"Thibodeau brought up Hinrich when answering a question about balancing lineup continuity with the emergence of a player such as small forward Tony Snell, who has come on the past four games, averaging 18.3 points and shooting 60 percent on 3-pointers in extended minutes. "You base it on performance," Thibodeau said. "If a guy's playing well, obviously he plays. If he doesn't, you look at, what does the season tell you? You look at it, when the guy's played 10 minutes or more, what has he done? Twenty minutes or more, what has he done? Thirty minutes or more, what has he done? "Look at Mike [Dunleavy], for example. We're 25-10 when he plays. With Hinrich, when he plays 30-plus minutes, I think we're 11-5. You look at everything. That doesn't mean you're going to base all your decisions on that. But you look at what's transpired over 54 games." " Link
Thibodeau was correct, as he usually is with his offhand recitation of statistics. The Bulls are 11-5 when Hinrich plays 30 or more minutes. They're also 8-2 when he's out, including winning the past three games. So you never know. (no kidding)
I suspect this is Thibs' usual way of couching everything he says so as not to challenge anyone in the media. I think Thibs is smart enough to understand that using only W-L records isn't the best indicator of a players effectiveness. We have a 7-3 record when D. Rose doesn't play......should we bench him? I think there's a more pressing question. I was actually going to start a new thread about it until I saw this one: Has Tony Snell "arrived"? It seems like a small issue, but I think it has big ramifications for the second half of the season. A lot of the problems with our lineups are trickle-down effects from not having a backup 2/3 that can play at replacement level. Having to overplay Buckets, use Kirk at the 2, play Kirk more than 30 minutes, using defensively atrocious small-ball lineups to generate offense.......they're all symptoms of not having a backup wing that isn't a gaping chest wound. Sort of like when you strain one tendon and then you get a bunch of small injuries in other places because you have to compensate. What do you guys think........will Snell keep his current play going into the playoffs?
We all thought Jimmy was going to be a really good player last season, but he wasn't so great on offense it turned out. I think Snell before he had those few really good games was an upgrade over Kirk, but not DunVP. If he can consistently play at his recent level, he's another all star caliber player. Thibs can even play him 40+ every night. If he reverts to form, we still have that gaping wound on the wing and trouble finding minutes for Mirotic. A trade would have been insurance at worst, or a championship piece at best.
25 games into this season, I was one of the guys who insisted Butler had truly arrived. My reasoning was not only that 25 games is a lot of games, but also that Butler's offensive emergence wasn't tied as much to some stupid-great shooting %s, but rather aggressiveness that lead to trips to the line. A lot has been made of Snell averaging 18+ ppg over his last 4. It's a hot streak. During this stretch, he's shot 68% from the field and 60% from the arc. That's unsustainable. This said, Snell has looked more like a NBA player in the past couple weeks...less hesitant. Net, I think it's too early to make the call on Snell, but I want Thibodeau to give Snell all of Hinrich's SG minutes for the next few games so we can learn more.
Call me the resident miser but I don't believe in either Snell or Butler's ability to hit an open jumper yet.
