Chicago Bulls Thread

[Andrew]

I don't think you can place blame on any one person if there's a rift already but it does make you think. Skiles' style often seems like he's willing to cut off his own nose to spite his face the last couple of years, making decisions such as benching Gordon when the team desperately need points (regardless of whether Gordon's struggling or not) or giving minutes to scrappy hustle players whose contributions are important but can't put the ball in the basket to save their lives. His rotations at times are extremely puzzling.

I know that's focusing on the negatives and it must be said that Skiles' run with the Bulls has produced the best years since the championship era, but I do wonder at times if Skiles is, in some way, holding the team back with his methods or allowing personal philosophy and bias get in the way of better judgement.

By the way, is anyone else kind of wishing the JR Smith trade never happened? Smith's averaging around 18 ppg in 29 minutes per contest, shooting 46% from the field, 38% from downtown and giving the Nuggets a few rebounds and a steal into the bargain. I know there were questions about his attitude but he's doing a lot more than Adrian Griffin who is ultimately the player they got out of that whole affair. At 6'6", 220 he might have even been the decent sized guard they need. Then again, there's no guarantee Smith would be having the same kind of season under Skiles.

[Dan's Brain]

I really really doubt that he would be playing as well with the Bulls right now. I could see him having a similar year to what he had last year with the hornets, i.e. a whole lot of promise for very little return.

But Adrian Griffin who was supposedly the specialist defender they wanted isnt doing (or hasnt done) anything, and if he was the locker room presence that he's supposed to be the Bulls wouldnt be 4-9 right now.

That said, J.R. Smith would only be a minor upgrade for this team. He doesnt fit with a Scott Skiles team and nothing would change that. At least Griffin hasnt taken away minutes from Thabo. Thats one (slightly flimsy) positive.

[Andrew]

First winning streak of the season courtesy of the New York Knicks.

[air gordon]

lol damnit i accidentally closed the window with my post on it...

winning cures all problems. a back to back vs nyk almost guarantees 2 wins, though i should mention that in the past few years these games have gone to the wire.

this headband thing was blown out of proportion. if this happened during a winning streak, no one would really care. see- the bulls win 2 in a row and the media is talking about a win streak

but i'm glad this thing happened as i believe the real issur here was the Bulls and specifically Wallace's poor play. i think it was on the tip of everyone's tongue on how crappy Wallace was doing and this was the launching pad for everyone to voice this

Wallace seems pretty high maintenance/sensitive lol but i'll take harmless headband incidents (no fines/suspensions given - just overblown meida coverage) if it's going to motivate him to have games like he did 2 nites ago

a lot of problems with the team right now. in the road trip they were losing games in a variety of ways. i don't know whether to chalk it up to guys getting used to each or that they had a very tough sched. i should say that they are the only playoff team incorporating 2 new starters (that is until nocioni took Brown's spot in the startin lienup). at least the rest of the Eastern conference is off to a slow start

the schedule gets easier as they play a lot of average teams at home so maybe the team gets it act together


as far as JR smith. hard to say. Since paxson has taken over- the bulls have had a few guys like Smith come and go. they've ended up doing ok but not becoming great players.

in a the bulls offensive system of draw and kick- i'm not sure if Smith would thrive there. and i'm not sure how much tick he would get since he's not a good defender, something Skiles really harps on, and as Andrew said- Skiles doesn't have much patience.

to me- when the Bulls lose, people start questioning moves like letting jr smith go or when skiles plays his 12th man for 20 minutes. and when the bulls win- no one really complains. i don't hink anyone really cared that Gordon scored 4pts when they destroyed Miami opening nite hehe

next up is tyson chandler and the hornets...

[Andrew]

No doubt, it's easier to overlook player performance or coaching decisions, or disregard what a player who was traded away is doing for someone else when the team is winning. It doesn't help that we were expecting them to be in a much better position, particularly after the season opener. After all, we've talked about Skiles' methods and philosophies before and even in victories they've sometimes seemed puzzling, albeit easier to accept.

A win over the Hornets makes it three straight now. As Nick said their December schedule looks a lot more favourable with eight straight home games beginning with the Wizards, which offers a fine opportunity to string together some wins and try to seperate themselves from the pack.

[Andrew]

Good start to the eight game home stand, a 112-94 victory over Washington. Quite a few players turning in nice performances, sounds like it would've been a good one to watch as well.

[air gordon]

i'd say get the new orleans game. their offense was really ticking in that game- great passing.. sweetney gave them some points in the post/even made some good passes himself.. they almost choked that one away though hehe

i think Deng's improvement has been somewhat overlooked. finally being healthy in the offseason has helped him- he looks like he put on some bulk, shoots less 3's, and has been one of the few slashers on the team.

i hope skiles finds a way to better utilize his post up skills

[Dan's Brain]

This is better, another win against the C's. Everyone on the roster scored, and there were no really obvious standouts. This is the kind of team play we all knew the Bulls were capable of. Still a long way to go, but i'm feeling better than i did 2 weeks ago.

[Andrew]

i'd say get the new orleans game. their offense was really ticking in that game- great passing.. sweetney gave them some points in the post/even made some good passes himself.. they almost choked that one away though hehe

I was thinking of getting that one as well, though I'm trying to cut down on my spending at the moment.

[cyanide]

I thought you guys might find this funny:

[air gordon]

he has too much hair there

the Bulls just destroyed Philly and are back to the .500 mark. it was garbage time in the 4th. both Wallace and tyrus Thomas blocked a shot at the same time.. it ended up near half court lol

Ben Wallace added his first move to his offensive repetoire- the skyhook. look out defenses

[Andrew]

Figures; an ESPN broadcast, but ESPN Australia has decided not to show any NBA Wednesday games in December so I had to make do with Yahoo! Gamechannel.

What a first quarter! 39-16 behind 17 points from Gordon who was perfect from the field and free throw line in the period. Another fine game from Deng including a ridiculous 9/11 from the field. I'll probably end up back ordering this one when I can spare the cash.

[Andrew]

Well, the Timberwolves stopped the streak at seven but they bounced back against the Pacers for their eighth win in the last nine games. Two games left in the eight game home stand before they head to Atlanta. After that, six of their last ten are in the United Center including their final game of 2006 against Cleveland.

Aussie Bulls fans with Foxtel, remember that next Wednesday the game against the Lakers will be shown on Fox Sports.

[Dan's Brain]

Aussie Bulls fans with Foxtel, remember that next Wednesday the game against the Lakers will be shown on Fox Sports.

Is that from staples or the united centre? Should be another good one.

[Andrew]

It's from the United Center.

[Dan's Brain]

Great win over the sonics, Ben Wallace is a monster, and Ben Gordon should be 6th Man of the Year again.

[Andrew]

Gordon's certainly playing better off the bench this year, much like his rookie campaign. I was skeptical at first as I envisioned him being misused once Duhon replaced him in the starting five but Skiles is still playing him around 30 minutes per game and he's providing a good scoring punch off the bench (he's actually leading the team in scoring after the Sonics game, slightly ahead of Deng).

[maes]

I was at the Sonics game...sorry to have missed seeing Ray but what an entertaining game.

I also like Ben coming off the bench...when he comes in it seemed to kill the offense a little bit as everybody just kinda stood around and let Ben go to work. When he was out of the game the ball gets passed around a lot, causes the defense to move quite a bit, and leaves Deng & Noc free to shoot as #1 options on the floor. Ben just seems to need the ball in his hands for a decent amount of time to score...his catch & shoot shooting looks OK at best whereas Deng & Noc seem deadly at the catch & shoot.

Bulls are looking very strong so far with only 1 glaring weakness, perimeter bigs. Lewis basically scored whenever he cared to, regardless of who was guarding him, even Wallace. Even Johan Petro killed the Bulls, mostly by face up shooting. Bulls don't seem to really have an answer to perimeter shooting bigs like Rashard/Odom/Nowtizki...but then again i'm not sure if any team really does.

