cash for Deng and Gordon. Though he's streaky, he's a guy who can hit an open 3, and that's the pairing you want with Gordon, offensively.</p>

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The Bulls have been exceedingly patient with Kirk Hinrich and it's time to send a message that if he can't get his act together the Bulls will find someone who can. He might not take it well, but the truth is I don't see how he could play with any less confidence than he is now. His body language, as well as the nonsense he's uttered over the past month (can't wait to get out of Chicago, wimpy 'it has to get better' moping) sucks. His biggest problem seems to be dealing with pressure, and bringing him back to the role he played a lot at Kansas and in his first seasons with the Bulls, playing off the ball, will simplify things for him. Let him get his groove back a bit with Duhon and Gordon initiating the offense more and him taking shots and locking guys down on D. When he gets solid, then expand his role.</p>

I don't think, by the way, this is a completely novel idea. In large part, Kirk played this role with a starting Duhon in past seasons. Du started 30 games last year, 38 the year before and 73 as a rookie. He's a favorite whipping boy for his shooting suckitude, but this is the right move to make.</div></p>