Mirotic is 8th on the Bulls in 3 point percentage. Why is that?

2nd in the ROY voting behind the #1 pick in the draft? Can't label that as anything but a success. I imagine that most would have been happy if told that Mirotic would be #2 in ROY to start the season.

 

I remember the Celtics were serious contenders year after year, and they managed to get the 2nd pick in the draft. They took Len Bias, who died of a cocaine overdose, or they'd have found their replacement for Bird. He wouldn't have been his replacement right away, but the team had the luxury of not having to rush him into 36+ minutes a night.

I remember the dynasty Bulls team having similar good fortune. They had the 6th pick in the draft. Stacey King was pretty much the McBuckets of his senior class, and a huge C/PF to boot. He was supposed to go #3 in the draft but fell to the Bulls. We ended up scoring a 26 PPG / 10 RPG college player.

However, the Bulls had Horace Grant at PF. King played about the same number of minutes as Mirotic, and made the all rookie 2nd team.

If only Thibs... I mean PJax... had played him more, he probably would have turned into a monster player.

By the time he was traded to Minnesota, he was already 27 years old. It's hard to resurrect a career at that age.

 

Finishing 2nd in ROY voting (in an extremely weak year) doesn't do much for me. Nor does Mirotic's 3-point shooting % come to think of it.

Mirotic is good at NBA basketball and figures to be part of the Bulls core for the next 7+ years. Thrilled to have him.

 

I'm glad we have him, too.

The torch will be passed to him before too long.

Noah is 30, Pau is 34, and Taj is 29.

Thibs clearly respects him. He finds time for him at SF just to have him on the court. In our two losses to the Bucks, he played 20 and 19 minutes. But in those games he shot 2-7 (1-4 from 3) and 1-6 (1-4 from 3) in the two games. He got another 8 minutes of garbage time in the blowout, and shot 1-3 (0-2 from 3).

Win? or play Mirotic, because... ?

 

You're not saying that playing Mirotic will cause the Bulls to lose the game...are you? That would be silly.

Mirotic adds a dimension to the team that it otherwise doesn't have. He can be a positive game-changer. On a bad night, he can be a waste of minutes. The latter applies to lots of players; the former applies to very few.

Mirotic is an important arrow in Thibodeau's quiver. Thibodeau and only Thibodeau will decide when and whether to play Mirotic in these playoffs. I'm OK with this.

 

Mirotic played, we lost two straight.

Thibs clearly didn't use him when the game counted, or even with a big lead until garbage time.

Thibs didn't play Snell, either.

The result is a 54 point blowout.

Go figure.

So what would playing Mirotic instead of Taj done? Nobody knows for sure, but we do know 54 points playing Taj for sure.

 

Indisputable logic and a great example of the limits of purely logical discussion.

 

Whatever Thibs did, he should bottle it.

54 point victory.

Hard to complain about it, but complainers complain and haters hate.

 

Careful now. If you're giving Thibodeau all the credit for the 50+ point win, you should give him all the blame for all negative performances.

 

50-32

No other Bulls coach in the garpax era matched it.

 

Of course you know this, but almost no one gives a shit about regular season record except to the extent that it makes the path in the playoffs easier or harder.

 

Take down that 72 Pax!

 

"The goal is playoffs."
-- John Paxson

 

Source (for context)? Thanks.

 

An article I read back when he was GM.

I don't ever recall any of the current management talk about any other goal, except keeping the players healthy.

 

His Wikipedia article suggests he said it. I don't care to dig up the article. However, Boozer said it, too, and it sounds like he was stating the organization's goal.

 

Not exactly true. Do you remember these gems from management?

http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nba/news/story?id=6196843

Alas, the hope and promise of the beginning of the Derrick Rose era, before his career was derailed by an injury that occurred while playing during garbage time of a playoff blowout, and led from playing hurt against the worst team in the league.

More from the story:

Thanks N0bama.

 

When I said "management," I meant garpaxdorf, not Thibs.

Of course thibs wants to win. He's driven to win.

Kind of odd that management would want to get rid of him or fuck with him if they want to win, too.

 

I believe that you think he said it, and I believe that you like the idea that he said it, but I don't believe he said anything like "making the playoffs is our ultimate goal." The Bulls org wants to win championships.

 

You desperately want the Bulls to win the championship, but they probably wouldn't want to employ you. Not odd at all.