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.

Credit Where Credit is Due- Bulls/Nets Game 7

If the Bulls can play with that much heart, then the least I can do is come out of retirement and give them the appropriate amount of credit. 

Joakim 50%

I'd say one of the worst calls I've made as a Chicago sports fan was advocating the Bulls take Al Thornton over Jo in the 07 draft. God, I'm glad I was wrong about that one. I used to write a lot about advanced statistics vs. intangibles, especially in regards to their relevance to basketball discussions. I don't think it was any more evident than what was on display tonight, as Jo's heart, and the way it infected the team, was the difference in this game. 24 points, 14 boards, 6 blocks, and pretty much a big play whenever the Bulls needed it. The Bulls won because Jo was the best player on the floor, which he basically had to be after guaranteeing a win. But big-time players back statements like that up. And I'm proud to call Jo a big-time player. 

TT- 15%

The one thing I've never criticized about TT is his play-calling, and it was no more evident than tonight.  There was so much made about where the offense would come from with no Kirk or Lu, but the creative play-calling all game made up for that. Yes, there were some shaky possessions near the end, but the Bulls got at least 20-30 points by my rough estimate that were the direct result of a creative set play. 

The other thing TT did well in this game was something that completely goes against his instincts, and that was having faith in a rookie to play major minutes in an important game. I don't know if the Bulls win without the contributions the bench made in this one, which was the big difference between game 6 and tonight. Don't get me wrong, I still have a lot of reservations with what TT has done this year, probably too much for this post. But I'll say this: TT's style and intelligence just won a game 7 on the road. (Also, good call on switching JFB and Nate defensively

Boozer- 13%

It was definitely a weird feeling to be relieved when Boozer came back into the game into the 4th for Taj, but tonight was Boozer at his best. Going to the basket, creating shots, getting to the free throw line. There were still some bad rotations, but this reminded me of Boozer in the middle of the season, when he actually looked like a player worth...well maybe not 15 mil a year, but significantly closer than he had been since signing the contract.

Belinelli- 6%

This could probably be higher, what with the pretty efficient 24 points on 14 shots, and plenty of clutch free throws down the stretch. I have to dock him a little because he was off the court most of the 2nd quarter, which was the best the Bulls played all season. But again, great clutch shooting, Marco.

JFB- 5%

JFB could probably be higher, too. That certainly wasn't the best offensive game he's ever played, but he made Deron work much harder for his points once he switched onto him in the 2nd quarter, and did come up with a couple big baskets. I would still like to see Jimmy going to the basket a little more, but it's hard to hold it against him if he doesn't look quite as energetic now that he has to play all 48 minutes every night.

NateRob- 4%

I would love to put Nate higher, but it seemed like any time the Nets backcourt scored, it was on Nate. I love the way Nate plays, especially in games like Game 4 (obviously), but the defensive issue always rears it's ugly head at some point when Kirk is out.

Teague- 3%

The last time Teague played 10 or more minutes in a game was March 15th. Yet he gave the Bulls some huge minutes and a defensive improvement over Nate that they desperately needed. He still has all the same holes in his game, but you can't say he shrunk from the moment.

Daequan Cook- 2%

Speaking of stepping up big time, I'll take 3 points from Daequan Cook whenever the opportunity arises.

Joe Johnson- 2%

You could probably give Joe more credit for this one, too. If he even shoots 25% from the field, that might have gone differently. 2-14 is not what you want from a guy making 20 mil in a game 7, though.

No Credit- 

Taj

That was one of the worst games I've seen Taj play. I hope it's just that he was still feeling the effects of the flu, or the knee issue, but he just isn't affecting the game on the defensive end the way he has the past 2 years. The Bulls need the old Taj back to be a true contender again when Derrick returns.

Rip

Yeah, I know Rip didn't play. But I wonder if TT had realized that Rip was abjectly useless earlier in the season, the Bulls could have been the 3 seed, or possibly even 2 this year.

VladRad

Why would you shave your trademark scruff before a game 7? Lucky for you, Vlad, the Bulls overcame your bad karma, or else the blame game would have just been 100% VladRad.

That's my Secret, TT. I'm Always Angry

First, let's talk about what TT did right. I challenged him earlier to sit Boozer on the bench in the playoffs when he's playing like crap, and yesterday he did. It would have been nice if TT had realized Boozer was a detriment before he played 27 crappy minutes, but at least he couldn't hurt us for the last 16 minutes of the game. Playing Asik and Rip the whole second half was the right call as well. Asik because obviously they didn't have another big to insert besides Boozer (unless he went to the White Mamba, and we all knew that wasn't happening,) and Rip because he was making things happen offensively.

