So Now What?

Derrick's hurt. This sucks. There's little point in hashing out right now how much this sucks (a lot), or how much it's going to hamper him in the future, or whether we should go burn down Adidas headquarters. For now we can do three things:
1. Breathe a sigh of relief that it's not an ACL.
2. Punch any and every Rose-hater gloating on Facebook
3. Decide what to do about the Bulls going forward.

3 is tricky. If it had been an ACL, it would've been much simpler. Blow it all up, trade Deng and Boozer for whatever you can get, play the rookies, tank (I know a TT-coached team would have a hard time doing that, but still...), and rebuild around whatever's left of Rose, JFB, Noah, Taj, Mirotic, and your draft pick (picks if Charlotte can stay halfway decent).

But with the Meniscus injury, it's not that simple. If Derrick goes the safe route and has it reattached, he's looking at a 4-6 month recovery time. Which, of course, means anywhere from right before the start of the playoffs, to sometime in the 2nd round. Now, in case you haven't been paying attention, the East is terrible. It's not out of the realm of possibility that a Bulls team without Rose (or even Butler) for an extended period of time could come away with the third seed. But it's pretty unrealistic to think Derrick could step in right away and the Bulls would have a chance to beat the Heat or Pacers in a 7 game series. If he's able to come back in March and have a chance to get back to the game speed, then...

Unfortunately we don't get a crystal ball to tell us which end of the recovery time he might fall on. And the trade deadline being in February, unless Derrick is able to recover quickly (hey, it can happen), the Bulls will be faced with a tough decision with Deng. Personally, I say if they can get a decent asset for Deng, pull the trigger. I love Lu, and appreciate everything he's done for the Bulls, but the team (as constructed now) championship window is closing. The Bulls still have a bright future, but they can't waste Derrick's prime rebuilding again. If they can get a good young player (or even better, a first round pick in a loaded draft, even a late pick), they'll still be in good shape going forward.

And if Derrick chooses to have the Meniscus cut out instead of replaced, shortening his recovery time in the short run but potentially his career in the long run, then I put that squarely on all of you that had jokes when he decided to play it safe last year instead of rushing back from injury. (Hypothetically) Thanks a lot, jackasses.

Blame Game- Bulls-Heat 10/29

Before both of you fans out there get super-excited, you should not expect a return to 2011 posting form from me. This is a just a nice convergence of an exciting (at least on paper) Bulls game with a (semi-miraculous) 11AM start time for me tomorrow. Also, Calvin is going to sleep at 5:30 these days, which will probably not last forever. Anyways, let's have at it.

Before we start assigning blame, let's start here: I'm as excited for the Bulls season as anyone, but the hype the last couple weeks has been kind of insane. Grantland has them #1 in their preseason preview, TNT had a poll before the game that had 29% of respondents picking the Bulls winning the title, behind the Heat's 36%, and ahead of the Spurs, Thunder, and Other. (CSN had the same choices for their pregame poll, and I believe it was 88% Bulls, 12% Heat, and 0% anyone else. Good job, Bulls fans.) Fox Sports just as laughably has them seventh, just behind Brooklyn. I'm going to assume this is a shot at Obama.

I expect the Bulls to be one of the 4 best teams in the NBA all year, and anything less than the Eastern Conference Finals would be a disappointment, although I think a Bulls-Pacers 7 game series will be quite exciting. It's going to be super-important to get that one seed this year, although the Heat probably won't lose sleep over it. Hopefully TT won't pursue it at the expense of the Bulls health, though.

All that is to say, I think the Bulls will be good, but it's way too early to start acting like losing to the Heat in Miami is something we should be ashamed about. You can hate him all you want, and I will fully support your right to do it, but LeBron James is the best basketball player in the world (and for my money, athlete in any sport), and 2nd isn't even close. He still has two very good basketball players backing him up, as well as a bunch of perfectly round-peg role players (I wish Norris Cole played for any other basketball team so I could like him more.) It's OK to be disappointed, we all had high hopes. But the better team won tonight, and that's OK. It's a long season, and the Bulls have a lot more to gain over time than the Heat do.

Blame:
Fred Tedeschi- 50%
It is long past overdue for this man to make an appearance in this space. The "2013 Athletic Trainer of the Year" is a man I wouldn't trust to give me a band-aid for a paper cut. This is a man who sent Jo back on the court during the Sixers series two years ago to hop up and down the court on one ankle in a flipping playoff game. I have no stats right now to back this up, but I feel like the Bulls have more injured players get reinjured (or struggle with the same injury) than any other organization. Maybe all the Bulls injury problems the last few years isn't a coincidence, and there's an underlying reason they can't stay healthy? Like a trainer clearing players to play way too early? Like, say, hypothetically, Joakim Noah tonight?

Jo had no business being on a basketball court. It wasn't as glaringly obvious as the time in the playoffs where he was literally hopping around on one foot, but he quite clearly wasn't effective, and at least TT realized it sooner rather than later. Fred: Do your job. Stop clearing injured players.

Shane Battier- 10%
I submit that Battier is the smuggest player in the NBA. His whole game is just "Oh, I'm going to sit here and hit corner threes and slide under you when you go to the hole." I hate him so much.

Mario Balotelli Chalmers- 10%
Again, it's not Chitown Sports policy to blame the refs, so I'll blame the guy flopping around like a certain soccer namesake of his anytime anyone was within three feet of him, which Joey Crawford was more than happy to oblige. Speaking of which...

TT- 8%
I don't want to bash TT too much, I think he did an excellent job with rotations (which might have been a sore spot with me in the past, maybe), and he deserves all the credit for the Bulls being the type of team to not throw in the towel down 25 in the 2nd half, and cutting it down to 8. But I'm also used to a TT that also works the refs, and for some reason it seemed like he was letting them off pretty easy tonight, when some questionable calls (especially the 2nd on Butler) put the Bulls in early foul-trouble, and having JFB and Lu off the court early led to that huge Heat run.

Dunleavy- 7%
Would be higher, but he pulled it together at the end. I put this on Facebook earlier, sort of tongue-in-cheek, but I'll put it here anyway:

Of course, I think Dunleavy will put it together more and be a significant help going forward. Either that, or we'll come up with some nicknames comparing him unflatteringly with Korver.

Kirk- 7%
Not that Kirk did anything in particular bad, but...-19, dude. Not good.

Lu- 5%
I know foul trouble made it harder for him to get in a groove, but he was 0-5 from downtown.

Tony Snell- 3%
Not really his fault, I'm sure the gameplan did not call for Tony Snell to play 7 minutes tonight. I'm sure TT didn't really want to have his first NBA experience guarding and being guarded by LBJ. But them's the breaks sometime.

Absolved-
Boozer- Now THAT was a performance from a man who doesn't want to be amnestied. If he plays 81 (plus hopefully about 20 or so more) games like that one, the Bulls are going to be better than I thought.

Derrick- Yes, yes, 4-15 and 1-7 from downtown are not good. That will improve when some rust shakes off, and the things we saw from him in the first quarter were enough to truly convince me he still has the explosiveness that makes him Derrick.

JFB- 20 points, 5 steals, 3 boards, 3 assists, 1 block. All those numbers could have been higher without those BS foul calls early, too. I have made some not-great predictions on this blog before, but I feel completely justified with driving the JFB bandwagon since day one. Way to prove me right for once, Jimmy.

