The billboards I saw looked like these, except they had Kirk's likeness on them. It was before we got Rose.
I think that the head coach ought to be able to pick his assistant coaches. If management thinks that an assistant coach is guilty of a serious indiscretion, they should put it to the head coach to determine punishment. If the head coach doesn't handle the situation like management thinks he should, management may need to fire the head coach...even if his team has done well. IMO, this is how the assistant coach thing things should work. As for playing rookies, a head coach needs to know up front what his measuring stick is. If winning is the thing, so be it. Development...if that's the fulcrum, fine. You just can't reasonably ask for everything to be THE priority...I wouldn't take that job.
The thing for me is that I've never really seen Kirk as being that important, which is why I don't get worked up about him. The name of this thread was "What Do You Do With Kirk Hinrich?" Well, how about threads like: "What do you do with Jo?" (New contract, over 30, bum knee) "What do you do with Derrick?" (questionable toughness, max contract, can't stay healthy) "What do you do with Thibs?" (great coach, might push too hard, difficult to work with) "What do you do with Taj?" (very useful player, has more talented rookie behind him, getting disgruntled) "What do you do with Pau?" (statistically prolific, bargain contract, can't really field a good lineup around him) "What do you do with Niko?" (awesome talent, inconsistent, lots of vet talent ahead of him) All these seem like more important questions than "What do you do with Kirk?" Kirk doesn't matter very much. I don't think Kirk's play on the floor or his contract really moves the needle very much one way or the other. I think the sun has set on him as a useful player, and I suspect that, when the situation allows itself, Thibs will phase him out of the rotation, but his MO for this kind of thing is to usually wait for an opportune situation so it can happen without anyone losing face. It's also ironic how Kirk is simultaneously used to bash management and Thibs, even though they both seem to share the same mutual admiration for him that fans don't. If GarPax screwed the pooch by signing him to his contract, Thibs is guilty for playing him way too much. And vice versa.
It's funny. I really can't say that I care about Hinrich's shooting. Indeed, I think his shooting has been pretty timely this season, if his overall numbers are down. To me, everything else is the problem. I find his distributing skills to be disruptive. We saw multiple full court presses from the Spurs in today's game. That's the new playbook out there following the Thunder game for how to frustrate Hinrich, and you better believe every other team in the league is going to adopt the strategy. I legitimately can't think of another player that that strategy has worked against in the last fifteen years. I view Hinirch on offense as an enabler for Thibs' bad coaching habits. A player like Hinirch, will willingly grind everything to a halt and run plays, many of which appear to be dictated by the sideline. I think playing like that gives a coach a false sense of control that they never really have. It's a players league, and the best scoring opportunities almost always arise organically on the court and while pushing in transition. This is part of why so many college coaches flame out, and why former players who know the limitations of their role, like Jason Kidd, often flourish. The best coaches like Popovic and Spoelstra are able to embrace the elements of the game that the cannot control while still bringing a systematic approach to the parts, like late game out of bounds situations, that they can.
You do know they run plays in basketball? The coaches draw them up, pass them out in books to the players like football coaches do with their plays. In practice, they run those plays over and over until they really know how to run them as second nature. The teams even prepare for opponents by watching game films and choosing which plays they think will work best against the upcoming opponent. They even have plays on defense. There's a lot less "organic" scoring that goes on outside of busted plays or isolation plays.
Totally agree with this. Its just been curious this year how Kirk's playing time has dominated so much of the internet discussion. He's a role player at this point and does not make much of a difference one way or the other. And the phasing out has certainly begun. He had the fewest minutes among guards yesterday despite the roster being depleted right now and we've seen Moore (an average player) finishing games from time to time. You would not know this however based on all the "outrage" over the playing time he's received this season.
The outrage is the cap space his contract is taking up. They used the BAE on him when it could have been used on a better player who'd give us a better chance to win, and in the playoffs.
You may be outraged over that, as am I, albeit to a lesser extent. Most of the outrage I read though has to do with playing time. Hinrich getting it over other players.
As the lineup is constructed, there isn't much of an alternative to playing him. He's so good, let's spend the BAE on him. Then we can rest easy knowing we have the 3-D position nailed.
Disagree. I understand your point that Kirk was never meant to be a savior. But abysmal point guard play is the reason the Bulls are losing now. There were five assists by Bulls point guards tonight. And the only thing worse than the Brooks and Hinrich's game managing, is their defense. I'm so tired of watching them get lit up.
I just don't understand why Thibs won't even try Moore at PG. He's played ~700 PG minutes in his first three NBA seasons, and while he surely isn't a "pure PG", it's not like Brooks or Hinrich are giving us much "pure PG" play and racking up assists on offense. And Moore is a better defender than either of them at this point, at 6'4" with a 6'9" wingspan and decent quickness. Play him with Snell at SG who is a pretty good ball-handler and run the offense through Noah at the high post, there's no way it can be any worse than what Brooks and Hinrich have been giving us.
I recently started a thread titled "Start Moore at PG," yet this ends up on one of the I Hate Hinrich threads. The man's a lightning rod, I tell ya.
Are you kidding? I'm so frustrated with Hinrich's minutes right now that I could pivot a thread about Mahatma Gahndi, Mother Theresa and Boutros Boutros Gali having a threesome back to him. This is child's play.
I don't know, SST. Right now you've got undisputed first dibs on starting the blaze that will engulf and consume Thibodeau. No one else is close IMO. On the other hand, no matter how much you hate Hinrich, at best you're vying for 2nd chair. You may feel that your capacity for loathing is limitless, but that kinda shit can wear you out.
Are you kidding? There is more than enough hate in my shriveled, black heart to keep this going for five or six generations.
If it makes you feel any better, I posted this in the "Start Moore At PG" thread: ========================================================= I agree with you 100%, Moore has played quite well recently when he actually gets minutes (a recurring theme with Thibs coaching), why not let him start at PG to see what he can do? Brooks has been downright disgusting as the starter, and Kirk's play speaks for itself. According to 82games.com, Moore has played ~650 minutes at Point Guard in his first three seasons, I'd like to see what he can do as the starter. Who knows, maybe he's good enough at it to displace Brooks as the backup PG when Derrick is healthy? ========================================================== But of course a "I Hate Hinrich" thread gets much, much more traffic than a "Start Moore At PG" thread.
This isn't a "I hate Hinrich" thread at all. In fact, its kind of crazy to me to read all the actual hatred towards Hinrich out there nowadays. I never thought he was much more than a slightly above average player and not a guy to "build with" / announce last at home games / Mr Bull type guy, but there are actual people that actually hate Hinrich now. It seems like the prominent opinion. He's always been a solid player, just not much more than solid, IMO. Its funny, the McDermott fans (white, 4 year college superstar) seem to really hate Hinrich, who was exactly that as a rookie with an equally vocal gang of fans. Somehow the aging combo guard PT is eating away at the lower than Hinrich PER McDermott, who is a small forward.
Hinrich's play is an ugly sore on this team. You bitch about the coach, you bitch about Kurt, you bitch about Brooks, but the roster was crafted by GarPaxDorf who also hired Vinne as coach (and Thibs). Brooks is fine starting. He's started 8 games and scored double figures 5 times. He's played 30+ In four of those - not starter's minutes. It's the 18+ minutes he doesn't play that hurts our chances to win. That said, I'd rather have a better option, but youknowwho didn't make that possible.
