Axel wrote:Shannon wrote:Personally I think the Bulls are better playing how they play now. There's far to many question marks with this team in regards to playing uptempo. The only thing it really helps us with is the fact there's no big time low post player, and I have my doubt about anyone atacking the rim even in a Suns style offence - most of the guys just aren't naturally aggresive.
The only thing? That's a pretty big thing. In fact, thats the thing that keeps 90% of the league from even contending for a championship. If you can minimize it at least you have a chance of being successful.
You have your doubts about them attacking the rim in an uptempo offense. As in what? They can't score in the fast break? They're too timid to dunk? Plus I'm a little confused by your comment. Not naturally aggressive? Isn't that what got the Bulls into the playoffs the last 3 seasons? The aggression and hard nosed play which carried over from the head coach? They might seem a little resigned to losing this year, but cmon, its there.
Continue to be doubtful about them in an uptempo game, and I'll remain steadfast that they're going nowhere in a hurry as a perimeter team that can't penetrate into the lane and get easy scores. If they get Rick Carlislie, then what? Are they going to feel better as they take contested 3pt shots? I guess maybe he won't bitch them out about having the fewest points per 100 possessions in the league?
Either the Bulls find a low post scorer, or they change their offensive attack. They've never been very good offensively, and with Ben Wallace being a team cancer again, they're not really that great defensively (10 ppg worse than Boston by comparsion).
The Bulls remind me a lot of the Nets teams of the past few years since they got rid of K-Mart. Remember how explosive the Nets were on the break back then? They ran when they had the opportunities, but they were still a solid defensive team. That got them a couple of NBA Finals appearances. Now though, Lawrence Frank has the team playing this mucked up half-court offense without the aid of a big man, and they've been pretty much mediocre during his entire tenure. They can't score, even with Jason Kidd in this offense. If they had Byron Scott back though, I'm sure they'd have at least a .500 record this point in the season. Same thing goes for the Bulls, I think. Give them a coach that is flexible enough to coach to the strengths of the team, and maybe they'll win more than 9 games.
The Bulls have been very good for 3 seasons now, last season peaking at 49 wins before the team tuned out to Skiles demands this season. Boylan's benching of Ben Gordon and placing him back into the 6th man role has looked very good thus far with todays performance against the Bucks, they looked like the Bulls of old. If the team is remaining competitive enough to win ~50 games a year with no star big man, I'll take it, and I'll welcome a personnell change well before a style of play change. My reason for that is this roster is just not a fastbreaking team. The team is run by an undersized 2 guard who loves to shoot, with a similar player as his backup and the third string point is a converted small forward.
It would take alot of changes to turn this into a fast breaking team, and even then nothing is guaranteed. When I said the team is not agressive, I meant it. These guys stand around on offence and there is very little cutting and even less driving to the basket. The only guys that seem to want to step inside the three point line and take a bee line to the rim on the regular is Tyrus Thomas and Luol Deng. The vast majority of this team just stand around shooting jumpers all day. Personnell changes are a major need if this team is gonna play Phoenix Suns style.
Aggression isn't what got the Bulls out of the lottery and into contention, it was defence, hard nosed hustling and a strong balanced attack. The Bulls haven't been attacking the rim for years.
If the Bulls continue their jumpshooting ways and continue winnign as they have in seasons past, I see no problem with that. They're a tough team to beat come playoff time. They can run with any team in the East - they challenged the Pistons last year once they got going, they could beat the Cav's, Wizards, etc and I personally feel that they could give the Celtics a good battle. This is still a contending team in my eyes.
The team has had the worst start possible and is only 2 and a half games out of the 8th seed. There's no need for drastic change yet.
As for the Net's comparison, they had a great roster for fast breaking. They had an elite finisher in Kenyon Martin who was also a very good defender, and they had the best point guard in the league at the time feeding him the passes and running the show. They had guys like Kerry Kittles who played Raja Bell type roles as major three point threats on the drive and kick, then they had a very good slashing small forward in Richard Jefferson. That team had all the tools to run the fast break with the best of them.
The Bulls will need to trade Kirk Hinrich to play a fastbreak type offence. I'm not opposed to trading Kirk, but right now he's in a huge slump which means his value is absolute shit, far lower than it should be. If he is to get traded, the Bulls need either a starting level pass first point or an elite do it all point a la Baron Davis. Look at the teams around the league that like to run - Phoenix, Golden State, Toronto, Indiana, Denver, Washington, Memphis, even Milwuakee and Sacramento - they all have either very good pass first point guards or elite all around point guards - Nash, Tinsley, Arenas, Calderon, Ford, Iverson, Davis. The ones that don't are run by guys like Mo Williams, Kyle Lowry, Mike Bibby, guys who just plain don't fit that mold. What's the result? Losing teams.
Hinrich has to go, and then the rest of the team has to quickly build up aggression to attack the rim - which they haven't been able to do in three years - or many more moves will need to be made.
It's too much of a risk in my eyes.
---------------------------------------------------
Anyway, while on the topic of the Bulls, I really liked what I saw today from the team. Ben Gordon was like his old self, Lu was great, Ben Wallace looked inspired. Things are looking up. I only saw the second half so I'll have to watch the game in full later.
I'm so happy about getting NBALP, I'm yet to miss a game all season. The games I didn't watch I downloaded and watched when I could. This thing is great - I just use good old Sopcast to see the National TV games, and even if I miss them I can catch a torrent later.
By the way, Demetris is playing great in the NBDL. I'm so glad we picked him up, he's a guy who I thought was a steal and I still think that way. I hope Pax holds onto him, because we could really do with a shooter who can actually shoot at the moment.