M-V-P! M-V-P!
-Seriously though, if I'm drawing up a last second shot for Derrick, I think a stepback 20-footer would be last on the list. That's why he's the MVP. So many weapons.
-Brandon Jennings didn't even play bad defense. He made that a difficult shot and closed out better than I would expect from him. And I'm not surprised Skiles didn't send a double-team Derrick's way. He was always against traps and gimmicks, and would much prefer everyone play hard-nosed man defense. Unfortunately this just means no one else will choose that strategy in the future.
-Broken record alert: Boozer's help defense is killing us. Many of Gooden and Ilyasova's open shots were off of him or Joakim being lazy, but more Boozer, especially late in the game. Gooden's jumper with 2:13 left and Udrih's weird layup with 0:42 left both would have been more difficult with Taj on the floor.
-Kendall Gill brought it up in the postgame, and I agree: the Bulls were probably looking ahead to Orlando tomorrow night, as much as TT is loathe to admit it.
-Ethan brought up an idea/pipe dream I agree with: how about Jimmy Butler in the starting lineup while Rip is out? It would keep TBN with the Bench Mob, and I feel like the Bench Mob plays so much better when they come in together. Obviously, as much as I love Butler, he's a step down from Rip offensively (hell, he's a step down from Ronnie offensively), but he can play solid perimeter D, and maybe play a Keith Bogans-like game on offense. Is it ideal? No, but it keeps out depth as an advantage, and gives Jimmy Butler a little experience in case we lose another wing to injury.
I said pipe dream because TT has shown he doesn't trust rookies, so it won't happen. But I wholeheartedly endorse the idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment