It's not just Mirotic who looks slow. Frankly, Mirotic looked ok except when forced to switch. His help defense not so good. If McBuckets can't hang with Caspri, he's not going to be much good on defense at SF. In fact, defenders don't seem to have trouble sticking him on offense.
Would be great if one of the rookie (or both) become key contributors, but its not at all required. I really don't want to see many 24 point games from Mirotic in losses. The Bulls should be winning the NBA title this season. Noah / Gasol / Gibson are all playing heavy minutes during our playoff run. Butler and Rose are going to be playing heavy minutes during our playoff run. Hinrich and Brooks are good backup guards. Dunleavy is a solid NBA player. Dougie is likely not going to be better than him by the end of the season (if he is, great, but not required). The Bulls have 8 solid players... the rookies are the 9th and 10th man on this team during a title run this season. Health and wins (for home court) are far more important for this season. If we're looking for gaudy numbers from rookies in losses, we can go back to the Baby Bulls era. That kind of sucked though. The time is now, with Cleveland not really gelling perhaps and no clear stud in the East. The Bulls need wins for home court and for Rose - Butler - Dunleavy - Gasol - Gibson - Noah to become very comfortable playing together. Rookie development would be nice, but its secondary for this season as far as I'm concerned.
Brilliant! Seriously, really good post, K4E. You're right...the rookies aren't critical, but we're selfish creatures by nature. Your post should serve to remind us that, in the playoffs, an 8 man rotation is more than enough...if it's the right 8 men. Rose, Butler, Hinrich and Brooks in the backcourt with Dunleavy, Gasol, Gibson and Noah in the frontcourt is pretty sound. If this team can just get to the playoffs with a #1 or #2 EC seed, I like their chances.
The problem is we've not had those guys healthy for playoffs. It's the situation where Noah gets hurt or into foul trouble that you need quality minutes from the 9th man. It shouldn't be "season over" if one or two of the 8 miss time.
Another thing is we'd hope one of the rookies is ultimately way more than a bench pkayer, or takes over starting when Taj retires (for example). I think we want to see one or both (really) beat out quality guys to win the job.
Right, but it doesn't have to be this season. Taj is really, really good and in his prime right now. Its OK for these guys to play 10 minutes or so and just not lose games for us. People are seemingly celebrating that Mirotic had so many points the other night, and while it was fun to see, the Bulls lost. He's the 4th guy in the 4/5 rotation right now and if the Bulls are going to win the title this year, it will remain that way most likely (unless there is super rapid development or injury). If there is super rapid development, then there is just going to be a real minutes crunch. We get high end 4/5 play already out of Noah/Gasol/Gibson so its not really needed that much if they are healthy. A couple years from now, if Dougie McBuckets and Niko were all-stars, that would be great. It doesn't have to happen this year though, especially for Mirotic given our depth at the 4/5. Out of the two, we could use McDermott to be really good this season more than Niko actually.
We saw Taj F'n Gibson early in the season, but he's certainly tailed off from his hot start lately. And as a PF, he's not a very good rebounder.
Taj's PER has fallen from star level 20+ earlier to 17.7, and his PPG and RPG are actually down from last season, even though his MPG are up.
We're still at the point of the season when a player's PER can rise or fall a couple points on one game. Gibson's points are down, but his efficiency is at a career high level. His offensive rebounding rate is about what it's always been. His defensive rebounding rate is down, but the team leader in defensive rebounding rate is Mirotic with whom Gibson is often paired. Gibson's doing just fine...except for the sprained ankle.
Well let's see. In his first 5 games Gibson was shooting 63% from the field. No question that he's failed to maintain that pace since then. Gibson has never shot over 50% for a season. I'm hopeful that this will be his first.