Now the bad, from least egregious to most:
3. There was no reason for CJ to play the whole 2nd half. Not that I wanted JL3 to come in. But I've been screaming this all series long: What the hell is Mike James on the roster for if not to take over the point guard duties when both of your other point guards are playing terribly? Mike James could not have been any worse on both ends of the court than CJ was. CJ repeatedly lost track of Lou Williams down the stretch (including a particularly egregious one that led to a Williams 3 with 4 minutes left to give the Sixers a 1-point lead,) and also took some ugly jump shots in the 4th quarter, when there was no reason for CJ to be shooting jump shots. Much has been and will be made of Boozer's 1-11, which was bad in the grand scheme of things, but most of that is big-picture, contract and money type stuff. CJ was 2-11 last night, and still hurting us by taking shots in the 4th quarter, which is a far bigger reason we lost.

Also: Decision-making, which we'll get to in a minute.

2. For the second straight playoff series, the opposing coach got the better of TT on the clipboard. For some reason, the Bulls' defensive strategy the last 5 minutes was "switch-on-everything". The Sixers really could have taken more advantage of this one, there were a few possessions that had Elton Brand posting up Rip, but no one on the Sixers managed to recognize it and get it in to him. They did manage to post Iggy up on CJ, but CJ's quick hands saved them an easy 2.

But what really killed the Bulls was every possession in the last 1:15. I'm going to go to the BMO Harris Bank Telestrator here:
1:15- After somehow collecting the rebound after a bad Lou Williams off-balance 3 (where CJ might have been out of bounds, but it's hard to tell,) CJ pushes the ball up the floor to beat the 8 second clock (huge assist by White Mamba here. Watching the replay, CJ is just standing in the corner with the ball when the shot clock hits 20, and you can see Scal right next to CJ yelling at him to get across the timeline. CJ doesn't actually beat the clock, but there's no way the refs are calling a close 8-second violation there), then slows it down to run the clock (the Bulls are up 3 at this point.) For some reason, the play involves a man who is 2-10 on the day dribbling in the corner by himself for 8 seconds, then going over a Deng screen, (which Williams wisely decides to go under,) and takes a contested 3 with 4 seconds on the shot clock.
:56- Because of the long rebound, CJ is forced to try to stay with Iggy on the way back down, and fouls him to keep him from getting an easy layup. Holiday inbounds to Hawes, gets the ball back, comes off a Hawes screen and draws both TBN and Asik to the corner with him. Here's where we miss Jo. Jo is quick enough to either slow Holiday's momentum, just switch on to him for the rest of the possession (allowing TBN to switch to Hawes,) or get back in the paint in time. But it's Asik, so he gets stuck in the corner. Holiday drops it to Young, while Taj has to try to guard both big men until Asik can get back. Rip is caught in no mans land, not wanting to leave Iggy wide open behind the arc up 3.
:38- The Bulls use their last timeout. I'll get to this in a second as well.
CJ barely gets the ball to Rip (again out of timeouts), gets the ball back, dribbles to the corner, and sets up the screen and roll with Asik, which was probably the best run play of the game. It is, of course, a small miracle Asik caught that ball and finished it. (Assisted by terrible help by Thad Young, he had all the time in the world to rotate over, but he went for the steal instead of just getting in Asik's way. It's not like Asik was going to stop and take an 8-foot jumper.)
:25-  The Bulls, for the second time in the last 5 minutes, allow the Sixers to roll the ball to the frontcourt with no time being taken off the clock (considering they won the game with 2 seconds left, those ticks were pretty important). Iggy gets CJ switched on to him, but doesn't take advantage of it and dribbles over to Holiday. Holiday dribbles to the pain and gets stuck, kicking it back to Thad Young, who drives and makes a ridiculous scoop shot over Ronnie.
:12- Stacey- "You get your foul shooters in the...(pause, realizes the Bulls are out of timeouts) You find your free throw shooters."
CJ dribbles up court, and gets clearly fouled by Holiday with 10 seconds left. (You can clearly see Collins screaming at the refs for a foul while CJ is still coming downcourt. You know what happens next. I've said it for the last 2 years, CJ needs to get better at leading a break with a man advantage. Even if the Bulls were down 1 there, and needed a bucket instead of needing CJ to pull it back out, that wasn't a good pass. CJ always passes the ball too early. If he takes just one more dribble towards the corner, he's either fouled by Hawes or Williams, or Hawes has come away from Asik enough for Asik to finish that dunk. Because he passes so early, Hawes has time to get back to Asik and foul him. (Flagrant? Maybe, but you can't really call that there.) If CJ is back in a Bulls uniform next year, he's got to get better at this part of his game. That and, ya know, not passing the ball to 45% free throw shooter up 1 with 7 seconds left in an elimination game.
:7- Between Asik free throws, Stacey with more premonition: "Watch the runout. Ronnie Brewer and CJ Watson got to watch the runout on a miss..." Man, I wish they had heard you.
Asik's second free throw goes up. Taj is pushed to the middle by Hawes, and Iggy comes behind, sealing him off. Deng, for some reason, tries to go under Thad Young, and only succeeds in putting himself directly under the basket, where he's no help to anyone. Ronnie follows Holiday into the lane (where Holiday is boxing out Asik,) but gets stuck behind him somehow. It was kind of like Ronnie didn't know whether to play safe defense on Holiday, or crash for an offensive rebound, so he did neither. Holiday does a great job of just standing in Brewer's way, too, so he can't help on defense. CJ just stays with Lou Williams on the wing the whole way, instead of coming over and stopping the ball. (You have to give a good amount of credit to Iggy, he was significantly faster than any of the Bulls to get down the court. You can't even blame it on the Bulls' minutes, as Iggy played the whole 2nd half as well.)
:2- The Bulls call a timeout, move the ball to halfcourt, set up a play, and...
Oh, wait, no that's what they would have done had they HAD ANY FUCKING TIMEOUTS LEFT. Which leads to problem #1:

#1: TT overmanages to Lou Pinella proportions. The most useful thing a timeout can do for you, more than killing momentum or setting up a play, is to move the ball to the frontcourt late in a close game. But for that to be true, you have to save some timeouts for the end.

Know who always has a timeout late in a game? Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson. Phil would let his team play through bad stretches, not only showing faith in his players, but saving those timeouts for when they're really necessary. Same thing with Pop. Or he could have used it on the possession before to get Korver and Rip in the game for Ronnie and Asik. You can't play offense/defense when you have no timeouts, so here are the FT percentages of the players that played the final minute:
CJ- 81%, TBN- 56%, Deng- 77%, Taj- 62%, Asik- 46%. You have a timeout, you can take Asik and Ronnie out and have Taj inbound to 4 guys all over 75% from the line. Because you used your timeouts to set up set plays with 4 minutes left, that's why your last 4 minutes were chaotic.

Is it fair to always compare TT to coaches like Pop and Jackson? I'm forced to by everyone who seems to think the sun shines out of his ass all the time. There's a reason those two men have won 15 of the last 21 championships. And both of them are known for not overmanaging (I'd also say Rudy T and Rick Carlisle fall onto the more relatively mellow side of NBA head coaches, leaving only Riley, Larry Brown, and maybe Doc Rivers as more uptight championship coaches.

TT makes those three look like Tommy Chong. And story upon story is written about how this is a good thing. It's not. It leads to all your best players being injured, your 4th best big man playing more minutes than your 1st or 2nd (depending on the day) because you're too stubborn to just start two power forwards, and running out of timeouts with 2 minutes left in a close game.

This is not how you win championships.

Also, you need better players. But I'll get to that tomorrow.

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:

Congrats, TT

Seriously, I give TT way too much crap here and on Twitter (even tonight, on not playing JFB over Lu when Lu was cold), but this is exciting, and well deserved:
Good work, TT.

Fourth Round Draft Justifications

Backwards again! Here's the full results.

Tristan- Andre Dawson
I can't believe the Hawk fell to the 4th round, and was picked behind such non-HoF baseball players such as Mark Buehrle, Kenny Lofton, and Frank Thomas (although I suppose Thomas might get in if they ever allow anyone from the steroids era in). Andre might not have the best career numbers in the world, but he earns points for being the slugger on the team of my childhood, and absolutely crushing the ball for some not-great Cubs teams in the early 90s. Plus he predates the steroids era by a little, so I don't have to worry about these memories being tainted.

