On offense the Bulls seem to play with a greater level of teamwork when they're missing star players. Part of this is necessity since you have to use better teamwork to account for their absence, but in the case of the Bulls I think it warrants special consideration given Derrick's situation. His performance as a PG this year has not been very good. If we don't count last season when he played 10 games, his USG% this season is the second highest of his career, besides his MVP season. His TS% is 0.496%, which is awful for a guy that shoots as much as he does. And it's not like he has the excuse of no one else being able to take shots, which wasn't always the case. He's taking more threes than ever and hitting 28% of them. Jo runs a half-court offense way more instinctively than he does. After he comes back we'll only have about 10 or so games before the playoffs start and I doubt we'll be able to beat the Hawks or Cavs in a 7 game series with Derrick doing his best Denver era Allen Iverson impersonation. I actually liked the flex stuff we ran at the beginning of the year when we tried to use Derrick as a decoy and he did a lot of off the ball stuff. It wasn't always executed properly but I saw the idea behind it. It seems like we went away from that a long time ago and haven't gone back. For the 25 games before he got injured it was more like his MVP years but with way less effectiveness. I doubt we can go back to that with a lot of success. I'm inclined to think of him as an uber-Ben Gordon at this point. The Bulls shouldn't rely on his ability to run a team and instead design sets that allow him to hide behind the curtain of other players until it's time for him to attack, for the sake of himself and the team.
I want him attacking the basket like the old Rose but I don't see that happening. Just take open jumpers, and 3's...but he's gotta keep the defense honest by driving and dishing more often.
Great post rosenthall, do we really want Derrick dominating the ball in the half-court offense? I don't think so. It took a few games to adjust to Rose and Butler not being there, but the offense has started to look much better the last few games, running through Noah in the half-court. Jo has averaged 8.6 assists in his last eight games vs only 1.9 turnovers, and it really spreads the floor having his man have to come out of the paint. I think the main thing we want out of Derrick is for him to push the ball after a defensive stop, if the other team has to worry about him getting to the rim in the open floor it will open things up for wide-open 3's by the trailers. I think the most important thing Derrick can provide is defense, Brooks has never been a defender and Hinrich is too old to cover PGs any more. Getting stops that lead to easy transition points is of the utmost importance in the playoffs, if Derrick can give us that he finally has enough offense around him that he doesn't have to be the 35% Usage player he was in 2011.
This is a huge issue. With the emergence of Jimmy Butler and Mirotic there are other rising stars on this roster to get buckets. And Rose hasn't looked that good this year, IMO, net. I don't want him playing high usage, low efficiency ball in the playoffs, with average to weak D. I hate to say it, but more often than not, that's the game we saw. On the other hand, he still has elite penetration ability and can do things out there others can't. Teams have to game plan for him. What concerns me is can he even be coached like that? If the Bulls ask him to be a lower usage, distributor, decoy will team Rose comply? I like watching the Bulls with the ball going through Noah. But, I fear that style might not be what you need in the playoffs. We kind of saw what happened last season with that strategy in the playoffs, although we have a more talented roster this year. I'm not sure what the answer is here, but its a huge concern.
The Bulls were 29-17 or .630 in games DRose played. They are 13-11 or .541 without him. I think I like the .630 chances better. In fact, it's rather obvious that we need him and need him to be very good.
I suspect you're right, but I think there's a chance that it's for real. I remember Noah primarily distributing from a little outside of the high post, around the edge of his shooting range. The last few games they've been running him as point center from beyond the three point line. I think the thought process is that he has better angles from the three point line, even if he's not a threat to score. The next adjustment which we'll probably see tonight or next week is some team will guard him out to three, closing off his passing angles. But then, isn't that the end game? You clear an opposing center out to the three point line while Niko is on the court, and the guards are going to have a field day attacking the hoop.
If Rose would accept a newer role, that would be really interesting to see. Noah and Mirotic at the 5 and 4. Rose / Butler / Snell as the other guys. If Rose would accept not having the ball in his hands all the time, it would be fun to see how it worked. Could move Niko to the 3 as well and have a Pau / Gibson at the 4, who can at least hit the midrange shot.
Well, I think in a lot of ways the answers here basically wrap it up: We have to somehow combine the two. One idea I kind of like is using Derrick to initiate the offense as a first option, and then using Noah at the top of the key as the second option. Noah then effectively becomes the half-court PG, w/ Jimmy and Derrick as attack guards.
