Yes you did. lol and Gibson is not 100%. We may need to go small with dunleavy at pf for a couple of minutes at a time until Niko get's well.
This is not particularly fair. In my opinion -- which you guys obviously don't agree with -- Mirotic is an allstar caliber player who was being given low teens in minutes at the wrong position. In my opinion, Thibodeau is has been fielding a team that cannot win a championship, when there is a lineup available to him that could. I'm not allowed to take issue with that? Then what am I allowed to complaint about?
His overall minutes in the regular season were 1600, of which 300 were at SF. So he mostly (by far) played PF. Yet his stats are not all-star caliber. They're not ROY caliber, either. I WISH they were. His PER is roughly the same as Donyell Marshall's was for us way back when. To get an idea of how good it is. Niko played most of his minutes at PF in game 2. Thibs played Taj only 11 minutes even though he could have played more.
Niko is out for game 3. I expect Snell is his replacement and we will see Nazr if Pau/Noah/Gibson can't fill the 96 combined minutes at PF/C.
I'm not arguing any of this because I honestly don't feel like it. All I'm saying is that given my sentiments toward the rotation, it's perfectly reasonable to be upset at Thibs.
http://www.nba.com/allstar/2015/players/ What all-stars do you think he's better than, or even on equal footing? Also, if you are right about Mirotic, why sign Pau Gasol? He doesn't pair well with him, you already have Noah, and you are just creating a situation where Mirotic has to be on the bench. Also, why have the opinion of "we won't get rid of Taj" when the Bulls were pursuing Melo? The front office thinks very highly of Taj Gibson. He is an asset and could have been traded. They wanted to keep Taj around for some reason. It doesn't seem like he's being actively shopped. If you decide to keep Taj Gibson, you do have to play him, right? They bitch about a lot of things re: Thibs, but I have not heard them complain about Thibs playing Taj. Have you heard anything like that? ---- To me, the fact that Thibs has balanced all of this while getting productivity from all parties (Mirotic will be 2nd in ROY, Gasol starts the all-star game, Taj and Noah struggled through injuries but still finished with respectable PERs) and keeping the locker room in order and getting the 3 seed in the East is to his credit not something to bash him for. Integrating a rookie into a veteran "win now" team where there is a logjam at the position of productive players is no easy feat in the NBA. I bet if someone told you before the season started that Mirotic would finish 2nd to Wiggins for rookie of the year you would have been pleased.
Out of the East? I think he's on equal footing with Bosh, Horford and Milsap. When Mirotic had a chance to begin to make the adjustment, and was receiving regular minutes at the right position in March, he averaged 20.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.2 blocks, .8 steals, and 30.8 minutes on .578 TS%. On the season, Bosh is at 21.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists, .9 blocks, .6 steals, and 35.4 minutes on .548 TS%; Al Horford is at 15.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.3 blocks, .9 steals, and 30.5 minutes on .563 TS%; Paul Milsap is at 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists, .9 blocks, 1.8 steals, and 32.7 minutes on .565 TS%. I think Mirotic showed himself to be on the level in March, and I'm guessing you don't agree. I think Mirotic pairs just fine with Gasol. It might be my favorite pairing, especially since Gasol appears to be defending better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season. Mirotic has been better than expected, or at the very least he's shown that he has a chance to realize his vast potential. When a player performs better than expected you make adjustments. I wouldn't expect to hear anything about Gibson being traded until trading season opens again. I haven't heard anybody in the front office and ownership publicly bitch about anything since Reinsdorf criticized Rose's minutes load four years ago, shortly before his ACL injury. All the rest has been innuendo -- enough smoke that its safe to assume there is fire, but nothing particularly focused.
So then its Noah to the bench? Either Gasol (this year's starting all-star) or Noah (last year's DPOY, 1st team all-NBA and all-star) has to go to the bench. ANd Noah is the much better pairing with a stretch 4 type like Mirotic, IMO. In the real world of NBA locker room management, explain how you send one of those two to the bench for a rookie?
Right, I guess I have not heard any smoke on the Gibson/Gasol/Noah/Mirotic front either (other than message board kvetching). I think there has been some about McDermott early on, but I don't remember hearing much about Mirotic not getting playing time, that he should be starting at the 4, that Gibson should not be getting many minutes, etc.
How did he do in February? April? He played at PF then, too. Snell had a brilliant stretch of games, too. But he's not looking like the same player since. FWIW, I looked at Kukoc's rookie season. He played 150 more minutes than Niko. 1800 vs. 1650.
You know, part of the reason that I think Thibodeau has ducked the criticism he rightly deserves this season is that he seems to fit so well into the archetype we have of the grubby basketball coach. Thibs is straight out of Hoosiers, hell he even kind of looks like Gene Hackman. We're all familiar with the archetype. A brilliant but demanding, slightly pudgy old man imposes his will on a group of talented but undisciplined children. The coach doesn't give, and by demanding that the neophytes play basketball the right way, he's able to pull something out of them that they never knew was there. The problem with this archetype, though, is that I don't think anybody on the roster is a dense component that needs to be taught how to play the right way to be successful. Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Niko Mirotic are all smart, smart dudes. They know NBA and international ball as well as just about anybody on this planet. Do they need a captain to provide a map toward a championship? Yes. Do they need someone to teach them how to play team basketball? Not really. They're all going to want minutes and touches, because they know they can contribute. But if you set out a clear game plan that involves any two of them coming off the bench I don't think you receive static. These guys are pros who understand the game. And the way we know these things is many, many great players have agreed to come off the bench in the past, like Gibobili and McHale.
How'd the Nets do last year with gobs of talented players, some NBA champions even? Surely the coaching and schemes matter.
They are also prideful professional businessmen / basketball players / narcissists that need minutes/roles to produce/maintain status. Thibs isn't some Indiana hard-ass rube. That's Scott Skiles. Thibs is masterful at managing a NBA locker room. The Bulls have been drama-free for the most part under his coaching, despite potential problems (dealing with Boozer, the logjam at the 4/5 this season). He's a very smart basketball mind that also has a masters degree in counselling. That may not sound like much, but how many other coaches would even consider getting a graduate degree in that? Gasol would not have signed with the Bulls to come off the bench this season and likely wanted a bit of a redemption story as he freed himself from under Kobe's thumb. And he put up the numbers to start the all-star game. Noah just came off winning the DPOY and was on the all-NBA 1st team. Two very high honors that Niko, as good as he looks, probably won't ever achieve. (all-NBA 1st team? that would be awesome but odds are no). Which one goes to the bench this season given that neither are are close to Nazr mode so Niko in his rookie year can play heavy minutes at the 4? (you didn't answer the question) All-stars tend to not come off the bench. All-NBA 1st teamers tend to not come off the bench.