Katz- Sid Luckman

Seeing as how I had already gotten a big time defensive player from the Bears I felt I might as well take the second biggest offensive weapon the Bears have ever had. A Hall of Fame QB who spent all 12 seasons in the NFL with the Bears where he won 4 Superbowls and an MVP award in 1943. In the NFL, he holds the record for most TD passes in a game (7), has the highest career TD rate (7.9% of his passes were TDs) and is second in YDs per throw (8.4). Best. Bears. QB. of. All. Time. I know it's not saying much, but the best is still the best. And he was amazing.

Ethan- Cliff Floyd
Ethan says he didn't understand the draft criteria, which explains some of his picks, but not Cliff Floyd. I want to know what criteria we could possibly be using that would make Cliff Floyd a good pick. I mean, I suppose he once came in 22nd in the MVP voting (of course, the guy I got 2 picks ahead of Floyd actually won the MVP for a last-place team, but I digress.) There are just so many better players in any sense of the word that have passed through Chicago than Cliff Floyd. I would have taken Jacque Jones over Cliff Floyd. In fact, I'd put him somewhere between Jeremy Burnitz and Todd Hollandsworth on my "mid-00s Cubs outfielder" draft sheet.

Sam- TT
Picking TT in my 4th round is integral to the make up of my team as a whole. His hard-nose work ethic is the definitive style of my players. Everyone I drafted has that similar mindset. Winning matters more than accolades and practice is vital to performance. In his first year as coach, not only was TT coach of the year but his team lead the league in wins last season. The bulls may have come up short losing to Miami, but they are a team with character and that starts with the coach

BJ- George Halas
Despite the fact that I blatantly stole this pick from Katz (stop announcing your picks ahead of time!) it turned out to be one of my favorites. A legitimate Chicago sports icon, Halas also is one of the key figures in the development of American pro football both on the field and on the business side of things. As an owner he literally built the Bears franchise (picked the name and colors) and changed the way the game was played by co-inventing the T formation. Also one of the great old-school coaches - player-coach-owner, wore badass hats, fought with other players, fought in WWI and WWII, etc. Won 5 NFL championships so I'll end by asking you all to COUNT DA RIIINNNGGGZZZ!

Conall- Patrick Sharp
This feels like a little bit of reach to me. I know there was a run on cup-winning Hawks, and Sharp is a very talented player, but he was maybe the 4th or 5th most-important Hawk on that team (depending on how much credit you want to give Niemi.) But I suppose you probably gave him points for attractiveness, didn't you? That's what it is. You looked into his soulful eyes and couldn't resist, could you? It's OK, Patrick Sharp is a dreamboat. I'm secure enough in my masculinity to admit it.


Ron- Norm Van Lier
Seriously, Ron's strategy was to pick nothing but beloved Chicago athletes who died too young, and thus I can't poke holes in their case, and wouldn't want to in any case (although I could in Norm's case). But like I said, Lou Brock is coming tomorrow, and I have a lot to say about that pick.

Gomez- Antti Niemi
Even if you put Niemi above Sharp in terms of importance to the Cup team, this is a huge stretch, as Niemi only really played that one year in Chicago, and Sharp has at least contributed 7 seasons in the Indian head. I mean, Niemi was great in the playoffs that year, and during the regular season, too, but if there's anything we've learned about hockey lately, it's that goalies are like closers in baseball. It's nice to have a good one, but it's more cost-effective to go cheap.

Will- Joel Quenville
Credit for pushing the right buttons in the Cup run, and for sticking with Big Buff at forward with JT and Kaner. But man, I wish he'd be a little more consistent with his lines and give groups a chance to gel. And stop trotting out Bickell and Frolik so much and let the young guys with more upside a chance for some ice time. And thankfully it's over now, but what the hell was John Scott ever doing on the ice? I'm glad the ship has been righted, but I don't think I would have put up too much of a fuss if he had been canned during the long losing streak this year.

Third Round Draft Justifications/Bulls-Blazers Blame Game

We're going to try something new tonight. I'm going to mix the draft justifications in with the blame game, because why the hell not? (Full results here)

Will- Luol Deng- 40%
The knock against Lu before Derrick came around was that he was soft, got injured easily and missed a lot of games, then settled for long jumpers instead of going to the hole. While the second part is becoming more and more true, it's probably because the first part is now the opposite problem (follow all that?) I commend him for wanting to be tough and play through his injury, he killed us tonight, both with his shooting (1-7) and getting lit up by Batum and Matthews on the other end. He was a game-worst -11 in 40 minutes, and it's not hard to imagine that game could have been closer had the other wings been playing those minutes.