Dear Tom Thibodeau

Let me tell you a story. In the not too distant past, there was a storied Chicago franchise, with many promising young players. But they couldn't reach their full potential under their bumbling, overmatched player's coach. So they replaced him with an old-school kinda guy, who was coming off of a successful run of his own, to take the team to the next level. And he did, at first. In fact, he led the team to success they hadn't seen since the glory days, with a long playoff run. However, he was outmanaged and lost to a team full of superstars from Florida before reaching the championship. However heart-wrenching the loss was, we still had high hopes for the team going forward, due in part to the change in culture the coach brought around.

But the coach rode his superstars too hard, and injuries followed. The old school manager didn't believe in things like "rest" and "science", that said you should maybe not play your best players as much as possible all of the time, so they could perform that way in the future as well. The team choked the next year, the superstars were never the same, and the Chicago team hasn't been back to the semi-finals since.

You have probably surmised by now that I'm referring to Dusty Baker. It's hard to remember now, but there was a year when people wore "In Dusty We Trusty" shirts to Wrigley, and were throwing around the "W" and "S" words every year. Then when it was clear the real secret to his success was throwing Prior and Wood out there for 150 pitches a game every 5th day, we started to wise up. Now his name is practically a dirty word in this town.

This is going to happen to you, TT. Unless you start to show some flexibility. Every great coach of the past 25 years (except maybe Belichick) was tough, but open-minded. I mentioned Popovich and Jackson earlier, but I'm thinking also of your Tony Dungys or Joe Torres. You can't push everyone 100% all the time. You have to know when to take your foot off the pedal.

This has been a problem I've harped on for the past two seasons. The Bulls wouldn't have lost this game if CJ had played the final 6 minutes. They wouldn't be the 4 or 5 seed if Jimmy Butler had played about 8-10 of Luol Deng's minutes every game. You have to have more faith in your team. The whole team. One whose depth is a significant strength. But you act like if Derrick isn't on the floor at any given moment, the Bulls are going to morph into the Bobcats and just throw the ball away at random. The Bulls were 18-9 this season without Derrick playing. They were fully capable of finishing off the Sixers without him too.

So you have two options now, TT. You can learn a lesson from this, and start to loosen up going forward. Maybe in the future you'll find the balance, and all this we be forgotten. Or maybe you'll keep spouting off about "managing the game at hand" and "I don't work backwards", and Derrick will be chronically injured his whole career.

And then TT will be synonymous with VDN and Tim Floyd and all the other morons that didn't have what it takes. The choice is yours.

Quick Thoughts on Bulls/Sixers Game 1

-Well...fuck. Is anyone surprised that TT's penchant for playing starters into the ground came back to bite us? I like TT, but before we win a title with him as our coach, he needs to find his inner Popovich. The Doug Collinses and Jerry Sloans are good coaches, but never won titles. Most of the titles in the last 20 years have been won by Popovich and, of course, Phil Jackson, who are known for having a mellow streak along with the intensity. TT needs to learn this skill. Hopefully this is lesson #1.

-Like I said before, though, the Bulls can win this series without Derrick. There might be a few closer games, and I wouldn't predict a sweep anymore, but I'd be shocked if the Bulls don't win this round anyway. After that I'm not so sure, so while this goes without saying, let's hope it isn't serious.

-I feel like what the Bulls needed last year in the playoffs (a job that should have gone to Kurt Thomas), is someone to get in the other teams face when they pull some cheap shit. Thank you, Rip Hamilton. If you shoot like you did today, and bring that attitude a championship team needs, you could live up to your contract yet.

-I love seeing Jo locked in. There's no reason we should see anything besides 100% intense Jo from here on out, which we'll need the rest of the way.

-Man, I hope JL3 can do his thing in the playoffs.

-Kind of the opposite from last year, I think it might be time to start rolling some of TBN's minutes Fredo's way. Korver's a good enough defender to handle Evan Turner, and the offense opened up significantly with him in the game. I kind of want to see more Korver/Rip time in this series. That's a combination we haven't seen a lot of this year, but it's one I think will open up a lot of space for our big men inside.

-The Bulls should be a little embarrassed they gave up 91 points to the 76ers. I don't want to see the Sixers go over 90 the rest of the series, whether Derrick plays or not. Elton Brand had too many open looks off of slow rotations, and Holiday and Lou Williams got too deep on the penetration. Tighten the D up guys.

-Get better soon, Derrick. At least for the sake of me not going off on TT.

Update: TT, trying to spin things:

What???? You were up 12 with 1:10 to play. You could have put in all your assistant coaches. Had them just hold the ball until the 24 second clock was up, then let the Sixers immediately hit a three, and you still would have won the game. This is not a valid excuse. Someone please explain math to TT before the next game.

Belated Credit- Bulls-Heat 4/12

So apparently I can just never write Bulls-Heat games up on the day of. At least we won this one, it would have been not fun to write a blame game about last night. But we'll get to the unpleasantness later, let's start with the fun stuff.

Credit:
CJ Watson- 30%
CJ earned every bit of that +38. It's been a little bit rough for CJ as of late, what with JL3 more than occasionally outplaying him with Derrick out, but last night he was great. And I don't think just because Derrick was making him look good by comparison. CJ was taking smart shots and playing strong defense (even on Wade for a few possessions).

There were a lot of good players last night, but CJ gets an extra 10% for having the presence of mind to pump fake and get out of D-Wade's way. I was getting ready to go off on him for making himself unbalanced, but upon further review if CJ shoots right away it would have been thrown into the 5th row.

Taj- 20%
Speaking of "throwing things into the third row", Taj was sensational. He only had 1 block in the box score, but he altered way more shots than that and as usual changed the game when he was in defensively. I firmly believe Taj could be a DPOY candidate if he was averaging more than 20 minutes a game.

My big worry with Taj, although it's a few years off, is that Taj is going to play his way into a contract too big for us to offer him. Boozer and Noah are going to be pulling down 8 figures for the Bulls for the next several years, but if I was playing a pickup game and had my choice of Bulls big men, I'd pick Taj first right now. Again, I know this isn't a concern for today, but I can't help but wonder if it's part of the reason he's averaging 20 minutes per game.

Fredo- 20%
After posts like this one from last year, I didn't think I'd see a Heat-Bulls game where Kyle and Boozer were our two leading scorers. But Kyle is turning it on at the right time from the field right now, dropping 5-6 from downtown, including that Dan Majerle-esque dagger from about 30. More importantly, Korver has been so much improved defensively it's absurd. I used to be stressed out about Fredo's defense when he was on the court. Now he's an improvement over Rip Hamilton, and is almost making TBN expendable against most NBA teams.

Turkish D- 10%
How do you go 0-2 from the field and end up +25? By altering every shot Taj doesn't, and pulling down huge rebounds. I feel like we forget that Turkish was hurt for some of the Heat series, and it's not a little matter. Making Wade and James throw up more difficult shots when they go to the hole all game is going to wear them down over the course of a long playoff series, and it's nice that the Bulls always have at least one above average defensive player on the court at all times, and sometimes two. Three of the four 5-man units that have a defensive rating under .9 (which is pretty darn good) have Asik in for Noah. (All 4, of course, have Gibson)

Boozer- 7%
Don't let the -15 fool you, Boozer is the only reason the game wasn't over by halftime. Smart, open shots, mixed with some aggressive basket-attacking, which is when Boozer is at his best. Boozer was actually in line for a lot more credit, but then he went back to Dr. Jeckyl in the 2nd half and started taking stupid contested fallaways until he was pulled. As Sam says all the time, "towards the basket, Booze!"

Luol Deng- 5%
I suppose I'm shortchanging Lu a little, since he hit some clutch shots and played much improved defense over the Melo torch-job the other day. But we saw some of the bad Deng, too, settling for too many jumpers instead of finding lanes to the basket, especially when LeBron wasn't guarding him. It might, of course be a result of him playing 43 minutes last night, which we'll get to shortly.

