YES YES YES. YES YES YES.
How great is it to see Rose have a guy he can dish it off to? How great is it to see Luol having brilliant consistency on the arc and getting offensive rebounds and putting them in? How great is it to see Taj coming off the bench and ruining the opposition? How great is it to see Boozer draining shots in a Bulls uniform??
The score was close in the first half, but I never thought the Thunder had a chance the way the Bulls were playing. And how great was that to see? The Thunder are very good, but the Bulls are better. This was a real team win. The pressure just is not entirely all on Derrick anymore, and he loves it. It got to the point where it seemed like he was tossing it to Boozer just to watch him put it in the basket. Boozer. What can we say about Boozer? Relentless. Relia-BULL. A true post player. So good to see him playing on our team. 29 pts, 12 boards, drawing fouls. What a jump shot. Thank you, Carlos.
This team is deep. Everyone contributed. Korver was on fire in the first half. Luol was consistent throughout the whole game--which on that note, I also don't think consistency should be a controversy attached to Luol anymore. He's been incredible every game this season. Last night Luol was awesome. Draining 3's, offensive boards, and playing great D. Complete game for Lu. And Rose. Our beloved PG. Thank you for shining so brightly every night. Even with 11 pts, he had 9 assists, and is just....sighhhh. Our point guard. Out point guard who exploits the opposition's defensive mistakes, our point guard who murders you in the paint, our point guard who makes everyone better around him.
Discrepancies?
1. Derrick not getting calls. Old news. But for real. When is that going to change? Will and I spoke yesterday and he brought up something that Stacey King brought up last night: that Rose is so strong that when he drives the basket his stride is never broken by the players fouling him. So it's hard for the refs to see the contact because Rose's body doesn't show it. I guess. You're right, Will. It is time for Gar and Paxson to send in a tape of all the fouls on Rose that were never called so the league can look this over.
2. CJ. Come on, man. You don't need to be Rose. Just be someone that we can rely on to run our offense. He came in twice last night. Both times he turned the ball over right away and got benched. Neat. I'm glad TT isn't settling for mediocrity, though, and benching him if he doesn't see production out of him. That's awesome. But we do need a back-up PG we can rely on. Come on, CJ.
And for the record, on the topic of discrepancies, Asher and I have one about Asik(it's time to make this public, Asher). I think he's a great new player for the Bulls' bench, and is really growing quickly. He goes hard to the basket, plays great defense, blocks shots, gets key rebounds, and is very aggressive in the paint. He's even fixed his main problem which was getting into foul trouble. In every game I see evidence of Asik being awesome, and getting better and better. I think it's only uphill from here and he's really going to bud into something special for us. Asher thinks otherwise. Granted it was a few weeks ago when this was all said, and maybe he hadn't had a chance to really get a good look at Asik's game, but Asher said that he is "as coordinated as a baby giraffe with down syndrome." To follow that, he has promised that if Asik ever "resembles anything close to a special player" he will "take me to Chinatown and buy me a happy-ending." Asher, I don't how much a happy-ending is in Chinatown, but I think you could start by getting me a reservation.
Ahh, ya beat me to the post!
ReplyDeleteCommented on it in Katz's thread, but I think Derrick will start getting calls after the all-star break.
ReplyDeleteRE: Asik
I think you guys are once again arguing extremes when the truth is somewhere in the middle. Asik is never going to be the 2nd coming of Arvydas Sabonis, and he's not quick enough to guard bigs with a good first step. He's not, however Dragan Tarlac either. He can finish around the rim, block shots and get rebounds. I'm completely fine with him getting 8-12 minutes a game in the early part of the season, since I know TT likes to go 11 deep, and Asik should be ready if Noah/Boozer/Taj get in foul trouble. But when it comes time to tighten the rotation, I had better never see Asik in a game when Gibson could be.
RE: Deng
I'm really not trying to make up some sort of Vendetta against Lu. I really don't hate the guy, and want him to be a good 3rd option, and the kind of player Kobe would veto a trade in order to play with. But he hasn't been incredible in every game this year, and I can think of a few games he's primarily responsible for us losing. San Antonio- 6-17 from the field, 1-6 from the 3 point line. New York- 5-13, absolutely torched by Danilo Galinari. I feel like Lu has been better than he has in a couple years, but he's still taking dumb shots, setting for long 2s instead of attacking the basket, and occasionally falling asleep on defense.
Deng is playing extremely well, and will play even better now that he's always the third option.
ReplyDeleteHe had a bad shooting game in S.A., but still played great defense. He and the entire rest of the Bulls had bad games against Detroit and NYK. Other than that, he's been great.
He plays hard on both ends, and is expected to (unlike DRose). He shoots well, I don't think he takes dumb shots any more frequently than all our other players sometimes do.
His long 2s are a strength, as he has, in good years, had one of the best mid-range jumpers in the league (not an overstatement, as anyone who played close attention during the skiles era knows). He was on the cusp of all-star selection for a couple years, and honestly I think he warrants all-star consideration this year. The league is stacked with SFs, so I don't think he'll get in, but he's been playing great.
One issue: MAKE YOUR FREE THROWS. This goes for all of the Bulls, but I continue to take issue with Luol especially on this one.
Luol Deng's play merits serious all-star consideration. I usually don't start paying attention to other teams and players in the league outside of the bulls until after the break, but I'm sure he's been more consistent on both ends of the floor (particularly defensively) than many of the higher profile shoe-ins. He won't make it, but maybe he should.
I also like that Tibs knows how to use him, and moves him around from position to position in a few different rotation configurations.
EU
Time for a little statistical analysis.
ReplyDeleteIf we're talking all-around value, we should look at PER (player efficiency rating). PER takes both offense and defense into account, and as the name implies, rewards efficiency with your shots. Deng, right now, is at 14.4, which ranks him 132nd in the NBA (just below Mike Dunleavy and just above CJ Miles). Now I know PER isn't a perfect stat. Derrick is 25th in the NBA, brought down a little by his defense and how high his usage rate is (3rd in the NBA behind Kobe and Russell Westbrook right now) but if you look at the list, the people that are having awesome years are very much at the top.
(Sorry can't embed links into comments. Here's the link:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fstatistics)
Now, this is an improvement for Deng, like I said, I think he's playing better this year, but putting him on the All-Star team is a going a little over the top. It was interesting looking at Deng's career stats for this, in 06-07, when he was looking like a future superstar, he shot 52%, ridiculous for a small forward. Know what he shot from 3 that year? 1-7. For the season. That's the Lu I want back on the Bulls.