There may have been some fireworks following Thibodeau's decision to play Derrick Rose and the rest of the starters through the end of the Nets game when the Bulls were almost up by twenty. The decision made no sense to me, even if Rose wasn't coming off of an injury. The reason for my conjecture that Thibodeau may have received a talkin' to: -- Butler played meaningful minutes in the first half. (And I'm happy about that, despite the fact that he made a number of mistakes. It's difficult to balance developing talent and winning games, but I don't see Butler all that far away from contributing regularly.) -- Rose stayed on the bench well into the fourth quarter. -- The Bulls didn't run any high pick and roll action with Rose. High pick and roll seems to me to lead to the highest possibility of injuries because it entails Rose diving to the hoop. I also think there are advantages to concentrating on off-the-ball action so the Bulls can nail down their execution before the playoffs. Though it should be noted that the Bulls didn't run any high pick and roll against the Nets either.
The last two games, the opponents had PGs who are nearly Rose's equal, especially with Rose being not 100%. The Bulls starters played 38, 38, 36, 42, and 38 minutes against Indy. Indy got 15 points from their bench, we got 8. Our starting forwards and C grabbed a combined 30 rebounds, and we still got outrebounded 44-41. While I think we seriously missed Taj and Deng, I'm not so sure the outcome would have been different. I'm not so arrogant to believe we have all the best players and that a good team can't be assembled somewhere else. Indy impressed in the playoffs last year, and they've proved it's no fluke this season. Hibbert is ginormous and is putting up 14/10 in 30 minutes. He had his way against any of the Bulls that tried to guard him, and even though I really like our starting 5, a ginormous C who can play exposes our weakest link. Butler playing meaningful minutes is a sign to me that Deng may be out for quite a while; Brewer can't play all 48 minutes at SF all the time, and a boost from the rookie when we need it will help us continue with the best record in the NBA. Brewer had one of the best games we've seen at SF in the past few seasons. The kid deserves a lot of credit for his game last night. 20 points on 8-15 shooting, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals. Granger was 6-9 at one point and finished 9-16.
No, I don't think there was a talk. I can only guess that Thibs didn't like the matchups for Korver last night so he gave Butler some burn. Jimmy might have gotten even more if Brewer hadn't been unconscious out there.
Okay, so doesn't the release of Mike James, or more specifically, the timing of the release of Mike James further hint that there may be static between Thibodeau and Gar/Pax? There was no reason to release James at this juncture. February 6 is the first day teams can sign 10 day contracts and February 10 is the day contracts become guaranteed. Why now? The only thing that occurred yesterday that effected the Bulls roster was that CJ Watson went down again, which should be a reason to keep James and not let him go . . . unless Thibs wanted to play James in front of JLII, and the front office wasn't happy about it. It was a bizarre roster move. Unless James somehow wore out his welcome, front office static would seem to make sense as a motivation.
Not having to pay James is better profit. They had a choice of two D Leaguers to cut, and kept the one with more PT.
I'm going to tie this thread into the JR Smith one. Cutting James and signing Smith balances the roster. Rotation of Rip and Smith, with Brewer/Korver available in case. Rotation of Rose and CJ, with Lucas III available in case. Rotation of Deng and Brewer/Korver at SF. Seeing how Rip and CJ and Deng have missed minutes, the worst case lineup is: Smith/Brewer Rose/Lucas Brewer/Korver