TT- 5%
Low? I give credit to TT for sitting Derrick at the end of the game and overtime, and completely rolling with the Bench Mob to win this game. That being said, I think if Derrick doesn't come back in late in the 4th at all, the Bulls win comfortably. He said after the game CJ needed a rest, but I'm calling BS on that since Taj came in at about the same time, and he wasn't getting pulled for Noah until he fouled out in OT. No, the best case scenario for TT was Derrick coming in for the last few minutes and helping the Bulls win, so there's no story about it the next day. Instead it was obvious Derrick was actively hurting the Bulls on both ends, and TT probably held on a possession too long. If the Heat go with the Wade-LeBron-Battier-Bosh-Turiaf 5 in crunch time in the playoffs, I hope TT follows the pattern of this game. On the most important possession of the game for the Heat, the 5 on the floor to defend them was TBN-Deng-JFB-Taj-Asik. That's why I love TT. But if you have that much trust in those guys, why not see them more often?

TBN- 2%
I said Korver was making TBN obsolete against most teams, but not the Heat. Ronnie guards Wade as well as anyone in the NBA, and some of those late shots Wade hit by praying them in, through no fault of Ronnie's. We might not need him more than 12 minutes a game to beat the Knicks and whoever we'll see in round 2 (knock on wood), but we'll need Ronnie against the Heat.

JFB- 1%
JFB was on the court for some of the most key possessions of the game (which I fully support, TT). So why the hell can't he play for 6 minutes in the 2nd quarter and get Deng a little more rest? I really need this explained to me.

No Credit-
Derrick- I'm just going to skip the negative stuff we can talk about here and focus on the positive. Derrick got a lot of love from ESPN today for being a true professional and team player, and being "the first off the bench to congratulate guys" last night. But that's not entirely true. JL3 and Boozer were always the first ones up. Derrick said and did all the right things, and was in the huddle at timeouts and encouraging CJ and whatnot. But you could tell inside he wasn't happy with the game. And I like that about Derrick. I want my alpha dog to be angry when he has a bad game, regardless of the outcome. I want him to take ownership of it. That's the way Derrick's wired, and it's going to help in the long run.

Joakim- I don't know what to say about Jo, though. There have been too many games lately where Jo has been our 4th best big man for my tastes. You can't use the "he's not in shape" excuse anymore, it's mid-April, Jo. I want to see this Joakim back, soon. We need him for the playoffs:

First Round Draft Justifications

So team owners had two days to write a paragraph defending their pick. If they didn't get back to me, then I get to make fun of their pick. Fair enough, right? Justifications are in italics, my thoughts are in normal font. (Go here for the full list of results)

Will- Michael Jordan

It's surprisingly easy to attack this pick: For the last year Jordan has been doing everything in his power to prevent me from watching the number 2 pick in this draft play basketball, and he almost succeeded. This is completely unacceptable. If the lockout had cancelled the whole year, and MJ was a major reason behind it, I think that would have put a major dent in MJ's legacy in Chicago.

Gomez- Derrick Rose

Despite the fact that I'm supposed to be making fun of these picks, I have nothing bad to say about Derrick, so I won't.

Sidenote: How much must it suck to be the person who rear-ended Derrick on the Kennedy? Imagine you rear end someone, you're already feeling bad about it, you see it's a Bentley, so it's worse, then you see the most beloved athlete in Chicago? I think I'd feel maybe 2 steps below Bartman.

Ron- Walter Payton

See: Rose, Derrick

Conall- Scottie Pippen

All Scottie Pippen has done since retirement is sit courtside with that smug, entitled rich boy, talk smack about the Bulls guards, and completely screw up the chemistry in the booth on CSN.

BJ- Ryne Sandberg

Best Cub of my lifetime, maybe could have picked Ernie here but I never saw him play. Also, Sandberg was my first and second (and possibly third) jersey. I learned to read and do basic math from Cubs box scores, I cried as a little kid when the Cubs lost, and when I grew up I wanted to play 2nd base for the Chicago Cubs, get it yet? I'm still mad I hesitated when this pick came up but I'm chalking it up to fantasy draft rust.

Sam- Bobby Hull

Having the sixth spot in the draft, I felt it was pretty easy to decide to take Bobby Hull with my first pick. After Jordan, Pippen, Rose and Payton, there are only a handful of players that really personify Chicago sports. Hull, who spent 15 seasons with the Blackhawks, led them to a Stanley Cup win in 1961 and held many scoring titles over his long career. He has been in the NHL hall of fame for over two decades and recently had a statue erected for him outside the United Center. Other than the modern day Blackhawks (who are arguably more visible given the internet and increased broadcasting of Blackhawks games), Hull is the icon of Blackhawks hockey, an example of hard work and tough play. To me he was the clear choice,...and part of me wanted to mess with Conall.

Ethan- Kenny Lofton

I'll actually defend this pick, because I know Ethan didn't completely understand the criteria, but I still think Kenny Lofton is a defensible choice. The point is to pick beloved players, and while Kenny wasn't in Chicago long (at least on the north side), he absolutely raked for half the year in 03, and we wouldn't have had the success we had that year without him. If wasn't for stupid Corey Patterson (who I regret not banishing), it's most likely Kenny would have cooled off the next year and wouldn't be remembered as fondly right now.

Katz- Stan Mikita

Pleasantly surprised to have gotten Mikita when talking about Chicago Sports Legends. He only played for the Blackhawks where he won a championship in '61 and holds the records for seasons, games, assists, points and is second in goals. In '67 and '68 he was the MVP (Hart Memorial), leading NHL scorer (Art Ross, 4 total) and won the award for "Best Sportsmanship" (Lady Byng) and is the only player in NHL history to win all three in the same year. Immortalized as a statue outside the United Center. You can say more, but this guy was Mr. Blackhawk.

Tristan- Ernie Banks

I can't believe Mr. Cub fell to me at 9. I went in to the draft intending to stick mostly with players I remember, but when you have a chance to get a guy who hit 512 home runs on the north side, many of them while playing shortstop, you have to do it. It's a shame Ernie didn't have the teams around him to truly compete until it was too late, but I'll address the lack of a championship pedigree later in the draft.

Side Note #2: As I'm writing this, part way through the second quarter of the Bulls-Heat game, it's worth noting that Taj Gibson in the 8th round might be the steal of the draft. D-Wade wants no part of him anymore.

Look for round 2 tomorrow.

Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls-Sixers 3/4

The Sixers are not a good matchup for the Bulls. The gameplan to beat the Bulls is always "make them beat you from the outside", but not many teams have the right combination of perimeter defenders and athletic big men to make it happen. The Sixers are a team that's able to help aggressively when Derrick penetrates, and rotate in the paint well. They'll give Carlos and Ronnie open 18 footers at the expense of anything inside, which is exactly what I'd do if I had to play the Bulls.

Which brings me to the other matchup problem: coaching. I don't want this to turn into "nitpick TT into oblivion" time (like I frequently do here), but I feel like Doug Collins has TT's number. Calling Vucevic's number whenever Asik was in, forcing Asik outside (where he's not nearly as effective of a defender), was one of the main reasons the game was close. Then there was TT's misuse of timeouts (which we fortunately haven't seen in awhile), forcing Taj and Joakim to take clutch free throws instead of better shooters.

