This team continues to give strong signals that it' speed limit is that of a championship contender, even though it continues to play down to inferior opponents and lose costly victories to them.
Our strength is obviously our front court. We're really deep with talented guys. But our guys are old (Gasol), gimpy (Noah), raw (Mirotic), or undersized (Taj). When we come up against teams with youth and length at the PF/C spots, we have serious trouble. I don't think it's an issue of playing down to the competition, it really seems to be we don't have an answer for guys like Hassan Whiteside. We just match up poorly. So Bogut missed this game. Last game he played and they won. That evens out the up front advantage we have. But we were missing Jimmy. Does Jimmy's defense against Thompson make up for what Bogut brings up front for GSW?
One after another, teams trotted into rowdy Oracle Arena the past two months confident they could cool off the NBA's hottest team on their home floor. It took 113 points, 53 minutes and one big shot from a former MVP to finally make it happen. Derrick Rose hit a step-back jumper with 7 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Chicago Bulls ended Golden State's franchise-record 19-game home winning streak with a thrilling 113-111 victory over the Warriors on Tuesday night. Read more http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=400578971
This. If you're going to play Gasol, you need a sf who can rebound the crap out of the ball. All the rest is nonsense.
I fail to see this logic. Gasol grabs tons of rebounds. Playing an oversized guy who can't guard the position next to Gasol who doesn't guard his position well is trouble. No?
Did anyone catch Kerr's post game interview on NBATV? He teared up a little discussing the loss. Being a rookie coach must be indescribably tough. He's never struck me as a particularly emotional person, not that there would be anything wrong if he was.
He seems more like a "stretch 4" to me. I'd like to see more time of him playing the 3 / guarding 3s night in / night out before declaring him a SF. Thibs may need to play Mirotic / Gasol / Noah due to the weird nature of the roster. That doesn't mean Noah is a 4 and might not mean Mirotic is a 3.
I'll buy this but add, it's not just the Bulls roster, its also Thib's schemes. It seems to me like the Bulls' defense unravels if you don't have two bigs who are both fast and long. If you have bigs who are not fast (Pau) or Long (Mirotic) you seem to struggle quite a bit. So on the Bulls, I think Mirotic is a three, independent of whether he's playing alongside Pau.
I think you are right, Thibs defensive scheme relies on having athletic guys at the 4 and 5 that can shift quick and rim protect. I also think the 5 needs to be this way especially. This scheme has led to the best prolonged defense in the NBA for, what, a decade, if you count his time running the defense for the Celtics?
