This seems like an important issue to talk about. Jo's made his mark in the league by being a scrappy and talented defensive hustle player who's play took a nosedive to being slightly above replacement level. For the Bulls, the future consequences of his health are extremely important. Everyone's tepid about his health, but you get the idea that lots of people are quietly making assumptions that some part of his play improves next year. Probably because the team's title chances next year require Jo bearing some semblance of his old self. Okay, so here are two questions we ought to chew on? 1). What if his play stays the same? Ie, he's about the same as a guy like Mason Plumlee. Not bad, big, can mix things up, but also has severe limitations that other teams can capitalize on. 2). What if his play is noticeably worse? If 1 happens, I think we'll need to embrace the fact that Noah's a 20-24 mpg guy, not a 30-32 mpg guy. He might even deserve less minutes than that given the frontcourt talent we have. The best way to use him would probably be the bare minimum required to play defensive-oriented lineups when necessary. I see that being around 20 mpg. If he's worse, I think it poses interesting questions. It'll mean he's probably barely above or right at replacement level and we don't have a player on our roster that can anchor our defense. That'll mean being a good defensive team will probably be a pipe dream, which also means that trying to play lineups based on the assumption that we could be a good defensive team might be a waste of time. This might make it necessary to completely embrace the offensive side of the ball, a la D'Antoni and thus reduce Noah's role on the team to that of an 8th or 9th man. Strange, given that he's still only a year and a half away from being the DPOY and top-5 in MVP votes, but entirely plausible IMO.
Is his knee "bone-on-bone" or not? If it is, I have no doubt that he'll be worse this year than last and will be out of the league in a couple years. If his knee is basically sound, I see no reason not to be optimistic. The reasons why teams don't share medical details with the press are obvious, but I'm flying in the dark. I have no argument with the way you've laid out the two alternative scenarios. If Noah's done, it could be argued that the Bulls' window is determined by Gasol's remaining usable life...1 season, 2 at most.
If it is "bone-on-bone" then the best thing would be to run headstrong towards small-ball as our means of competitive advantage. Lots of Taj/Mirotic at C, Brooks/Rose backcourts, etc. Quite a change of pace from the Thibs era.
I feel like having at least one two way player along the front line would go a long way toward settling this roster. That was Noah the season before the last. I think Mirotic could be a two way guy if he's a gym rat this off season and has another year to adjust to NBA bigs on the glass. If Noah's done, this team is going to need to look elsewhere.
What do you think? I used to think he was but am leaning against now. Gibson's efficiency is there; he looks the part; but I feel like his offense may not be scalable enough to consider him a two-way player. The largest issue, I think, is that he seems to have a below starter average feel for the game on offense. I think if you compared him to a guy like Dunleavy, Noah, Mirotic, certainly Gasol, or even Bobby Portis, he doesn't seem to get those two or three easy baskets a game that come comfortably in transition or within the flow of the offense. The ball is also prone to stalling out when because of his subpar passing skills, and he doesn't take the pressure off primary handlers because he doesn't really dribble. I also don't think he takes the pressure off the team to score as often as needed to consider him a two way player. l feel like stars can score 30 without you realizing it and drop 40+ a couple of times a season. Solid two-way players can drop 20 without you realizing it and score 30+ a couple of times a year when every thing is clicking. Taj Gibson's career high is something like 26. On those nights when he's dominating his matchup and he looks like he's everywhere it's still not really translating into points. I could be convinced otherwise.
I understand what you're saying, but when healthy he can score pretty effectively one-on-one and do it against very good defense, so I consider him a two-way player even though his defense is better than his offense. I agree his offensive instincts aren't very good and he doesn't play with a great sense of flow. I disagree about the easy baskets part because he's very adept at getting to the rim and he's a very good finisher. Taj is the king of the Angry Man Dunk.
Yet Noah was a solid two-way player in 13-14? As for Gibson, I think he's a solid two-way player in that he's above average on both ends of the floor. However, with the ascension of the stretch-4, which he definitely ain't, you ideally want to surround him with at least 3 legit outside shooters.
I think Noah circa 13-14 fits the description. He didn't hit 30 but he did put up 20 with some consistency and a lot of those were nights when he wasn't the focal point of the offense. He also had elite offensive rebounding and passing abilities that season. But to a certain extent I think you're right . . . I was a little sloppy when I said the Bulls need a two way player along the front line. I guess, what I think they need is a player who can play both ends of the floor in lineups with the starters. Who is the player on the front court who is an asset on both ends of the court playing alongside Rose and Butler? That's not really Gibson, Noah or Gasol, and I think this is part of the reason the team's performance was so manic last year.
I don't know, I think Gibson put up 20 about as often as Noah that season. My problem with Gibson's offense is that his passing instincts kinda suck. IF Noah's knee is good, he could be that two-way big. I also haven't seen anything from Mirotic that would preclude him from being a plus defender. Since I see no way of acquiring someone else's two-way stud big, we might as well be hopeful about the guys we have.