Of course, this is a credit post, not a blame one, and there's two main reasons for this:

Derrick- 40%
35 points on 12-23 from the field (4-7 from beyond the arc), and frequently against a double team. The biggest part of that was clearly the three point shooting. As we know, Derrick can run hot-and-cold from downtown, and if Derrick wasn't making those, the domino effect on defense might have made this game look an awful lot like the last time we played the Sixers.

Oh, and he hit a bunch of clutch, athletic shots in the 4th quarter that no one else in the NBA except maybe Kobe and LeBron can make. That too.

The Sixers lack of an offensive go-to-guy- 40%
Wow. The Sixers had plenty of chances to win this game, but the shots Andre Iguodala were putting up to try to tie the game were awful. Thaddeus Young's terrible 17-footer didn't help matters either. I know it's hard to attack the basket when the Bulls have Taj and Joakim in the game, but that's no excuse for not trying. This is a charge that's been leveled against the Sixers from way more reputable sources than me, but as I don't watch a lot of Sixers games when the Bulls aren't involved, this was my first chance to see it with my own eyes. And it was terrible. If the Sixers want to do anything in the playoffs, this needs to be addressed, quickly.

Joakim- 5%
I was giving Joakim crap early in the game for coming out lackadaisically, but he certainly picked it up in the 2nd half, attacking the boards on both ends and playing solid help D. It could have been not-close in the Bulls favor if he wasn't the only big man to have a decent all-around game.

CJ- 3%
It wasn't the Bench Mob's finest night, but CJ made some clutch shots in the 4th quarter, and was, as usual, the entire Bulls' offense in the beginning of the 2nd.

Rip- 2%
That's more like it, Rip. 4-6 from the field, and a little bit of pressure off of Derrick is what the Bulls signed him for. Hopefully we can get it for more than 19 minutes a night going forward.

The flip side to Rip playing more is Kyle Korver, who only played 5 minutes tonight (which I didn't even realize until I saw the box score.) It'll be interesting to see what happens with Fredo going forward.

No Credit:
Luol Deng (with an assist to TT)- Mainly because Deng is going back to standing around the 3 point circle waiting to shoot, instead of attacking the basket. Which is probably where the 3-11 came from. But whether it's because that's what he's supposed to do in the plays TT drew up, or just because he's tired due to how many minutes he's playing, either one is TT's fault. Free Jimmy Butler.

Taj Gibson- while 1-6 from the field isn't terribly unusual for Taj, the step slow on defensive rotations is. Also, make your clutch free throws, please.

Turkish D- While I'll defend Asik as a player, it's kind of a problem that he can't be trusted to guard anyone that can make him play D from more than 15 feet away from the basket.

Groundhog Credit: Bulls-Knicks 2/2

Been awhile since a game was really deserving of a credit post. However, it's about bedtime, so I'm going to have to make it quick.

Derrick- 25%
Blah blah blah big shots yadda yadda completely unguardable. However, I have to dock him a little for some of the decisions he made at the end. There are times when you can take it one on three and finish, but it's not a great idea when Tyson Chandler is one of those three. Gotta think about finding an open guy on those drives, even if it's Jimmy Butler.

TT- 20%
As much as I questioned him last night, I feel like he made the right moves tonight, especially in regards to handling Jimmy Butler. He saw Ronnie wasn't getting the job done, and made a bold move. Maybe the stubbornness is dissipating?

Jimmy Butler- 20%
I know the offensive end was a roller-coaster, but we lose that game without Butler playing the whole 4th quarter. Melo was getting whatever he wanted on TBN, and while I usually defend Ronnie's defense, Butler's extra few inches were all the difference.

Joakim- 10%
Nice bounce-back game from Jo. It would be nice to not have to write that so much.

Taj- 10%
Next step for Taj: figuring out how to avoid foul trouble, so we avoid extended periods of Boozer in the 4th quarter.

CJ- 8%
I want more CJ and Derrick time on the court together. Especially if Rip stays injured.

Fredo- 6%
Better defensive effort from Kyle, and some big shots in the first quarter.

TBN- 1%
Twitter was abuzz about how nice the play they ran for Amare was, but I felt like the idea of the play was to have Ronnie switch off of Melo to guard Amare, leaving Melo with a mismatch. While I'm comfortable with the idea of Joakim guarding Melo, I'm also fine with Amare taking an open three in that situation, and I think Ronnie not leaving Melo was the right play. The reason TBN is only getting 1%? He just isn't making open shots lately. (I realize he was 2-3 from the field tonight, which is even worse. We need the Ronnie back that was hitting threes in the first few weeks.)

No credit-
Boozer- I just...I don't have the energy for you right now, Boozer. The less you play, the happier I am, and the better chance we have to win.

Derrick's Death List

I imagine Derrick writing his revenge list, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill style.

5. Chris Paul (I'm starting at point for team USA)
4. John Hollinger (You have me 7th in the league in PER, behind Paul Millsap?)
3. Andre Iguodala (You really needed to showboat on the fast break last night? That was a carry, anyway.)
2. Indiana Pacers (Celebrating like they won a playoff game in the regular season)
1. The Heat (Hollywood. As. Hell.)

Number 4 is obviously fake, since Derrick doesn't care about his own stats. That's just me being annoyed with PER in general.

Belated Blame Game- Bulls-Heat 1/29

Despite the result, there is plenty of reason to be encouraged by the game yesterday. The lion's share of the damage was done by LeBron, and while TBN did a halfway decent job in the 2nd half of making LeBron take tough shots...he's LeBron. He can make tough shots. Luol is one of the few players in the league capable of either getting the ball out of his hands, or forcing those shots to be even farther out. Bulls-Heat without Deng is just as irrelevant to a future playoff series as Bulls-Heat without LeBron was last year.

That being said, this was a very winnable game. Here's where it went wrong:

Boozer- 40%
In the first half I tweeted that Boozer was making a push to break the 50% blame game barrier. He came down under it with some surprisingly solid play down the stretch (even on defense!!), but points in the first half count just as much as points in the 2nd. And the Heat had waaaay too many easy buckets in the first half caused by Boozer just too slow on the rotation, or not even interested in rotating at all. Boozer, I'm not worried about Udonis Haslem having the ball in the short corner, or Joel Anthony having the ball anywhere, so if LeBron is driving to the hole (*ahem*) IT'S OK TO LEAVE YOUR MAN AND CONTEST THE SHOT! Instead there are a bunch of first-half highlights where LeBron is dunking on an uncontested rim while Boozer just kind of looks up at him with his elbow still on Haslem, boxing him out as if there's going to be a rebound.
Also, a bonus couple of percentage points for not making the pass to a wide open Rip cutting to the basket on the last possession. If Joakim hadn't fouled out, he makes that pass.

Rip- 20%
Rip played pretty nice D on D-Wade, being a big reason he shot 4-16 for the field. Unfortunately, Rip negated that by shooting...4-16 from the field. Rip, you were signed specifically to be another offensive weapon against the Heat. We're not going to have a chance in a theoretical Eastern Conference Finals without more efficient offense from Rip.

ABC-15%
I realize ABC isn't actually responsible for the Bulls loss per se, but they're definitely responsible for more than 15% of my frustration with that game. I still don't know if Wade stepped out on his save of the lose ball with 16 seconds left, because ABC never showed us a definitive replay. And Breen and Van Gundy did a terrible job explaining what was happening (was the call even reviewable? If so, why wasn't it reviewed? If not, why? Instead, JVG was just kind of like "I don't know what's going on. Whatever")
Also, ABC flashed the stat before Rose's missed free throws that he was 29-29 from the line in the 4th quarter. Thanks a lot, ABC.

