Carlos Boozer

Carlos Boozer(notes), bothered by a turf toe injury on his right foot, had eight points and 11 boards and heard it from the home crowd—something that didn’t sit well with Noah.

“Sometimes our home crowd, it’s a tough place to play,” he said. “We have a lot of love for our crowd, but through tough times, we got to stick together.”

Noah remembers being booed as a rookie, and “it’s tough.” Boozer, meanwhile, hasn’t been the same since he missed five games with a sprained left ankle.

“With Carlos, I think people have to understand he’s playing through an injury right now, and he’s giving us what he’s got,” Noah said. “He’s somebody who has an unbelievable presence and he opens up a lot of things for a lot of us. I think that sometimes people are quick to bash one player, but this is a team. And we know that we need Carlos to get to where we want to go. I think Taj (Gibson) does an excellent job, but we need everybody.”

Like Noah, coach Tom Thibodeau rushed to Boozer’s defense.

“Carlos is giving us everything that he has,” he said. “He’s nicked up. He’s playing hard. He’s on the boards. We need that rebounding. His offense will come around.”

 

I get what Noah and Thibs are saying. I wouldn't boo him, but I only boo home team players when they're obviously dogging it...which Boozer is not.

When Boozer is healthy, he's sometimes hard for me to watch...slow-footed, failing to come off his man to help and never making contact on picks. The Boozer we have right now may not cause me to boo, but he does makes me turn my head and grimace sometimes. And yes, there were a couple times last night when I yelled to Thibs through my TV, "Get him out of there!"

Still, he's a Bull and I'm pulling for him.

 

Taj wasn't as good, though. But I suppose Thomas or any old guy could set picks and stand around at the perimeter. Thomas did hit that one outside shot on the inbounds play.

 

I thought the team played better with Gibson in there, but clearly that's an eyeball thing.

 

Boozer had 4x the points and more than 2x the rebounds in about 2x the minutes.

 

I have no idea what to make of Boozer. I just hope this is a temporary thing and that this situation doesn't become Ben Wallace part II.

 

And all this time I thought you were a PER and +/- guy. PER was about 12.2 to 6.6 for Taj and Taj was +7 to Boozer's +6 in half the minutes.

 

Way too small a sample size. And what do we want from these guys that you can measure besides points and rebounds?

 

Also read the quotes. He opens the floor for other guys.

 

By your measure, Rose missed twice as many shots.

The guy was one bucket from a double double in less than full-time minutes.

 

Interesting. Suddenly, assists, steals, blocks, fouls and turnovers don't matter and offensive rebounds are no more important than defensive rebounds.

I don't believe that PER measures a player's total contributions. I've familiarized myself with the stat in order to be able to better converse with those who use it as a club. It does however, roll up just about all the common measurables, weight each in a fairly reasonable manner, adjust for minutes played and then boil it down to a single number. It's as valid for a game as it is for a series of games, a season or a career as long as you only use it in the context of its time frame. I was only using it for a game.

Gibson's PER was considerably better (though not very good) than Boozer's in game 2 because offensive rebounds are valued more highly than defensive rebounds in the PER formula (both players had 3), Boozer had 3 fouls (Taj none), Boozer had a turnover (Taj didn't) and Taj had an assist (Boozer didn't). These differences aren't valid in comparing their game 2 performances?

 

Look at their Per over the whole season. PER for 32 or 15
Total minutes against one team doesn't say much. Playoffs, where the opponent is studying game films and other bulls specific preparation makes it apples/oranges anyway. As well, Atlanta clearly focused defensive efforts for Boozer after his game 1, and they likely want Taj to shoot (instead of Korver). Which raises the additional point that Boozer played against their starters and Taj against their bench.

 

Boozer is both a player with limited athletic ability who needs to carry way more weight than his frame should hold to be effective and injured. You take away whatever jumping ability he had and he's going to be in for a tough night. Right now, I hope the Bulls find someway to win the next three and the Celtics extend their series. The Bulls need some time off.

 

Then I guess we shouldn't say things like "Taj wasn't as good (as Boozer) though" because that's how this got started.

True enough...I'll use this in my next defense of Bogans and look forward to your support.

 

Taj wasn't as good as Boozer. Like I said, what do you want on a PF? Points and rebounds and high FG%.

Anything else is gravy, IMO.

Our discussions of Bogans have always considered he starts. That opponents leave him to double team Rose or to just rest their star SG. Or things like Joe Johnson going 2-4 against him in the first few minutes.

 

He's being guarded by Horford. At least he was the 1st two games.

 

Early on it looked like Boozer was going to have a breakout game...6 points in the first 7 minutes.

Glad Thibs pretty much gave him the afternoon off. Suspect we'll need him Sunday.

 

He did look good early on. That rainbow jumper is pretty when it falls and that little baby hook was nice.

Sadly, those offensive fouls (banging into a guy to create space, using the off arm to create space) are all signs of a guy that can't get his shot off. Troubling.