[air gordon]

i was at the Pacers game myself, pretty disappointed that JO and Jax sat out...

The team is definitely in a groove here with Skiles shortening the playing rotation. Gordon may come off the bench but he is still getting starters minutes. What's crazy is that Gordon is leading the team in FTA/FTM.

The Bulls sorely need that perimeter slashing to supplement their lack of post scoring. Yeh, they they have that draw and kick offense but Gordon is the only player defense will respect when he comes into the lane. Deng does a good job attacking too- just not as consisten as Gordon

Maes- i think Thomas eventually is going to be the answer to that perimeter big problem. Skilies has even put him at times on perimeter scorers- Manu, Redd, etc.

Last nite's game was nuts- it seemed like the Bulls did their best to give that game away to the Bucks but Ben Wallace and Thomas didn't let it happen

27 rebounds for Ben? Thomas playing much of the 4th qtr while Deng and Noce were on the bench. lol wtf

the Wallace/Thomas combo inside was wreaking havoc on the Bucks offense. Man, if Tyrus can improve on his Ft's/12-15 jumper...

[Andrew]

That was a very lucky escape in OT against the Hawks...nevertheless, they improve to 14-10 and head home for a couple of days rest before facing the Lakers.

Speaking of which...once again, that game will be shown in Australia on Fox Sports 2 this Wednesday, starting at 12:30 PM AEST. The replay will be shown at 9:30 PM the same day on Fox Sports 1.

[air gordon]

i dont' want to ruin the game for you but i will say the Hawks didn't desesrve the win themselves

At some point Wallace is going to get pissed about something and do something silly. we'll just have to ride this happy streak out

[maes]

Sam Smith wrote that he'd like Chicago to go after Rashard Lewis, not necessarily KG. I'm 100% in support of that, i've always felt between the Bulls & Sonics, there's a contender team in between.

To me, KG is basically a lottery ticket. If he wants out and wants to go to X team, good for them, but that's not really a valid strategy. Any playoff team can claim they'll be champions if KG joins them, be it the Bulls or Wizards or Clippers or Denver.

Rashard is very, very obtainable. He costs ~$9M a year, he's the biggest bargain in basketball (not counting rookie contracts) when you consider he's a young, 6'10" post up scorer who shoots better than most guards at the 3 and can drop 30+ ppg when Ray Allen is out. He's not interested in signing an extension w/ the Sonics, and no surprise to anyone is that he's not interested in playing in Okalahoma, where the team is probably headed.

Another factor is that not many superstars in this league will get along with Skiles. Bulls basically said AI in Chicago would be impossible because of Skiles, and i'm not sure that's any different with KG or any other big star. Rashard OTOH, played his best ball under a very Skiles-like coach, Nate McMillan.

The Bulls have already comitted long term to Wallace & Hinrich, they can't resign Gordon, Noc, Deng, Duhon, and Sweetney all to veteran contracts. Even signing just Gordon, Noc, and Deng to their market value will bust their bank.

[air gordon]

i'm game for getting a player like Rashard Lewis too. in the last 3 years he's played at an all star level.

But i think he'll be asking for much more then >$9 if he's going to opt out from Seattle hehe

maybe the Bulls can get lucky and Lewis forces Seattle's hand and says he indeed will opt out (even if just recently said he's willing to discuss an extension http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=A ... pe=fantasy).

then the Bulls can swoop right and offer a pretty good player (deng/nocioni) and some expiring contracts (PJ Brown/Sweetney), and something else

Bulls/Lakers tickets sold out damnit

[beau_boy04]

so what are the chances of the Bulls to get the rights to draft Greg Oden????

[Dan's Brain]

so what are the chances of the Bulls to get the rights to draft Greg Oden????

Still pretty good. they do have the knicks' pick if they want it. And you can never rule out the Knicks imploding even further in the second half of the season.