He's not playing SF. He's out of position and being asked to play outside his game. The Bulls have a stellar record since he's healed from turf toe. The defense is there. And we are winning games we "should" without Lu. He is making up for Lu being gone.
Butler defends the quicker of the opponent's wings which is usually the SG. On offense, can you actually tell that Butler's playing SG rather than SF and if so, how? Assuming that Butler is playing SG on offense and it's hurting him, which shots that Dunleavy is getting would be in Butler's wheelhouse? What is Butler's wheelhouse? As you might have guessed, I think the whole "Butler's being played out of position" is grasping for an excuse to explain his weak offensive play of late. FWIW, I think he's a good basketball player and he's going to be fine whichever wing he plays.
Don't you recognize the offensive plays? Jimmy played SF in Deng's absence and it seemed he is a 40+ minute kind of player. Move him to SG and his offense suffers. He's not a great dribbler or passer or catch and shoot guy. We are struggling to score 90, yet winning. Must be defense.
I don't think it's positional either. JB has to hit his catch and shoot opportunities or he's not an NBA player. I've been using the injury excuse for a while now, and maybe there's a little something to that. But it looks to me like opposing players aren't offering him the opportunities to draw fouls that they were last season and at the beginning of this season. They're closing out slower and forcing him to actually make his shots. Now he has to hit them. If Butler can't make that adjustment maybe the Bulls can look for an upgrade at swingman. I've heard that Luol Deng might be available this off season.
No, I can't. My bad. In the Bulls offense, both wings get shots in the corners, the free throw line extended and at the top. Both have opportunities to take the ball to the basket. Thibodeau has said that the two wings are pretty much interchangeable. Minutes are a different issue. I suppose you could say that SF is the "big minutes" position because that's where Deng played, but since Snell is a wing "tweener," the wing who gets the big minutes is a Thibodeau decision rather than a position-related thing.
In the Bulls offense, the SG runs around and tries to use multiple screens to get an open catch and shoot. Most of the time. There are sets where he might be standing at the 3pt line for a kick out pass. How often did Lu take 3s? Not much. Jimmy is being asked to be 3D, classic (for today's game) SG.
Let's think about this. Butler and Dunleavy are each able to play either wing. From what you're saying, of the two wing positions in the Bulls offense, SG provides a significantly higher percentage of 3-point opportunities than does SF. Butler converts 3-point attempts at 27%...he's bad at this; Dunleavy's at 41%...it's his reason for being. So the obvious question is, why the hell has Thibodeau elected to play Butler at SG and Dunleavy at SF? A couple other things. Running around multiple screens for an open catch-and-shoot describes what both Butler and Dunleavy do in the Bulls offense. Butler is taking a higher % of 3-point attempts than he did last season (his rookie season should be discarded IMO), but it's still not as high as Dunleavy's 3PAr and not remotely close to Snell's 3PAr (according to 82games.com, Snell has played 82% of his minutes at SF...not sure I buy this, but that's what they say). Again, I'm not saying that Butler isn't playing SG on offense, I'm saying that it doesn't matter very much which he's playing and it's a weak excuse for Butler's poor shooting so far this season.
Snell's been playing SG, too. The Bulls SF position is one of opportunity on offense. Jimmy's shot chart: Dunleavy's: Lu's:
FWIW, I see Lu and Jimmy at SF taking shots from the same places. Because that's where the plays are designed to get them shots at SF. Anyhow, more fuel for the fire: Dunleavy's data is interesting: Explains why his shot chart looks similar to Jimmy's at SG, but why so many 2pt shots from midrange. BTW, those midrange shots are terrible, aren't they? Worst shot in the game. Lu took a lot of them. His eFG% for us was 6th best on the team, yet he was taking the most shots. In spite of his big scoring nights, we tended to lose those games. Makes sense if you follow money ball type things.
I love how Dunleavy fakes when his opponent is trying to close out on him, then steps back to make certain he's behind the line. Deng and Butler more often than not do the opposite, turning 3-pointers into long 2s.
Anyhow, Dunleavy never was all that athletic. At SG, he has a height advantage to get his shot off, but it isn't pretty trying to watch him guard the much quicker wings. At SF, his height isn't a big advantage, and he's still slower than the athletic wings. Seriously, do you want to see him guard Durant? The guy is streaky. Some nights he goes 1-6, and others he puts up 20+. I don't know what's up with Boozer. I suspect he's mailing it in, since the team isn't a contender and he expects no loyalty from the team (amnesty). His eFG is horrible and his PER is way down. He still is a smart player with the skills to be very good. He doesn't okay for a contract until next season. Otherwise, why not feed him the ball and let him take 20+ shots a game? He can pass out of the double team, too.