John Lucas III- 10%
Assigning percentage to JL3 in this game is kind of like being mad at a kitten for losing a fight to a crocodile. But JL3 played 3 minutes and was a game worst -8, of which -8 of which was entirely his fault. Not having CJ was almost as big of a problem as not having Deng, considering that maybe Derrick's missed free throws had something to do with the fact that he played the last 38 minutes consecutively out of necessity. He also had to be extra careful to not pick up a third foul in the second quarter, leading to some easy points for the Heat where Derrick had to be less aggressive than normal.

TBN- 10%
Ronnie somehow went 4-8 from the field, but (and this is the problem with writing the blame game a day late), I feel like those 4 misses were costly.

Derrick- 5%
Not for the free throws, or even missing the last shot, but more for the decision to not hit Rip for the wide open three in the corner. I said the other day in the Pacers post that his decisions would lead to wins later. It might have been yesterday had he made that pass.

Absolved-
Taj- Attacking the basket, playing strong defense, and doing everything except securing that rebound with 16 seconds left. Maybe he deserves a little blame for that, but he was a deserved team-high +7, so he gets absolved.

Joakim- A few good games in a row from Jo. Maybe he has finally played his way back into shape after too much canoodling on the beach in the offseason.

Fredo- Wennington was drooling over Korver's defense in this game tonight on the pregame for the Wizards, calling it "outstanding." I don't know if I'd go that far, but he wasn't a defensive liability and was 3-6 from downtown, which is about all we can ask of him.

3 more games with the Heat in the regular season. Hopefully the Bulls are at full strength next time. Or, dare I say, have Dwight Howard to help on the defensive side?

Credit Where Credit is Due: Bulls-Bucks 1/27

Not that this game really calls for it all that much, but I have a little time on my hands for once, and want to rant about Boozer for awhile, so why not?

Credit:
Derrick- 50%
The Bulls have the best record in the East because of our depth, and continuity in the roster in this shortened season. The Bulls are a contender, though, because Derrick is capable of putting the Bulls on his shoulder from time to time. Now, I realize this wasn't the highest degree-of-difficulty game for Derrick, Jennings was basically rolling out the welcome mat for him and the Bucks' frontcourt without Bogut is horrible defensively. But Derrick made 34 points on 14-24 shooting look easy. And twenty of those points came in the paint. This is what Boozer's shot chart should look like:


Brandon Jennings- 20%
I was secretly excited when Jennings went off in the first half, since he's the type of guy that will then look for his shot the rest of the game at the expense of his team. Brandon didn't disappoint, with questionable bricks and turnovers killing the Bucks' momentum whenever it seemed like they were going to go on a run. And, of course, he didn't even try to play any D on Derrick. Good work, Brandon.

Joakim- 15%
Maybe Jo does need to play his way back into playing shape. Two good games in a row from Jo, being active on the offensive glass and a bigger presence on D, which is exactly what the Bulls have needed from him all year. In fact, I'd say 15 points, 16 boards is his best game of the year so far. A good sign for the future.

CJ Watson- 8%
CJ did CJ, hitting some big shots and being pesky on D. Not much else to say, other than that I'm liking CJ + Derrick time more and more, especially with Rip out. Maybe if Rip struggles with his shot when he comes back TT will be more likely to use CJ at the 2 even with Rip healthy.

Taj Gibson- 5%
This wasn't Taj's finest game by any means, but he gets 5% since it wasn't bad for his first game back, and for not being Boozer. Hopefully his ankle gets better soon. (At least I assume it's not 100%, and that's why Boozer played the 4th quarter minutes, because otherwise I'm not happy with TT.)

Turkish D- 2%
Eh. Nothing great, nothing terrible. It's kind of refreshing that Asik never shoots from more than 8 feet out. While it might enhance his game, I also never have to be worried about Omer taking a dumb shot, because he never takes dumb shots.

No Credit
TBN- I felt like TBN was having a good game, playing lockdown D and making things happen on offense. Then I look at the box score and realize he's 2-13. That ain't not never good.

Fredo- Why stats are misleading part 1: Korver was +16 in this game, but he had nothing to do with that on either side of the ball. 3-9 from the field, and his trademark "passable" D, he just happened to not be on the court when the Bucks made their runs.

Boozer- Why stats are misleading part 2: If you didn't see this game and just looked at the box score, you would think Boozer had a good game. 20 points on 8-15, 13 boards, and a +5. But stats, even so called advanced ones like PER, don't take into account just how many more points the Bucks scored because Boozer was on the court refusing to play a whiff of help D. This was Boozer's worst defensive game of the season. He never went anywhere near Jennings when he came to the rim, preferring to stay near his man, who he still wasn't guarding. Jon freaking Leuer had 19 points on 9-11 from the field (I realize not all of that was on Boozer, but still). There was no reason the Bucks should have been anywhere near 100 points in this game, and wouldn't have been if Boozer and Taj's minutes had been switched. Since TT has proven this season he's not afraid to play Taj over Boozer in crunch time, I'm sure it was just a case of Taj not being 100% right now. It would be nice, though, if Taj over Boozer was an exception instead of the rule, though. Or if Boozer would just pretend like he wants to help on D.

Bring on the Heat!

Quick Thoughts on Bulls/Pacers

No time for a full blame game (although I have some suspects), so we'll do this bullet-point style:

-I'm really not going to kill TT for having White Mamba in for the last minute. He was obviously in for a defense/offense switch with Boozer, but the Bulls got a fast break and TT didn't want to ruin the advantage with a timeout. While I'm not sure Scal is really a defensive upgrade over Boozer in terms of guarding David West, the whole last 5 minutes were really the type of game when having a healthy Taj would have changed the game. I think having either a healthy Taj or Lu would have meant a 10 point win for the Bulls, which is a comforting thought since we're playing one of the better teams in the East.

-I love that Derrick is the type of player to pass the potential game-winning shot off to the 12th best player on the team. We picked up an L tonight, but that decision will pay off down the line, when teams have to think twice about collapsing on Derrick in situations like that.

-Joakim looked alive again. If I was doing a blame game, I think he'd be absolved. Maybe Boozer too, although there were some brutal lazy defensive plays by him down the stretch.

-Rip, CJ, and TBN were a combined 0-12 in the 4th quarter. Looking at the stats, it's amazing it was even close.

-We really need Turkish to play better than that while Taj is out. 0 points in 13 minutes tonight. While I love Scal and think I'm probably on the upper half of the scale in terms of respect for him as an NBA player, it would be nice if TT could have faith in a Asik/Noah frontcourt when Boozer needs a rest, but that's a combination you rarely see, and it's not going to be more likely with Asik putting up gooseggs.

-Ahh...Jimmy Butler. I've been leading a #freejimmybutler twitter campaign, but this is not what I had in mind. I want to see Jimmy get some significant playing time, but maybe we should start with games where one or two possessions isn't going to be the difference. Tonight it was, and some of those 2nd quarter turnovers were ugly. I still like Butler getting about 8-10 minutes a game, though.

-I wonder if TT listened to critics in not putting Derrick back in until there were 7 minutes left in the 4th, despite CJ not being able to hit water from the ocean.

-Just watched the White Mamba shot again. The worst part of the play: Scal is standing in the corner, while Rip hangs out on the short corner of the baseline, clearly trying to spread the floor for Derrick, but Scal is already in the spot he'd normally go to. Taj, had he been in, would have been right where Rip was, while Rip would have been in position to take that shot, which would, of course, been a much more ideal situation.

