You guys in Chitown sleeping or what? I was expecting to see a discussion thread. 14-11 Bulls on top. Pretty sloppy, boring game so far.
On ESPN radio a few days back, I heard a quote by John Wooden as relayed by Bill Walton stating that the #1 tip to rebounding is to assume that every shot taken is going to miss. Too often, I see a jump shot go up, and every Bull immediately starts running back on defense. I realize that it's important to get back on defense, but somebody needs to be crashing the boards every time a shot goes up.
Bah, I've just got in position to get online, and I see we're up by 1 with a minute left. The boys are pissed I won't let them watch Thomas the Train.
Looks like Noah and Tyrus are playing well... too bad we can't match them up against Jared Jeffries every night. How do they let him play so much? In fairness, I can't figure out why he's so bad. He's a skilled, athletic 6'11" 240lb guy who in theory can shoot from anywhere on the court and guard any position. But when you look at how he actually plays, he stinks. I can't remember anyone who's ever looked that much like a basketball player who's sucked so much.
Du rattles off 4 points in 9 seconds. Drives and scores, then gets fouled by Kirk and hits both shots. Game basically over.
I wonder the same thing. He should at least be able to average 10/7/3 and shoot a decent percentage. The reason why he's playing so much is because he's our only player above 6'10". He's better suited to play center than David Lee and Tim Thomas (yes, it's gotten that bad). What was Gordon thinking heaving up that shot over the outstretched arms of Lee? He should have drove to the basket with that mismatch. Lee was also playing on a sprained ankle all game. He should have been exploited.
He played 3 minutes against the Mavericks and managed to re-injure himself. But I guess we know that his sore knees are due to some extra-curricular activites.
I blame Gordon for missing so many shots, I blame Hinrich for missing a free throw, I blame Rose for not passing to the wide open Gordon in the corner when we were down by 1, and I blame Del Negro the most, for sitting Gordon most of the fourth, and his general body of work that has built up the team to what it currently is.
Gordon was struggling all game, so I think Del Negro's benching was justified. That last shot he took lends credence to the type of game he was having.
Ah, the BG conundrum... That's the problem with being as streaky as he is. He's getting big minutes entirely based on the possibility that he might go on one of his 6-7 for 15 points in three and a half minutes. And when he doesn't he's pretty much a waste because he's being posted up or isolated on defense and forcing the bulls to double team leaving other guys open. This is the main reason why he should be coming off of the bench. If he's hot, leave him in; if he's not, well, at least you can go back to somebody who is playing solid D. It isn't until after the game that you can definitively say that he shouldn't have gotten 35+ minutes, but at that point the game is already lost when he throws up a 3-15 and takes a wild shot at the end. Rose, for all of his rookie problems and weak D is at least missing shots at the rim where you could argue he should be getting more foul calls. And Kirk is playing very good D even when throws up a stinker like in the Spurs game. And would anybody like to post the TS% numbers since Kirk has come back? And maybe the Ast/TO numbers...
That's not true of Gordon this season at all. He has been contributing consistently throughout games, on a consistent basis all year long. He's just gone into a shooting slump this past week. Kirk Hinrich's TS% is 56.6 on the season, second behind Gordon at 56.9. Derrick Rose, as every game goes on, gets nearer and nearer to being below 50%. He's down to 50.6% after the Knicks game. Again, if anyone should be benched, it should be Rose, not Gordon. If you bench Gordon now, you might as well bench every player when they go in a slump.
BG has been consistently inconsistent all year, and that is the point. If you play BG heavy minutes, all you do is increase the chance that he goes on one of his runs, but it doesn't translate into wins. He gets his numbers, but nothing else. With three viable guard options, BG gets yanked when he is hurting the team, and he has less opportunity to go on one of his numbers filling runs. When BG isn't actively hurting the opponent, he is passively hurting the bulls with mediocre defense and ball handling. Again, I'm not trying to make the argument that he is a bad guy or a bad player, just that he isn't a starter on a good team. The bulls are more competitive with Hinrich and a poor showing from BG than they were without Hinrich. Obviously, he can be a fine starter on a mediocre team and score a lot of points and put up fine numbers. ;-) The main problem that I see is that the bulls best offensive team right now is Kirk at the point, Rose at SG and Deng at the three and that isn't getting Rose the reps at point that he should be getting.
The Gordon isn't a starter on a good team thing is ridiculous. He was a starter on the best Bulls team in recent years, the 06-07 team. The problem is the front court. They don't provide much scoring, or much interior defense. Put say, Chris Bosh and Kendrick Perkins up front, and all of a sudden, BG is a starter on a good team.
Bosh isn't exactly carrying his team anywhere fast. And you put anybody on a team with Rose, Deng, Bosh and Perkins, and they'd be the starting guard on a good team. Every time a team goes away from their star to isolate or postup their journeyman SG on Gordon, it should be painfully obvious that he isn't the guy who should be starting.
Say trade Rose and Hughes for Bosh/Perkins in some type of three way. PG-Kirk Hinrich/Lindsey Hunter SG-Ben Gordon/Thabo Sefolosha SF - Luol Deng/Andres Nocioni PF-Chris Bosh/Tyrus Thomas C- Kendrick Perkins/Drew Gooden If that were to happen, I would think that Ben Gordon would be a starting guard on a good team. Ben Gordon isn't the reason for why he isn't a starting guard on a good team. It's the other players. Rose's inefficient offense and horrid defense. The inconsistent, lacking defense, front court. Luol Deng sucking for most of the year. Nocioni and Hughes being chuckers. Hinrich being injured all year. Ben Gordon was a starting guard on a good team. That's something Derrick Rose hasn't done. Tyrus Thomas hasn't been a starting power forward on a good team. Neither has Noah, or Sefolosha. Gordon is the least of the Bulls problems. It's the other positions where the Bulls need to get more production from.
