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.

Quick Thoughts on Bulls/Sixers 11/2

I'm choosing to remain on the optimistic side of the 2013/14 coin here, but that one stung a little. However, can we all stop with the silly "Derrick Rose is terrible now" nonsense? Yes, he looks rusty, and is clearly not making good decisions at the end of games. But he's still one of the very best players in the NBA, and still capable of doing things no one else is capable of. And if you honestly think the Bulls would be better off with Nate Robinson as their point guard, then I honestly don't respect your basketball intelligence.

Derrick will be back to normal soon, once he's had a little more time to be back to game speed, and an early loss to the Sixers will not actually be the end of the season. I know it's not fun to lose 16 point halftime leads to really bad teams, but the Bulls will be OK. It's a long season everyone, the Bulls will still win 55 games and be one of the top 3 teams in the East.

- I'm a little more worried about the Bulls' depth. My Dunleavy pateience meter is getting very small, Kirk does not look good, I like Nazr but he isn't good for more than 8 minutes a game. I'd like to see TT work Tony Snell into the rotation a little more going forward. Theoretically, he's supposed to add 3 point shooting, which the Bulls have been awful at so far this year. So far they're 13-56 on the year, good for 23%.

-Speaking of Tony Snell,why not bring him in at the end when you need a 3 late? What are you hoping to accomplish by leaving Jo in the game there?

-I know it was probably moot at that point, but good job catching the ball, Dunleavy.

-I don't like this new, calmer, collected TT. While I do like that the rotations are under control more these days, I don't feel like a TT team from the past few years blows that game quite so easily. Also, how about some more actual plays? The offense is looking surprisingly Vinny-ish lately.

-Keep doing what you're doing, Boozer and JFB. Hopefully everyone will be on your level, soon.

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.

Another Year, Another TT Rant

One thing I feel bad about, in terms of not writing very much this year, is not being able to acknowledge that Boozer isn't a complete waste of space this year. In fact, I don't mind seeing him in at the end of games this year, as his improved offensive game (both going to the basket more and hitting his turnaround fadeaway more consistently) at least makes up for the (less-frequent) defensive lapses. Sometimes it's infuriating, because he's still not worth $15 mil, but he might be playing just well enough not to get amnestied this offseason.

Taj has definitely suffered as a result. I don't feel like Taj is the type of guy to get paid and stop trying, so I feel like his regression is at least partially a result of less consistent playing time from last year. I fully expected Taj's minutes to go up from last year, but he's basically stayed the same, averaging 20.2 this year, after 20.4 last year. Considering there's one less viable big man in Chicago, that means all of Asik's minutes are being divvied up among Jo and Boozer, which might be why the Bulls are having such a hard time holding leads late in games this year.

Of course, maybe Asik should have gotten more credit for the 2nd unit defense last year. Taj hasn't looked like the player he was last year at all. In bits and pieces, sure, but overall he's making more mistakes defensively and letting up rebounds he never gave up last season.

But that's not why we're here. We're here because TT is somehow getting worse. He seems to have little sense of who to play and when, or how to build any sort of momentum. It's pretty common knowledge at this point that the Bulls haven't won more than 3 games in a row all season, and I'm looking straight at TT for this problem. His rotations seem to be made using the opposite of logic. Anyone remember JFB playing out of his mind against the Heat? Then he plays 10 minutes the next game against Cleveland. He played a season-low 6 minutes tonight in a game where it might have helped to have someone playing perimeter defense. Kirk Hinrich is useless about half the time, NateRob swings from helpful to a huge detriment in the span of seconds, but Marquis Teague can't get off the bench unless Kirk is in street clothes.

Let's take, for example, Marco's minutes tonight. Rip was on fire in the 3rd quarter. 5 of 6 from the field, and getting pretty much whatever he wanted. Then Marco comes in at the start of the 4th quarter and basically plays like the opposite of that. Useless on offense and defense, and couldn't even be counted on to dribble the ball competently (for the 2nd game in a row.) So does TT go back to Rip to try to continue the hot hand? Go to Jimmy to play some lockdown defense and shut down their scorers?

Nope. Not only does Marco play the whole 4th (going 1 for 7 from the field, and 2-4 from the line down the stretch,) TT decided to run the final two plays for him. They both failed, and only through Toronto incompetence did they escape to overtime. Finally at the end of overtime TT called the play he should have in the first place (Iso for Deng.)

TT's faith in players that aren't helping is infuriating. It's not Boozer so much anymore, but he still can't manage to get his 5 best players on the court at the same time. Even if that 5 is more fluid these days, he still can't figure out pieces to use that make sense at the same time. And every 3rd or 4th game the Bulls drop a winnable game to a team they should beat. They tried again tonight, but the Raptors were feeling generous. It's still frustrating to sit through, though.

Come back and save us, Derrick!

A Carlos Boozer Flowchart

As you can clearly see, I have very little time to blog these days. But every now and then, I find 10 minutes to make a flowchart about Carlos Boozer. Here it is below:

It's pretty self-explanatory, really.

Quick Halloween Thoughts (Bulls-Kings 10/31)

Sorry folks, no time for a full credit post. Going to have to keep it abridged tonight.

-My worst fears came true tonight with Taj. No contract reached because the Bulls lowballed him (4 years, 32 mil? DeMar DeRozen got 4 years 40 mil tonight.) Now the Bulls as an organization have a vested interest in Taj's numbers not getting too high. I'm not saying that's why he only saw 19 minutes tonight, but he changed the game defensively in those 19 minutes. I know Joakim and Boozer (!) both played well tonight, but if Nazr Mohammed is only going to play for 3 minutes, then there's 93 big man minutes available. I'd like to see those a little more spread out, for the good of all three of those guys long term. (Omer Asik played 33 minutes tonight for the Rockets. Just saying.)

(Just as I was getting ready to post this, this tweet came across my feed:

38 million over 4 years. He left a little on the table, in my opinion, but I'm ecstatic it got done.)
 

-I enjoyed seeing both Boozer and Joakim taking the ball to the basket tonight. The Kings aren't known for their post defense, so hopefully this keeps up when we play games against teams with decent defensive big men. We're going to need it as long as our best creator out of the backcourt is Nate Robinson.

-Speaking of NateRob...he's one of our five best defensive players now? Really? That's...foreboding.

-I really don't care that Marco Belinelli hit a three and got fouled on another. I want JFB playing those minutes. If Jimmy's going to be part of the rotation going forward, he needs to play more than 11 minutes a game. At least we'll have some semblance of perimeter D.

-There's been a lot of blogosphere backlash against Kirk Hinrich. And I understand why, he probably got a good deal more money from the Bulls than he would have got anywhere else, and they could have been smarter about fitting him in monetarily with the trade exception. But from a pure basketball standpoint, I think he's a good fit. He'll run the offense at least competently until Derrick comes back, and I think he'll be an upgrade for the 2nd unit once that happens.

-Speaking of Derrick...remember what happened last time Derrick played the Kings?

Sigh...I miss him so much...