Credit Where Credit is Due: Bulls-Celtics 1/13

This post originally was going to be a blame game, at least during the third quarter. The Bulls have been making a habit of letting teams get back in games instead of turning them into blowouts. Derrick talked in his ESPN post-game interview about being a 48-minute team, and there's still obviously a little way to go to get there. However, they got the job done, and since it was so nice to see the starters (besides just Derrick and Lu) have such a big hand in it, I think they deserve a post about it.

Joakim-25%
I'm not trying to grade Joakim on his own curve, but it was nice to see Joakim have the kind of game that was commonplace last year. The trick to a good Joakim game is having him run the floor in transition, be active on the offensive glass, and be engaged in a good one-on-one matchup on the defensive end, and he was three-for-three tonight. Let's hope this is the start of a trend.

Boozer-25%
While I mentioned it in the comments the other night (which I know everyone reads), I decided to go back and find the actual stat. Quote from Matt McHale at Bulls by the Horns (via TrueHoop):

"The one troubling difference in Boozer’s game this season is where his shots are coming from. According to Hoopdata, from 2007 to 2011, Carlos averaged between 7.4 and 6.0 shot attempts at the rim. This season, that number is down to 3.1. Meanwhile, his attempts from 16-23 feet have jumped from 3.0 last season to 5.2 this season."

As my lovely wife likes to say, I'll take any shot from Carlos where he's going to the basket, and cringe when he takes his turnaround baseline fadeaways. It's always nice when he's hitting the outside shot, like tonight, but it doesn't really do the job we signed him for, which is to score inside and take pressure off of Derrick on the outside. Instead, he's basically been Kurt Thomas with less defense.

That being said, I'm giving Carlos credit tonight because he was active on the defensive end tonight, and I think did a more effective job guarding Brandon Bass than Taj and Turkish did. It helped, though, that Pierce and Rondo only decided to make him play help D for about a five minute stretch in the third.

Derrick-20%
With KG being old and slow, and Perkins not around anymore, the Celtics are suddenly ripe for the plucking at the rim, and it seemed like Derrick could get there whenever he wanted. He loses a little credit because it felt like he could have wanted to get there more.

TBN- 15%
5-7 from the field and solid defense on Ray Allen. Pretty much all you can ask out of the Baseline Ninja (although he hasn't performed a good baseline ninja move in awhile).

It's time for the question to be asked: Should Ronnie remain the starter when Rip comes back? I was against it at the beginning of the season when Judson threw it out there. I liked Ronnie's chemistry with the bench mob and thought Rip's offense would help take the pressure off Derrick to carry the starters. However, the Bulls with Ronnie starting are back to where we were last year, with opponents' starting wings not getting going early because of Ronnie and Deng's defense. TT, of course, can be stubborn at times and I'm sure will start Rip as soon as he's healthy, but I still think the question is worth asking now.

Deng- 10%
ESPN has Deng as the top performer due to his great line: 21 points, 16 boards, 2 assists, a steal and a block, but he loses some percentage points for his shot selection, especially in the first half. He was settling for the kind of weird jumpers he liked to take in the VDN era that made me annoyed with him a lot.

Fortunately this is an exception now, and it'll be a travesty if Deng doesn't make the all-star team for once. He has clearly been one of the 5 best forwards in the east, but right now he's currently at 7th, behind LeBron, Melo, STAT, KG, Bosh, and Pierce. Fan voting is, of course, stupid (hey, look, everyone ahead of Deng plays for one of three teams! And Boozer and Hedo Turkoglu are somehow 9th and 10th), but they should still pay a little attention. Deng has been better than everyone ahead of him except LeBron and maybe Melo, but it's close. I'm sure the coaches will fix this, though, if the fans don't.

TT- 5%
A very wary 5% for TT. I think the starters needed a confidence boost, so I'll give him a pass on the fact that they played a combined 192 of 240 minutes on the front end of a back-to-back, especially because Noah and Boozer clearly could use a game when their minutes were in the 30s. But please, please, please, TT, find some more time for Derrick and Lu to rest. We want them to be OK in the playoffs, too, you know.

No Credit-
Bench Mob
It's OK, they've been great all year, so they're entitled to a bad game every now and then, but just look at the Bulls' +/- numbers tonight:
Boozer +19
Deng +16
Noah +13
Brewer +15
Derrick +16
Fredo -9
Lucas -7
Taj -10
Turkish -4

Ouch. And the Celtics ain't a deep team.

While we're on the subject of the Bench Mob...I'm not a big fan of the "Scal-A-Bree-Nee" chant. It feels incredibly condescending. I know White Mamba has a good sense of humor about it, but Scalabrine isn't just goofy-looking white guy, he would be a rotation player on about half the teams in the NBA, and was killing over in Italy before the season started. The Bulls have the luxury of having a deep frontcourt, but I would feel comfortable with Scalabrine playing important minutes for the Bulls in the (knocking on wood) event that one of our four big guys gets hurt. You want to chant for someone on the bench? Let's do it for Jimmy Butler. Then maybe we can see what he can do, finally.

Free Jimmy Butler.

An Ugly Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls-Hawks 1/3

Guest opinion of the night goes to Jordan Haramia, who put it simply when he said "Bulls do not deserve to win this game." Simple, direct, to the point, and probably true. However, the Bench Mob did deserve to win. Look at the following plus-minus numbers:

Fredo +18
Taj +17
Turkish D +10
T-Mac -9
Radmonovic -9
Willie Greene -9
Pargo -12
Zaza -7

For comparison, some starters:
Boozer -15
TBN -18
Al Horford +5
Jeff Teague +10
Marvin Williams +7
Joe Johnson +7
Josh Smith +7

With no Rip Hamilton, the Bulls are going to really struggle if Derrick and Deng are both off, like the first three quarters. But the key to this year is depth, and not being afraid to use it, like I said the other night. While it's sorta defeating the purpose to play Derrick and Lu 44 minutes each, I'm completely fine with Turkish playing 22 straight minutes (came in with 10:03 to play in the third, and didn't come out until the last play for Deng.) But I'm spilling over into the credit territory here. Let's get to it:

TT-40%
Here's the tweet of the night (Hollinger and Adande are now tied at two.)

About 25 head coaches in the NBA just give the ball to Derrick in that situation at the top of the key. I know Derrick was supposed to get the ball on that one, too, but just the fact that there was a 2nd option is more than VDN would have been able to come up with. TT had just done it 2 possessions before with the Korver curl play, but it almost backfired as Korver and Taj both passed up open jumpers, and they got nothing out of the play.

Also, I know I've praised this before, but I love that TT will let the group that brought them back stay in the game. I don't know if we complete the comeback if Boozer comes in with 6 minutes left in the game, no matter how tired Taj and Asik were.

Derrick-20%
Just the MVP doing MVP-type things. 16 of his 30 came in the 4th, and the Hawks played the best defense they could on some of Derrick's late drives. Maybe the Hawks should have ran a double at him and forced the ball into Asik or Korver's hands late, but they made the shots tough for Derrick. He's just better.

(After watching the highlights that last paragraph was only half true. Josh Smith could have played much better defense on the layup where Derrick crossed teague over and switched hands at the rim with 57 seconds left.)

Turkish D-15%
Stacey was trying to give him all the credit, but let's not go nuts. Still, Asik certainly changed the game in the 3rd quarter with his hustle, and outplayed the Hawks' bigs on the boards and the defensive end of the court.

Luol Deng-10%
21 points on 7-15 from the field, 8 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 1 game winning shot...and that might have been Deng's worst game of the season. We saw a little of the "settling-for-open-js" Deng tonight, which might have something to do with the fact that he's playing over 40 minutes a game in a stretch of 6 games in 10 days. Tonight wasn't the night for it, but we need to see some Jimmy Butler soon (or just more Ronnie/Korver time)

Fredo-5%
We're developing a pleasantly surprising trend of Korver being on the floor when the Bulls are playing their best defense. Other teams aren't really taking advantage of him one-on-one (although maybe Marvin Williams isn't the ideal candidate for that), and he's been pretty good at help D and team rebounding lately (Korver had 8 boards tonight, the most since...March 8th, 2008.)