Gomez- Julius Peppers
I have no real dirt on Peppers, so instead I'm going to talk about Boozer (15%) here. Even when you have a "good" game offensively, you still kill us with your lack of defensive rotation to the help man, which had a lot to do with the Blazers getting so many open shots. TT all of a sudden insists on playing you over Taj in the 4th quarter, so it'd be really nice if you learned to play defense.

Ron- Mike Singletary
Mike Singletary dropped his pants in the locker room to motivate his players. Speaking of crazy coaching decisions...
TT (35%) You were not afraid earlier in the year to sit Joakim and Boozer for Taj and Asik late in games earlier this year. So what the hell is going on lately? The Bulls have been not good defensively lately, and I think it's not a stretch to say it has a lot to do with the fact that for some reason Taj and Asik are averaging under 30 minutes a night combined over the last 6 games (taking out Asik's 33 when Jo had the flu). It's really frustrating watching opponents get off open shot after open shot knowing you have guys on the bench capable of stopping that. Get it together, TT.

Conall- Jeremy Roenick
JR is probably best known by my generation for his skills more in a video game (NHL 94) than on the ice, most notably for his ability to wrap around behind the goalie and score every time, not unlike a certain Baseline Ninja (5%), who did nothing offensively tonight and got lit up by Wesley Matthews on the defensive end. Come on, TBN, even if you're not going to help on offense, you need to at least lock Wesley freaking Matthews down. He's not D-Wade here.

BJ- Patrick Kane
Can I just have the youtube clip of the goal?

And I was living at Southport and Addison at the time, right in the heart of Wrigleyville. There were like 8 bars on that block, and I don't think I got to sleep that night until after 4am because of the celebrations. Only time I've lived through a title celebration like that. I'm as guilty as the next Hawks bandwagoner but that season was fun. I still really like playoff hockey too. For me the past few years it's only been behind NBA playoffs for best postseason.

Sam- Brian Urlacher
As the fantasy draft got into the later rounds, the choices shifted to more nostalgic ones for me. After Jordan, Pippen, Rose and the other truly top tier athletes, the criteria for who you choose becomes a little fuzzier. Who would I want on my team? Of all the players I know of to ever sport a Chicago jersey, who would fit the idea of my favorite kind of Chicago athlete? Who do I enjoy rooting for? Brian Urlacher seemed like a solid choice. Having watched the eight time Pro Bowler for the last 11 years, all of which have been spent in a Bears uniform, I know just how much of a beast he is. His aggressiveness made him Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2000 and the Defensive Player of the Year in 2005. Even though the Bears haven't won a championship with him, he continues to battle through injuries to be a leader on the field. He plays hard and you gotta love that. He wears his captain's patch well.

Ethan- Lance Briggs
Lance crashed his Lambo then walked away from it like it didn't happen, which is the kind of thing I could see Joakim Noah (5%) doing. Either that or not getting up for big matchups, even though LaMarcus Aldridge is kind of a big matchup. Aldridge is really good, but there's no reason for Joakim to be outplayed by him that bad. Also, I'm rubbing the salt in Ethan's wound by talking about Aldridge in the post for his favorite Bear, as he wanted to pick Aldridge on a loophole in the draft, but was vetoed.

Katz- Richard Dent

Hall of Famer and Superbowl XX MVP. Probably had the best defensive post-season run that year. Played 11 seasons for the Bears recording over 100 sacks. Lead the league back to back years in sacks. He is 7 of 27 in NFL History. On a team identity built on defense...Greatest. Bears. DE. of. all. time.

Tristan- Chris Chelios
Chelios always felt like a Chicago guy, but he's known for having some of his best years (and most success) in Detroit, kind of like Rip Hamilton (honorary blame). These are the kind games it would be nice to have a decent offensive shooting guard to carry the load. Wait, didn't we sign one of those over the summer for 5 mil? Because all I see is a waste of space at the end of the bench.

But back to Chelios, who was definitely one of the main reasons I liked hockey back in the early 90s, before I really knew how rare it was to have a defenseman putting up point totals in the 70s year after year. Forget Detroit and Montreal, Chris belonged in Chicago, which is why I think he wasn't a reach in round 3.

Know who else belongs in Chicago? Taj Gibson and JFB (absolved), who did everything they could to win tonight in limited minutes. So let's stop limiting those minutes, TT, so we can beat inferior opponents so we can lock down the all-important #1 seed and first round matchup with the Bucks, avoid the Magic in the 2nd, and potentially have home-court against the Heat. Seriously, TT. Now.

