What I would give for a replacement level point guard . . . Brooks just doesn't seem to be a fit to play as a starter.
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/573015612877754368/pu/img/Cn83Y29P0LA7zojD.jpg 12 minutes of kirk
Alright, I'm going to officially come out and predict it: This next month will be very good for the Bulls. Our record will suffer, but the team will be better off in the long run. Mirotic is a genuine matchup nightmare. We've looked more like the Bulls of past the last four games than we have all season. Snell's putting together a dozen+ game streak of looking like a legitimate NBA player. Winning contested playoff matchups usually requires an end of bench guy coming up big at one point or another. I'm not sure Snell or Mirotic would've been a good bet to do that up until now, but I think that'll change after this month. If the bottom doesn't fall out, we should still be able to maintain the 4 seed so we don't lose a whole lot when it comes to matchups.
Thibs has always been able to take spare parts and turn it into a winning NBA regular season team. Last night looked promising. Brooks played as well as he's going to. Mirotic does look like a matchup nightmare and is starting to thrive. Snell looks like a legit NBA "D and 3" guy to me. Maybe McDermott gets 10 a game and starts to get comfortable and productive out there. Here's hoping. The hard part will be integrating Derrick back into this unit come playoff time since he's such a high usage guy. But, thems the breaks.
Huh? Noah played all of Q4 except ~2 minutes. The 2 minutes were from 4:22 left until 1:49 left. During that time he sat, the Bulls went from a 89-79 lead to a 94-91 lead.
Ah, thanks DC, you are right. Mirotic was playing SF during the time at the end of the game I was thinking of. Quite the juggling act.
Oddly, Thibs did play offense/defense substitutions, but did not take out Gasol for a better defender. OK, not oddly. I don't think I'd take him out, either.
Yah, I remember with 3 minutes left thinking it was tough to decide to have on the court and saw that Noah was on the bench. Just goes to show its a good idea to look at the play by play after viewing a game in person. So, has Moore finally passed Hinrich on the depth chart?
I hope so. Kirk really should be occupying the Nazr the slot in the backcourt. I think we can role with Brooks being the high usage waterbug guard and Moore being the steady defender/setup guy. Not all that different from what we've been doing the last three years. I think it's very interesting that all of Mirotic, Gasol and Noah had good games. I think it's pretty natural and advantageous to have three really good frontcourt players, but 4 is perhaps too much once you account for opportunity cost. I think this team has championship level talent but it might need a trade or two in the offseason to complete the roster.
The Bulls don't need a PG. They need a guy who can dribble the ball up court and pass it to Noah. FWIW
In an offense that was the least effective in the NBA. Noah should handle the ball in the post don't get me wrong, but running the offense through him....ehhh.
Actually, I think the problem with the offense last season was that we didn't have players who are good at offense. We added Gasol and he's been putting up superstar kind of numbers. Jimmy's come into his own and is an elite 2 guard/small forward now. I don't see how you can expect to have a good offense with Kirk, Noah, and Dunleavy (3 of the 5 players!) on the court for extended minutes together. You're almost begging two double teams of the other two guys who can score.