According to the Trib, the Bulls are the frontrunner to sign the 6-9, 225lb, 30 year old journeyman. Link Amundson was recently released by the T-Wolves. The Bulls would be his 7th NBA team in 7 seasons. The good news is that Amundson's career averages per-36 minutes are almost ideal for a backup big...11 points, 10rebs and a 49% FG%. The bad news is that he hasn't shot at more than a 45% clip since the 2009-10 season and this season he made a truly abysmal 36.8% of his FG attempts for Minnesota. The contract is expected to be of the 10-day variety.
Just can't be excited. The Bulls have reached their limit. But they did their job. They've held on as long as they could. Now it's time to wait for Derrick and see what we've got with him. But if Amundson gets more than 8 rebounds in his first game, I'm done for.
It will surely bring a tear to Thibs' eyes when he needs a PF or C to sub and looks to the bench to find Lou and Nazr are his choices.
What really gets him choked up is having Kirk out there thrusting his way to a plus 23 in the game!! Go Bulls!
I know he missed some shots, but did you not think he played the game of basketball well in the Philly game?
No, I don't think he played basketball well. I think a PG's job is to either score first, and I mean a shot at 20+ every game, or to get his teammates involved. I don't see his teammates did very well. And I think it's absurd that Kirk Hinrich would take 15 shots in a game unless he was on fire. He wasn't. On defense, Jrue Holiday shot over 50% and scored 22 points against him. I answered my question there, too At which end do you think he played well? And what would ever make his game not so good?
Thanks. Clockwork? Probably not, but it ran OK and well enough to win the game. I thought that Hinrich played well on both ends. Yeah, he took 15 shots and that's an unusually high number...by far the most he's taken in a game this season. Still, I can't remember any shots he took that he shouldn't have. Six assists with no turnovers is terrific. On defense, Holiday was a little over his season averages in minutes and points, but way under in assists. I thought Hinrich was disruptive and helped make it tough for Philly to run their stuff. I'm not an over the top Hinrich fan, but he's played better than I thought he was going to. It's a damn shame he's missed so many games. Still, the Bulls are 29-15 in games Hinrich's played in and 5-11 in games he hasn't. I don't think that's entirely a coincidence.
I think many of the games he missed were also missed by key players, including Noah with his plantar fasciitis flare up. It really is hard to judge his value add (or not). 5-15 is 10 turnovers, unless you think Noah grabbed offensive rebounds on all 10 misses. Philly was (and is) in the midst of a serious slump. 2-8 in their last 10 games. Kirk and everyone else has made it tough for them to "run their stuff." The Bulls had a better record with CJ Watson at PG last season and with Rose missing games. FWIW.
Even though we lost to Indiana - with 2 starters out (Hinrich, Rip), and minus key sub Taj Gibson... Marco Belinelli turned in another very good performance as starting SG for us. Nate Robinson had a Kirk-like 6 assists in half the minutes Kirk might have played. And no turnovers. Luol Deng appears to be in a slump. 5-13 against Indy, 3-10 against Brooklyn, 5-14 against Philly. That's 13-37, or .351 FG%. Even worse than Kirk. But I'd still rather see him take the volume of shots to get his shooting stroke back.
Yeah, Deng might find himself teetering on the edge of the doghouse (at least from the Fans POV) if his offensive struggles continue. Boozer will give him his pass out. I've never been as down on Kirk as you. My biggest complaint about him is that his body doesn't seem capable of holding up over the course of an 82 game season. I prefer Hinrich to run the point and Nate to fill in when the rails start to come off. Sometimes a little bit of irrational exuberance does a lot of good. Belinelli to me is perplexing. When he gets minutes he seems to play well, when he's relegated to a smaller role he can't find his groove. In the absence of a game changing 2 guard (which I think is a loooong shot), I'd be fine with having him play alongside Rose for the next 2-3 years. 15-17 points on very high efficiency seems feasible with that lineup. I honestly can't tell if he's any better than Rip or not, but he seems to play with an Esprit de Corps that Rip left behind in his glory days in Detroit.
My complaints about Kirk are how much he's being paid and that he's starting. As a vet minimum type player who's used strategically, I'm quite fine with him. But he's going to be the starting SG next season, next to Rose. Does that give you good feelings about our chances?
It sounds like you have more of a problem with management's signing of Kirk than Kirk himself. You don't think there's a decent chance Belinelli's back next year?
No, I don't think Belinelli will be back. He is going to get more money and a possible starting position elsewhere. Earlier in the season, I made a long post figuring out why the Bulls would actually amnesty Boozer. It saves The Chairman about $10M in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, it'd put the Bulls in a position they'd have to fill 5 roster spots (to make 12) with $3M under the cap and only vet minimum for exceptions. That's 5 pretty lousy players. Maybe one decent one (sorta) for $3M, but he's not going to be close to as good as Boozer (who's not so good, eh?). So yeah, signing Kirk to $4M cost us the chance to sign an actually good player for $7M, or a two for $5M and $2M, etc. If the Bulls keep Rip, it'd cost the team over $10M for his salary and tax. The Bulls don't have Bird Rights on Marco.
I don't like that idea at all. Hinrich's crafty, savvy, plucky and all that kind of stuff, but he's also 6-3, which is shorter than I like my starting SG. You can get away with it against some teams, but not most. I'm for Hinrich as a backup to both guard positions next season.
