Ugly, ugly win. The refereeing was really inconsistent, for both teams, and seemed to bog down the game. Kirk Hinrich had Rose's number. I guess that happens when you have two players who know each other so well. Asik had another "the best game of his career" and Thomas played well. I'm just waiting for Asik to have a breakout game. You know it's coming soon.
SST, you're a believer? KT needs some holiday rest.... Really curious to see what the Bulls can do against NY's offense.
Am I a believer in Asik? Absolutely. As of now, I wouldn't trade him for Taj Gibson or JaVale Mcgees of the world. I think he's going to be an almost all-star Luol Deng caliber player. He's starting to dominate on the boards. I think if he was our starting center, he would grab ten to twelve boards a game and that's a hell of a place to start, even if you bring nothing else to the table. Omer has great hands, is lightening quick for someone his size, has a good nose for the ball, burgeoning footwork, and is an unselfish passer and defender. I think I'm higher on him now than I have been at any other time. Asik still has a lot of development to do. His body isn't ready yet for the NBA game and he can't finish around the rim because he just doesn't have the strength yet. But when you compare where he is now to where he began the season, it's night and day. He still looks like a rookie on the court and doesn't know how to work within the flow of the offense or defense, but again that will come. He's a quick learner, and can contribute now. He just needs to spend more time watching on the bench, competing in practices against Noah and Boozer, and in limited minutes, against other teams on the court. I think Thibodeau has done a great job of monitoring his development. I don't believe in entitlement minutes, but Thibs has allowed him just enough consistent minutes to allow him to continue to develop. No more, no less -- as it should be for a player of his experience and abilities. I think by about this time next year he's going to start dominating in the post on offense and defense.
My Dear Thunder So glad you're feeling the Turkish Delight ! What's really interesting ( to me ) of the Bulls front court future is that - Noah has developed legitimate scoring go to moves in the post , and whilst I don't believe he will ever be a natural / voluminous scorer , he's a legit 15ppg big man - which is a perfect secondary and complementary scorer to the Carlos Boozer as the main man - I foresee a Bulls front court future that has a core 3 man rotation of Noah/Boozer/Asik that allows Jomer some common time , where Jo is playing the 4 But you are right about Omer .. he needs to to develop some more strength but without losing his quicks but he'll get there and 1 to 2 years from now I reckon our front court is going to kick some serious ass. One thing Omer has to learn ( and which Kurt Thomas has illustrated really well the last couple of games ) ....don't bring the ball down on the offesnive rebound or on the feed ....keep it up and go straight up. Omer , has a tendency to drag it down where he's a strip waiting to happen But overall I like him and I like the possibilities of our front court.
Yeah, I think part of that is Omer's just not strong enough to go up immediately. We want him to execute when he gets a feed in the post like a player of his size should, but he has a long way to go in terms of strength development, even given how far he has already come. He may need a big windup to finish at the moment. The other half of it is he can't believe someone actually passed him the ball. The players weren't at the beginning of the season. Bottom line, is that if Thibodeau pimped Asik the way that Bill Cartwright and Tim Floyd pimped Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler, he'd be averaging nine boards and two to three blocks a game. That's a great start for a rookie.
Oh, and I think Asik might have played a role in the play that defined the game. After a scrum of God knows how many bad decisions, Korver came away with the ball. He hit Asik with a nice pass in the post who turned and got racked on the arms by Hudson. Refs called it out of bounds, no foul. Meanwhile Hudson raised his hand to claim the foul. Things to take away: -- the game was horrifically fugly. -- it was one of the worst games I can remember in terms of officiating, for both teams. -- Washington is not the brightest franchise.
