At this point, I chalk it up to Kirk being well liked in the clubhouse and by Thibs. Thibs wants him to succeed as we all do, but it's looking like a lost cause. Kirk supposedly has been playing hurt the whole season (feet problems, excuses, excuses). Maybe he'll suddenly be healed and able to keep his man in front of him and make some shots. Thibs played Bogans, too. He can win with girls, you know, so he should be able to win with Kirk and Bogans. But seriously, Bogans was well liked by his teammates and starting him was a statement that he wasn't going to offend the other more qualified guys to start by picking one over another. Bogans didn't play that much.
That still doesn't make Mayo a PG. Getting Butler at #30, and Niko at #23, and Gibson at #26, and Noah at #9, and Deng at #7 also "says a lot about talent evaluation of the guys drafting". Teague and Murphy, you got me there. Most teams draft All-Stars at #29 and #49. I'm sorry that you have no good basketball points to make, to the point that you have to resort to name-calling. It's quite pathetic, and I feel bad for you that you have to sink to that level.
Oh jeez. Enough. Hinrich's playing because Thibodeau thinks giving Hinrich the minutes he gives him is the best way to win games. If you don't think Hinrich should get those minutes, you can either delude yourself or acknowledge that you question Thibodeau's basketball judgement with regard to player deployment. And by the way, Hinrich's been playing OK lately.
I think Kyle Korver is one of the more interesting stories in the NBA this season. Do you think that Thibs (and Jerry Sloan) just dropped the ball with him or are there other forces at play?
You keep acting like the town foo. Where's this "intelligent" bulls poster? All I'm getting is MY intelligence insulted by awful posts. We had MVP Rose. Mayo would have been a 25 year old back court mate for him. Fool.
Although it seems that fans/media label almost every Caucasian NBA player as unathletic, Korver is truly unathletic. Because of this, defense has always been a concern with Korver. Under Sloan, Korver was a negative defensive player. However, under both Thibodeau and Budenholzer, Korver seems to be more of a neutral factor on defense. With the Bulls, while Korver certainly was a very good 3-point shooter, he wasn't the transcendent marksman he was the year before he came to Chicago (record-setting 54% with the Jazz) or he is this season (50% with the Hawks). For some reason, sharpshooters haven't done all that well for Thibodeau's Bulls. Belinelli had by far his worst 3-point shooting year the year he was in Chicago and both Dunleavy and Hinrich have fallen off as well.
Kyle Korver PER 2008 - 09 (sloan) 12.1 2009 - 2010 (sloan) 13.9 2010 - 2011 (thibs) 13.0 2011-2012 (thibs) 13.6 2012 - 2013 (drew) 13.9 2013 - 2014 (Budenholzer) 13.5 2014 - 2015 (Budenholzer) 14.7 (all-star)
That 14.7 career-high PER is pretty much due to one thing only. More than ever before in his career, Korver is sticking to what he does best - shooting 3s. Virtually all his other stats are in line with his past 5 or 6 seasons, but this season 75% of his FG attempts are beyond the arc. With Utah, only 48% of his shot attempts were for 3 and in Chicago only 58%. I know he made the all star team, but do you really view him as an all star? I don't. Korver's a role-playing specialist, which is not a knock, just is what it is.
He's absolutely essential to what the Hawks do but I don't think he's a much different player than he was the last 10 years he's been in the league. So that's a tough call. The league has changed quite a lot since Korver was a rookie on the Sixers and it has changed to his benefit.
Ha, I was just trying to win the argument. I do think that the Thibs dropped the ball to an extent. Kyle Korver was on the right team at the wrong time. It feels to me like 90% of the NBA is just trying to chase the big new thing, and I think Thibs was guilty of that in 10-11 and 11-12. Those teams' offenses were built squarely around Derrick Rose's athleticism and were way too predictable. High pick and roll; floppy; and some Ray Allen-type sets. None of that type of action got Korver open looks. I don't think Thibs appreciated what he had at the time in the distributing and handling abilities of Noah and Deng, or Korver's shooting abilities. Those teams were about playing stifling defense, controlling the boards, trying to commit few turnovers, and Derrick Rose flying to the hoop off 1-5 or 1-4 pick and roll. I also think Thibodeau hung Korver out to dry on transition defense way too often by having the bigs crash the offensive glass as hard as they did. I think Thibs would use Korver entirely differently if he had him on the roster now. So, yes, I do think Thibs dropped the ball. But I also think that it was a sign of the times, and that with the exception of Popovic, every other coach would have probably done the same.
I agree, he would be used much differently on the Rose-less Bulls than the Bulls with MVP level Rose, who was a ball dominating, high usage, shot taking superstar The way that the Hawks use him to create open looks and spacing for their roster that lacks the above is fun to watch. This is the first season he has made such an impact though, and at age 33 no less.