Taj-5%
I've already done a lot of research for this post, and don't feel like doing more, but I'm willing to bet Taj has a lot more 4th quarter minutes this season than Carlos Boozer, which is a trend I really, really like TT.

Joe Johnson- 2%
3-17 from the field. I'm so glad we aren't paying you $120 million.

Atlanta's Free Throw Shooting- 2%
4-9 in the 4th quarter. That's not how you close out games.

Joakim-1%

I want to give Joakim a percent for that pass, but I was thinking I should give Joakim and Boozer credit for the fact that they don't have any attitude about not being a part of a few crunch situations lately. I know it should be expected of a professional, but as DeMarcus Cousins can tell you, you can't always count on that much maturity from an NBA player. Thank you, fellas, and thank you Garpax for putting together a team of professionals.

No Credit
TBN
Even the other night, TBN was more comfortable playing with the Bench Mob than the starters. I think that's the right place for him, and he's going to struggle in the starting roll. Hopefully Rip comes back soon.

Boozer (and his parents)
So it takes your parents being at a game to get attacking, non-defensive liability Boozer? Then how can we get them to every game?

There are going to be ugly games in a shortened, compressed season. Championship teams win those games. Great job, Bulls.

(Almost) Preseason NBA Predictions

I find it fun to both make predictions and make fun of other people's predictions, so that's what we're going to do today. ESPN likes to have their experts (and Chris Broussard) make predictions on the end of season awards, so I'm going to add my predictions to the mix, as well as take the worst prediction from each section and break it down.

MVP

My pick: LeBron James

It's so hard to repeat as MVP, and Derrick is going to suffer from the curse of high expectations this year. I expect the Heat to hum along during the regular season this year, and LeBron to put up pretty gaudy numbers. And he can have that, I'll still take Derrick in the playoffs.

Worst pick: Chris Paul

No one really went out on a limb here, and Chris Paul could very well win the MVP if the Clippers turn the corner and get one of the top 4 seeds in the west, and voters credit the move for CP3 as the reason. But I think if it happens, it will be more because Blake Griffin becomes one of the top 5 big men in the NBA, not because of Paul.

Rookie of the Year

My pick: Derrick Williams

I think the Timberwolves are going to overachieve, and I think Williams will be a big reason why. Kyrie Irving will put up similar numbers, but it's just because there are no other options in Cleveland.

Worst pick: Jimmer Fredette

I like Jimmer. I think he's going to be a good NBA player. But it's going to take a little time before he's averaging more than 15 ppg (unless everything falls apart in Sacramento and he has to be the whole offense.)

Coach of the Year

My pick: Frank Vogel

I think the Pacers are going to be good this year, and I think Vogel is going to be a big reason why. The Pacers last year played better than the sum of their parts, and now those parts are better. (I can't pick TT for the same reason I can't pick Derrick, the Bulls are supposed to be the top team in the East now.)

Worst pick: Vinny Del Negro

Broussard shows he's never actually seen an NBA game (or at least one VDN has coached.) Just wait until the first close Clippers game, when the final play is just CP3 dribbling around while Blake and Caron Butler stand around watching. If the Clippers don't improve, my prediction is it'll be because they've completely tuned VDN out.

Defensive POY

My pick: Tyson Chandler

It's too easy to pick Dwight Howard, I'm going with Chandler because I think New York will be markedly improved defensively because Chandler is protecting the rim. He was exactly what the Knicks needed.

Worst pick: Tony Allen

Tony Allen doesn't lock down wings any better than Luol Deng does, he's just more self-aggrandizing about it. I hate Tony Allen.

Sixth Man

My pick: James Harden

Harden is going to thrive even more than before playing alongside Durant and Westbrook. I think he'll end up averaging 20 ppg this year.

Worst pick: Mo Williams

Chauncey Billups somehow led the Clippers in minutes on Christmas, despite the fact that MO WILLIAMS IS BETTER. This pick isn't because Williams isn't good, it's because VDN is too stupid to play Williams enough to get this award.

Most Improved

My pick: Eric Gordon

I realize I trashed Gordon on draft night a few years ago, but I admit I was wrong. Eric Gordon is going to come into his own this year being the main option in New Orleans.

Worst pick: Carlos Boozer

Ummm...Scoop Jackson? No.

Eastern Conference:
1. Miami
2. Chicago
3. New York
4. Indiana
5. Boston
6. Atlanta
7. Orlando
8. Milwaukee
9. New Jersey
10. Philadelphia
11. Charlotte
12. Detroit
13. Washington
14. Cleveland
15. Toronto

Western Conference
1. Oklahoma City
2. San Antonio
3. Memphis
4. Los Angeles Clippers
5. Dallas
6. Los Angeles Lakers
7. Portland
8. Golden State
9. Denver
10. New Orleans
11. Minnesota
12. Pheonix
13. Houston
14. Sacramento
15. Utah

Boxing Day Blame Game: Bulls-Warriors 12/26

I've had to talk multiple other Bulls fans off a ledge tonight, so I'll just say it here to everyone: Wait until we've played some freaking home games before declaring the Bulls the worst team to ever play basketball. One thing you're going to see a lot of this season is ugly, turnover-filled games. Hopefully going forward the Bulls will be on the other side of these games, but every now and then, the bar eats you (like, for example, in Golden State last year.)

Blame time:
Derrick- 30%
We're not going to win a lot of games when Derrick goes 4-17 for the field. More importantly (and more worrying), I think we're going to see a lot of teams this year follow the Warriors defensive blueprint of this game, which is to collapse everyone when Derrick drives, and make him finish over 3 people, kick it out, or pull up and shoot. For some reason Derrick didn't do a lot of option 3, but it didn't help that Derrick was 1-8 from beyond the arc. That's not going to free up a lot of driving lanes.

Mark Jackson and Monta Ellis- 20%
Mark Jackson was never known as an offensive mastermind, so I was expecting the Warriors' game plan to be "Monta Ellis dribbles around and shoots, Stephen Curry dribbles around as shoots, repeat as necessary." I was aggravatingly surprised by how many creative screen-and-rolls and backcuts were in the Warriors playbook, and how effectively they were run with David Lee in the middle and Dorell Wright keeping Deng honest on the perimeter.

And when the Bulls finally woke up and starting playing their A defense in the 4th quarter, Ellis did what Kobe couldn't last night and made big shots to kill the Bulls' momentum. That's the kind of thing the Warriors and Ellis do sometimes.

Carlos Boozer- 20%
When TT tries to tell me Boozer plays underrated defense (as he did this past offseason), I'm pointing to the play at 7:15 of the 2nd quarter as exhibit A in my rebuttal. Ellis gets by Derrick in the open court, and Boozer, despite being in perfect position to stop the ball and let Derrick recover, just sort of watches Ellis go by. At some point after it was too late it looks like Boozer thinks to himself, "oh, I'm supposed to help here", and springs into action. Thanks, Boozer.

And his non-help defense on David Lee left a lot to be desired, too. Last night Boozer didn't hurt us defensively and helped offensively. Tonight he didn't help on either end.
Rip Hamilton- 10%
The best we can hope for from Rip is what we saw in the 2nd preseason game against Indiana, where he was opening up shots for everyone, scoring in transition, and knocking down open jumpers. The worst case scenario? That was tonight, when he was Boozer 2.0. Rip was 5-12, but some of those 7 misses were wide open, and he just got absolutely torched by Monta when he was on him. You can't be a guy who's defensive liability and disappears on offense, Rip. We already have one of those.