#taj30minutesagame

Pi Day Credit: Bulls-Heat 3/14

Stupid ESPN had to start the game late to accommodate their stupid doubleheader, so that's why this is coming a day late. I can't just let it go, though, the game was too good, and there's too much to say. So let's get to it.

John Lucas III- 37%
This is basically the opposite of the last JL3 shot chart I posted:

That's what streak shooters do. Stacey mentioned it last night, but you know you're a legit NBA player when the other team is switching LeBron on to you in the 4th quarter for key possessions...and you score anyway.
There were 2 parts of Lucas' game that impressed me the most yesterday:
1. His ability to get his shot off over larger defenders was great. I know it's something he's had to do his whole career, but the Heat are one of the better defensive teams out there, and he usually doesn't have 6'8" guys guarding him.
2. The Heat ran the Derrick Rose double team at JL3 a few times in the 4th, and he kept his head and made the right pass every time. I feel like it would be very easy for him to get rattled and turn the ball over, but he stayed calm and collected, which the Bulls desperately needed late.

TT- 20%
I was struggling with how much credit to give TT. On one hand, yes, he deserves a lot of credit for the xs and os, where he was constantly a step ahead of Spoelstra. It was pretty dumb of Spoelstra to run the double at JL3, considering how TT's 1-1-3 counter is usually pretty successful against it. Let's go to the BMo Harris Telestrator:

Derrick (or JL3) get's met at halfcourt, and Joakim (usually) comes out to set the pick, but rolls back to the 3 point line as soon as his man comes to double. Derrick (or JL3) retreats near halfcourt to give the other 4 as much time as possible for the 4-on-3. Joakim gets the ball near the top of the key, with Boozer near the basket and 2 of the 3 from Deng/Korver/Ronnie hanging out in opposite corners. Now Boozer's man has to either give Joakim an open shot from the paint, step up and hope Jo can't hit Boozer for a dunk, or hope the help gets there in time, which leaves one of the shooters wide open in the corner. Either way, more often than not the 1-1-3 results in an easy shot for a big man in the paint, or a wide open corner three.

I have to dock him some credit for some weird personnel choices in the 4th quarter, though. The Heat went small with Battier at the 4, and for some weird reason TT decided to replace Taj with Boozer at the 7:39 mark, despite the fact that Taj was playing his usual great help D, and Boozer had contributed nothing. Then at 5:35, TT makes the even weirder decision to put Korver in for Noah, leaving Boozer as the only big on the floor, which is basically like putting a giant welcome mat in front of the rim. The Heat then predictably scored 8 easy points on their next 4 possessions until TT snapped out of his daze and put Joakim back in.

Taj- 15%
Notice that Wade didn't even try to block Taj's monster dunk in the 2nd quarter? He remembers this:

Taj probably would have gotten more credit had he, I don't know, played more than 18 minutes, TT. Seriously, he was changing the game on both ends, and his dunking range on the pick and roll apparently extends out to about 12 feet from the basket. Boozer can't dunk on the pick and roll without a trampoline. There's no reason for Boozer playing 9 more minutes than Taj in a game like this.

Joakim- 10%
Gotta give a lot of credit to Jo for locking Chris Bosh down, which I know doesn't sound like a Herculean effort, but Bosh has had some nice games against the Bulls in the past. Solid
rebounding and help D late, too.

JFB- 10%
Official Chitown-Sports nickname: Jimmy Butler= Jimmy Fucking Butler (JFB for short, since I try not to swear too much.) JFB just makes plays that make you say "Jimmy...Fucking...Butler!" While I'd like to see him start actually passing the ball on the 2-on-1 fast break when the guy he's with has a better shot, but his defense on LeBron was better than Deng's in my opinion, and he makes the smart play on offense (most of the time). I hope he gets more of a shot than JJ did.

Fred0-5%
Defense wasn't great, but he made his clutch free throws late, which is worth something.

TBN- 2%
He didn't exactly lock D. Wade down (which is why Wade went 16-26 from the field.) But 5-10 from the field ain't bad.

Deng- 1%
I can't give Deng no credit, but the difference between him and JFB was almost as pronounced as the difference between Boozer and Taj. I know he wants to play the big games, and I admire that, but 4-13 from the field suggests maybe he should wait until the pain goes down.

No Credit
Boozer- Boozer is useless. I'm done with him again. Every minute Boozer plays in a close game is a waste of time when Taj could be actually helping the team. It's really stupid, and has got to stop.