What I kept reading elsewhere was that the East is so bad that the Bulls won't be able to avoid a playoff spot. I don't buy it. Without Rose, this team is poorly constructed. Butler's return will help, but he's not the cold-blooded scorer they need. If Deng or Boozer go down, this team can be as bad as any out there.
Hinrich was playing well so far. Last night he reverted back to his old self. Why? What was it about the Jazz guards that had him hoodwinked? Nothing! This team is dejected. No Nate or Bellinelli. We have no one that can strap the team on their back and score a ton, quickly. Deng tried last night, but it was painful to watch. Boozer is doing all he can do, but he needs a good point guard. No D. Williams, no Rose, he is what he is. Jazz was 1-14 before the game...
yes Butler could have allowed us to maybe split 2 of the last 4 games. But he is not the answer. He is Deng lite. I dont buy it either that the east is so bad we make the playoffs anyway. We can't score.
What I see is teams go right at him on defense. He's older as a player, and not quick enough to stay with PGs and not big enough to handle SGs. He's OK when he guards Andre Miller, JLIII, and other 30+ year old guys. He's actually been better on offense this year than I expected, but he still dribbles the ball a lot. If we're tanking, by all means play him. On the other hand, Teague may have a real future here, so maybe he should get a ton of PT.
Without Rose doesn't make that much of a difference in the makeup of the team. He's just one guy. What he did was draw extra coverage that made things easier on our other guys, and we miss that. Though our two main guys actually scored fine last night, they just don't have anyone else. In wanting a Monta Ellis type (Tyreke Evans, etc.), the idea was to have another alpha dog scorer and secondary ball handler for when Rose sits and to exploit defenses when they overplay him. As far as tanking goes, Noah and Boozer to the Knicks for Chandler and Amare does the trick. Nobody to clean up our missed shots, and we'd be down to Lu who'd be triple teamed all night every night.