TT- 5%
I very rarely felt like TT was outcoached last year, but he was tonight. TT is not dumb, he knows the right thing to do (switch to Deng on Kobe last night, bring in Taj to help protect the rim tonight), but it's taking him way too long to pull the trigger. I have no idea why that is.

On the flip side, I've always loved how if the bench mob takes a game that looks out of reach and makes it interesting, he leaves them in to finish. Kudos for that, TT.

Baseline Ninja- 3%
Ronnie, it makes it sooooo hard for me to defend you as a viable shooting guard on a championship team when you can't make shot to save your life, even from the free throw line. He had a game worst -16, but the D wasn't bad, Ellis just made tough shots over him.

Turkish D- 2%
Last night's rebound rate was 8 boards in 20 minutes. I like that. Tonight's rebound rate? 0 boards in 10 minutes. That's...not OK.

Absolved:
CJ Watson
3-10, yes, but he changed the momentum and the energy of the game when he came in. Tom tried to convince me the Bulls need what Bill Simmons calls an "irrational confidence guy". I think CJ fits the description.

Fredo
Just when you think we have him figured out, the Bulls defense actually improved with Korver on the floor in the 4th quarter (a lot of that is because he came in at the same time as Taj, but Kyle did his part and knocked some 3s down, which is all we can ask of him.)

Luol Deng
Lu continues to be our most consistent player, keeping us in the game in the 3rd quarter. Something I want to see from TT going forward: don't be afraid to switch Deng onto a smaller guard when they're hot. Deng might have made some of those shots Ellis hit a lot harder, and I think Rip and TBN could have handled Dorell Wright if he tried to post them up.

Think of this opening trip like the circus trip, people. If we come out of it .500 going home, we'll be OK. If you feel anxious, consult the Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy advice at the top of the post. Thank you and enjoy the flight.

Christmas Credit! Bulls-Lakers 12/25

Full disclosure: I missed the terrible 3rd quarter due to silly things like "Christmas dinner with the family", so I'm just going to assume everyone was awful and leave it at that. If someone was particularly awful, let me know in the comments.

Credit:
Derrick- 50%
This tweet from J.A. Adande sums it all up:

For about 3 seconds after Derrick got the ball on the Bulls' last possession, I was silently yelling at him to take a timeout and let the Bulls set up a play. Then I remembered Derrick is Derrick, had the man he wanted on him, and all the momentum. Sure, there was no one there to rebound if he missed, but he didn't. M, V, P.

Also, nice to see Derrick hitting his 3s in the first game back. 4-6 from beyond the arc.

Luol Deng- 29%
Luol Deng guards Kobe as well or better than anyone in the NBA. This is, of course, the major reason why Deng was a game best +13 (that and the fact that while he wasn't in the game, Fredo was off getting housed by World Peace, but we'll get to that in a minute.) Deng also did nice Deng things on the offensive end, too, and following his shot after the missed three and getting an and-1 was obviously huge, as was the 5-5 from the line at the end.

-1% for the mistake that even my 8th graders know what not to do, though. Don't jump unless you know what you're going to do with the ball, please.

Carlos Boozer- 15%
While the whole help defense thing still has a way to go, at least tonight's Carlos Boozer was doing the things we should be paying him for, and not being a total liability on defense (although that might change when we play a better power forward than Josh McRoberts.) There was a stretch in the 2nd quarter when Boozer basically was our offense. Nice to see him playing with confidence again.

TT- 3%
I'm giving TT 3% for the following reasons:
1. The Lakers last second play was "give the ball to Kobe and let him go 1-0n-5 to the basket". I'm grateful TT has more sense than that, and if I was a fan of any other team in the Western Conference, I'd be so glad the Lakers no longer have Phil Jackson and now have Mike Brown.
2. I love that TT had the confidence in Rose to let him make the decision about whether to take a timeout, instead of doing it for him. I don't think many other coaches in the NBA don't call timeout there.
3. But when they need a good play (like the possession before), he's completely capable of drawing one up that gets us an open three.

The reason he doesn't get more credit is because it took him so friggin long to switch Deng onto Kobe. Deng usually always guards Kobe. I don't know if he was deferring to Rip out of respect or what (I have a feeling Rip wanted to start out on Kobe), but it shouldn't have taken that long for the Bulls' best defender to be causing problems with his length. If I had more time right now, I'd look up Kobe's shooting by defender.

Baseline Ninja- 2%
Nothing special, nothing flashy, just solid defense and a mid-range jumper or two. I love how Ronnie works with the 2nd unit, and keeps the pace up-tempo.

Turkish D- 1%
I know he was 1-5 from the field, but 8 rebounds (4 offensive) in 20 minutes is a rate I can live with.

No Credit:
Fredo
Careful, Kyle. You're starting to get a little bit useless over here. 10 minutes, 0-3 from the floor (with Steve Blake guarding him for most of those 9 minutes), and a -12, which is not like a "team was bad so my +/- is bad" -12, it was -12 because Metta World Peace was directly scoring on him for most of the time he was on the floor. Look, I know Korver isn't a great defender, but when the Lakers' 6th best player is calling for iso in the post on you, and you're not making up for it on the offensive end at all, then TT might as well be playing Jimmy Butler. (Note to TT: please try this experiment soon.)

Joakim Noah
I very much recall Joakim having 6 of the first 10 points for the Bulls. However, he ended the game 3-12 with 6 points, so that means he was quiet for there on out. I would give him a little credit for the big steal late in the game (and good help D in general), but it's a little negated by letting Pau knock a huge rebound off your knee to get possession. I expect Joakim to clear that rebound every time.

Should be no credit, but isn't-
Rip Hamilton
Let's not panic yet, very ticky-tack foul trouble kept Rip from getting into a rhythm, which is why he was such a no-show on the offensive end. It happens to every player now and then. I predict Rip has 20 tomorrow night against the Warriors.

The Bulls as Ninja Turtles (Part 1)

People say to me all the time: "Tristan, why haven't you compared each of the members of the Bulls to who they'd be in the Ninja Turtles universe?" My answer is "I don't know, that probably should have been the first post ever."

So I'm going to rectify that mistake now. Ground rules: this is from the comic book canon, no children's cartoon exclusive morons like Bebop and Rocksteady. Also, players only (at least last year's players, since we don't know exactly what the roster will look like.) This means TT can't be splinter (and probably wouldn't be anyway.)

I'll start with the most obvious:

Joakim Noah= Michelangelo

I assume we've all seen the wonderful pictures of Joakim Noah and his girlfriend at the beach? (NSFW link). That is exactly what Michelangelo would have done during a lockout.

Derrick= Raphael


I know the natural inclination is Derrick should be Leo, since they're both the leaders of the team, but I feel like what Derrick did after the Heat series was a very Raphael thing to do. (Full disclosure: Raphael is my favorite ninja turtle.)

Luol Deng= Leonardo


I know Lu isn't the most vocal leader in the world, but he still exudes quiet leadership abilities, and I think after last season it's fair to say the team often goes as Deng does. When he's taking smart shots and locked in on D, the Bulls are a tough team to beat.

Kyle Korver= Donatello

Not sure why, I just have a gut feeling Fredo is the type of guy that wouldn't mind working on fixing an old truck and making up alphabetical insults.

Since I wanted pictures, I had to split this post into 2 threads. Here's part 2.