The Bulls also look to have serious chemistry issues to me, and it's been going on for a year now. The trade of Wallace solved some, but made others worse. I see two problems. 1. The Bulls good players are so stacked at the same positions that even if they're "good guys" they're in a position where they can't help but to feel some competition with each other. 2. The Bulls good players probably look up front, see how awful Noah and Thomas have been, and just shake their heads. But hey, this has only been going on for a year, so it's not like it's becoming an urgent problem or anything.
Aaron Gray had a great game (for him) last night. I think we miss Brother Abe more than one might expect.
I don't think it's a problem of positions, but style. Players, it seems to me, are rarely redundant, provided that they bring some skills to the table. We could use two Derick Roses or two Ben Gordons. I think the main problem is that Paxson has assembled a collection of players who don't like to play within systems. Thabo; Hughes; Gooden; Thomas; and to a lesser extent, Gordon and Rose: they're all shoot first pass second freedom players. It's okay if not beneficial to have one or two of those types, especially if you bring them off the bench, but that's the majority of talent on the Bull's roster.
I think you have that backwards. BG thrives in the open court, and in a less restrictive system. Hughes is playing better in the system (but who knows how long that lasts), and Rose and Thabo don't have enough reps in the system yet. And TT is playing better. His jumper is starting to fall for him and maybe Rose will start looking for him. Rose is still so quick to the rim that once he gets by his man he is at the rim and he should shoot at that point. Once he figures out when to pass when that shot blocker rolls to him, it's going to be lights out.
When Tyrus, Thabo, Noah, etc are playing big minutes, we're getting our asses handed to us. The better players see that too. We've played Tyrus big minutes four games in a row. He's "produced" but we're giving up a lot of points with him out there. Thabo too. For all the talk about their good defense, they seem curiously associated with complete defensive collapse.
