He was also playing primarily at the three. The thing that seems to be the issue is, there's no way the Bulls beat the Cavs without a near star performance from Mirotic, but it looks like he's still making the adjustment.
Mirotic is a rookie and is a "nice to have" in a real playoff run. He should turn in some nice performances and some ones like today. That's just natural. Assuming everyone else is healthy, this team will go as far as Rose can take them. Do people still have faith that Rose can take a NBA team somewhere meaningful in the platoffs?
With 9:21 left in the game, Thibs finally went to Niko at PF. The Bulls were down 13 at the time, and were +8 in 9:21 with Niko at PF. (Including +2 when LeBron was on the floor) The team is just much better with Niko at PF, he spreads the floor on offense and he's a much better defensive rebounder than Taj. He's also a better overall rebounder (13.6% Total Reb% to 12.8 Total Reb%) The Cavs scored 84 points in the first 38:39, 2.17 points per minute. Taj 22:49 at PF, Niko 14:46 at SF. The Cavs scored 15 points in the final 9:21, 1.60 points per minute. Taj on the bench, Niko 9:21 at PF. The Bulls scored 71 points in the first 38:39, 1.84 points per minute. Taj 22:49 at PF, Niko 14:45 at SF. The Bulls scored 23 points in the final 9:21, 2.46 points per minute. Taj on the bench, Niko 9:21 at PF. I've posted the numbers too many times, the team just plays better with Niko at PF. Plain and simple. That's been the case all year, I don't expect it to stop now. I expect the same thing in the playoffs. Ignore it all you want, it's the undeniable truth. Even today, when Niko struggled going 3/12 from the field, he had a double/double in 24:07. Taj had two defensive rebounds in 22:49. Niko at SF: 6%, -18, 89.6 Off Rtg, 94.4 Def Rtg, -4.8 per 48 min Niko at PF: 28%, +64, 101.1 Off Rtg, 97.0 Def Rtg, +4.1 per 48 min 82 games is a little slow, I'm quite sure that doesn't include today's performance.
Right, and I'd add to this: the team just will play better with Niko at SF plain and simple wants he gets used to playing the position. This teams's play has declined steadily and proportionately as Taj's playing time has increased. And every minute Niko struggles at small forward now is an indictment on the shitty job Thibodeau has done this season working him into rotations. But yet, for the second straight game, in his interview at the quarter, Thibodeau singled out Mirotic's play on defense for a national television audience. Hmmm . . . maybe that's something you could have worked on, Thibs? You were the first to characterize him as a "Thidiot," Bullsville, and it was striking to me when I first read it. You were dead-on-balls accurate. And if you were merely characterizing his coaching in a particular decision, I'm ready to use it to characterize his coaching for a season. The Bulls record this season will be marginally better than it was last season, maybe dead even, and last season the roster was a pile of dung. Thibs is going to be fired and everyone will be better for it.
I agree SST, and Bullsville. Niko is not near as good at SF. It is too bad that Dunleavy has not been as aggressive in each and every game that he was today. We could have won more games. We need a wing player. A good all-around SG/SF. McDermott is going to take a while.
I'm not sure we don't have that in Snell. In Febrary and March, he actually got steady minutes. Not just a small sample, but 25 games: 31.2 min, 11.0 pts, 46.6% FG, 44.1% 3's (4.6 att/game), 58.6 eFG% and 60.8 TS% (both team highs). The team's offensive rating was 106.6 when he was on the floor, #1 on the team. April gets here, and he's playing 9 minutes a game. Nine.
And we're back to where we were at to start the season. This roster was constructed to have 4 very good to great guys at the 4 and the 5 and there are only 96 minutes to go around. Gasol and Noah are going to get theirs. Gibson is a a solid PF in his prime who was productive enough to be 2nd in the 6th man award last season and lead your team in 4th quarter minutes. And then you have a rookie stretch 4 in Niko coming on strong. The Bulls are the #3 seed and the #3 favorites to get out of the east. If they beat the Cavs or the Hawks it would be considered an upset. The Bulls are not getting through Lebron and the Cavs in their current state without close to MVP level play out of Derrick Rose, the guy making all the money. Noah's (the 1st team all-NBA center last season) knee is an other primary concern, but sadly, that ship may have sailed. The coach and the role players are of secondary concern. Relying on rookies and 1st time all-stars to lead you to the NBA title is usually a pretty unrealistic expectation. The #3 seed seems to be the right spot for this team given all the roster instability and the superstar not being a superstar anymore, along with the all-nba 1st teamer not being a all-NBA 1st teamer anymore. ---- The regular season doesn't matter, right? That's what I keep hearing. The prudent move is to circle back at the end of the playoffs and analyze what went right and what went wrong. If the team really is that much better with Nikola at the 4 and moves simply are not being made, it is a cause for concern. My take: Taj is an asset coming back from an injury. You need to see what you have and figure out the right way to play everyone together in the meaningless (supposedly) regular season games before the games start to matter. He led your team in 4th quarter minutes last year. At the very least, its a tricky situation to deal with. If you hire Thibs to be the head coach he's going to expect the players to play defense a certain way in order to get minutes. If you don't want your players to be accountable to that or if you have been employing an idiot for all these years, then by all means, fire post haste. Paxson should let Team USA know about his findings as well, along with all the teams that have adopted Thibs' defense across the NBA. I'm sure it will be an interesting memo for them to digest. It will likely be hard for Thibs to find work after GarPax have weighed in, given their reputation. And we'll see where a GarPax approved coach, Dougie McBuckets, Nikola, Jimmy and GarPax can take the team. Should be interesting to compare and contrast.
http://www.sportstwo.com/posts/3410602/ Honestly, how did we get from this to where we're at now? It defies belief.
