http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/ct-bulls-kings-game-spt-0204-20140204,0,4398727.story https://twitter.com/NickFriedell
Thibs is a defense first coach. In the clutch, he wants to shore up the D with Gibson / Noah and have the guards, SF or perhaps Gibson / Noah get a shot. Boozer is tough to trust if you want a stop. Perhaps he could play a bit of offense / defense with Booz / Gibson, but at this point, I think Gibson is the better player. Shot types are a bit different, but Gibson has a higher TS% and of course is better on D. Boozer is a high paid vet who is a proud athlete... I'm surprised he's kept his mouth shut this long. Hopefully this will be the end of the talk, unless Boozer is trying to get out of town. Boozer wants to get amnestied, right? He still gets paid, gets another salary and potentially can get to another team if he wants out of Chi?
I don't have a problem with this. Boozer is a vet former allstar whose having trouble adjusting to a new role. This isn't a distraction unless you're looking for a distraction in the grand scheme of things.
The quick hook and reduced PT clearly affects him. He can be in pace for 40/20 and he'll get taken out. While he has the hot hand. If he has a slow start, he has no incentive to shoot his way out of it.
In general I don't have a problem with Thibs' use of Boozer. He sort of gets the glorified Bogans treatment. See if he's got the offense going, and then put him to rest when crunch time rolls around. Taj has been the better player this year.....Boozer has put up a number of stinkers. I wonder if the timing of this comment is meaningful. On one hand, this is an issue that's been simmering in Boozer for four years. It's probably been a hit to his pride since the day he came over, and he's always taken the high road. But you can only hold in that painful fart for so long. Maybe the reporter was jostling him hard for a good quote and he finally let it slip. But he's always been good with words, so maybe this is a little more calculated.
I thought Boozer showed a lot of character (not to mention a high pain tolerance) holding it in for as long as he did. Gibson doesn't score at quite the rate Boozer does, but he's become considerably more efficient. He also takes a little better care of the ball. Oh yeah, and Gibson is a better defender by several powers.
