Okay, so...... Rotation commentary: What's with the short leash on Doug? I didn't understand the rationale behind his playing time at all. Ditto for Snell....that one possession he came in for seemed pointless. Was the lack of playing time due to a tough love sort of thing, a lineup experimentation sort of thing, or is Thibs retreating back to his trust in his vets? I thought it was reasonable when Doug entered the game in the 4th Q alongside Derrick....it makes sense to try and put them in a lineup together. But then he left after 2 minutes. On offense, I saw a double-edged sword tonight. On one hand, I like that we're trying to exploit matchups with a variety of players. I was surprised how we tried to clear out Jimmy in the post, run plays with Taj as the focal point, and so on. It even looked like we tried to run the offense through Mirotic in the second quarter. It didn't work very well, but I applaud the effort. A lot of this might look ugly now, but any sort of growth we can get out of the offensive games of our 2-7 players will pay big dividends in the playoffs. But I thought our movement on offense was lethargic. There was a lot of clearing out and sitting around while one guy did his thing. However, the box score doesn't validate my observations. 68% of our baskets were assisted. But it looks to me like they came through kickouts with only a few players touching the ball before it was scored, not through the side-to-side action we milked the last two years to get easy points.
He came in at the exact time Mirotic was pulled -- I don't think Thibs wants to play them together, which makes some sense. And not for nothing, but Giannis was eating McDermott's chili. The counter argument is something along the lines of the following: The Bulls are playing more isolation ball because, for the first time in almost twenty years, they have four players who have distinct advantages in those situations. Pau and Rose have shown that they can sustain this. Butler and Gibson still have to prove it over the course of the season. I think it bodes well for the playoffs, when its more difficult to generate points through offensive sets.
Bulls pull away down stretch to beat Bucks in Derrick Rose's return Now there's a sight to calm the jittery nerves of Chicago Bulls fans: Derrick Rose on the court instead of on the injury report. Rose returned from his latest injury and helped the Bulls continue to make themselves at home in Milwaukee with a 95-86 win over the Bucks on Wednesday night. Read more http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=400578354
Butler was not anywhere near as aggressive on offense with Rose in the game as he had been the two games prior. Will that continue? I hope not.
Great points SST. Your powers of observation are in high gear....well done. You're right, it would make a lot of sense to play McD and Niko separately, and without either one cracking the starting lineup that makes for some weird substitutions. I also liked your point about going iso now that we actually have the talent to do it. The counterpoint is that we probably don't have enough iso talent to really be elite at it the way other teams (LAC, OKC, Cle) will be able to, so we'll have to incorporate a certain amount of execution into our offense in order to get things done. I mostly consider what I saw last night a positive. Like I said, the less we have to rely on Derrick in tense moments the more dangerous we'll be, so developing the iso aspects of Jimmy, Niko, and maybe even Doug's game throughout the season will bear a lot of long run benefits, even if it's a little ugly in the here and the now. And given our squad and coach I'm confident in them eventually "putting it together."
I responded before checking the box score. Gibson at 44 minutes, Butler at 41, Gasol at 36 . . . Even Rose at 31, coming back from injury. Those are tough numbers to justify, especially during a four games in five nights stretch.