Does it defy belief? I think we can find examples of very able coaches making dumb decisions when they're on the verge of losing a team, or have outright lost a team. That's why they call it the coaching carousel and so few have as long a tenure as Thibodeau has had. To your earlier point, to my knowledge, nobody here has said that the regular season doesn't matter. We all agree, I think, that it matters in terms of health, building rotations, cohesiveness and player development. With the exception of whether seeding matters, we disagree on the details, not the objectives.
So, is the main bad decision right now playing Gibson back into shape at the expense of getting Mirotic heavy minutes at the 4? And yah, at some point, if the roster isn't NBA Title caliber and the expectation is NBA Title or fire, then its going to be hard to make the case that the coach is doing a good enough job. It does seem like the end of an era with these Bulls. The Derrick Rose MVP level story seems to be dead or dying. You never know, but it just doesn't seem like's going to be that type of player again. Noah's effectiveness is waning. Deng is gone. Those guys (Rose and Noah especially) are the reasons any compelling case could be made that the Bulls are title contenders. A 34 year old Gasol, Butler, Mirotic, McBuckets led team isn't a title contender. Given the acrimony between GarPax and Thibs it may be time for a split. GarPax isn't going anywhere and they want a guy that will do what they tell him to. The head coach isn't going to be what keeps the Bulls from beating a team like the Cavs this season though. The Bulls don't have the healthy / effective talent.
I think this roster is a tricky one to analyze. I'm not convinced that Gasol is a net positive. I realize that many will scoff at that but the Bulls D has taken a quite a hit and I do think his presence and limited mobility has a lot to do with it. That being said, I think they are getting basically everything out of him that he has to give. Noah has taken a step back due to health and a changed role, due to the Gasol acquisition and Rose's high usage. Gibson isn't as healthy as he was last season. Rose, IMO, when he's been playing, hasn't been great. There are spurts of effectiveness but stretches of time where he hurts the team as well, IMO. I'm hoping we can see something close to the old Rose come playoff time, but I don't know if that's realistic to expect anymore. Is the guy even all-star level anymore? Not this season. Butler has taken a huge step up. He was on the team last year but nowhere near as effective. Deng was a good / talented player for the Bulls last year. He's not here now. Mirotic has been a really good acquisition. I'd rather Augustin than Brooks, based on their play. Kirk was better last year than he is this season. ---- So, the Bulls last season had 1 super-elite level NBA player in Noah. I think the closest this team has to that is Butler, but I don't think he'll be on an all-NBA team. They lost a Deng but gained a Gasol and Mirotic. Some of the role players are better and some are worse. So, yah, there is more raw talent on this team, but this roster is a mess. The pieces don't fit. You have to reintegrate Rose and he's not anywhere near the player he was. You have two rookies to integrate. You have the addition of a 34 year old center that isn't the type of center you really want in a Thibs scheme. You have 4 guys at the 4 and 5 that all should be getting heavy NBA minutes and bring unique skills to the table, bu there are only 96 minutes to go around. Then you pile on all the injuries and the front office smear shenanigans, it not really a surprise to me that the Bulls are where they are. Lebron Superteam 2.0 has formed and the Cavs have filled in the gaps in record time (JR Smith, Shump, Mosgov). They are the odds on favorite to win the title for a reason and it would be a stunning upset for these Bulls to take them down. Its interesting to see how the Cavs handled landing a rookie like Andrew Wiggins during "win now" times. I also find it always interesting to see JR Smith lighting it up for the Cavs. We all remember Paxson's opinion of his talents.
Different roster makeup entirely. Grind it out and try to win 81-79 every game vs. trying to win with several 34 year old key players and a gimpy former all-NBA 1st team center, Taj in a boot for 16 games, Kirk relied heavily upon but unable to even moderately contribute, Brooks a step down from Augustin, etc . Rose was back and "healthy" for 46 games. We were 29-17 (.630) in those games. Fire Thidiot! (how absurd). The team was completely built on the assumption he'd be healthy for the full season. Bet the farm on it. Even with Rose, this year's team is overloaded at PF and C and pathetically weak at SF, PG, and backup SG/SF. Mirotic had a great month of March, right? Let's add it up. 4-6 featuring Mirotic, 2-5 the last 7 games. 5-3 with Taj back, 4-2 last 6 games. Maybe wins don't matter as much as Mirotic playing PF over Taj to some people. Tony Snell? He had a streak of a few games where he played well. For his career, he's not been very good. If you have to rely on him for big minutes, you're probably not going to win a lot of games.
BTW, our brilliant management could have traded Taj for a backup SG/SF type at the deadline, leaving Thibs no choice but to play Mirotic at PF for 30 minutes a game. It's painfully obvious Thibs is playing WHO management wants AS MANY MINUTES as management wants. We also badly need a backup PG. The Fire Thidiot crowd that wants to see Moore play must not be seeing what I see. 4-16 shooting the past 4 games when we actually need a backup PG desperately, a whopping 10 PER (like Hinrich's last season, which was awful), and 2.3 assists per 36 minutes (great for a PG?). But Fire Thidiot!
I'm OK with that. When LeBron guarded Rose in the ECF that one year, it killed us. It'd be awesome if Niko keeps him busy, it should free up the other guys (Rose, Jimmy) to get theirs.
K4E, this is my issue right here, not the minutes allocation. I don't believe that Thibodeau has put Mirotic in a position to be successful at the three, and now with the minutes crunch, it seems like that's where his minutes are likely to come from. Why is Mirotic just matching up against Lebron now? I think Mirotic could have been able to a decent, not-completely-terrible job guarding LJ if he was given the repetitions, but he wasn't. Same with Tony Snell. Those would have been nice and necessary clubs to have in your bag going into the playoffs.
