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...

2012-2013

Welcome back, everybody. Before we jump into the depressing sadness that is everything that happened since about 2:50 PM last April 28th, let me get to a few housekeeping type things:

-The goal right now is to move to a self-contained website. I don't have nearly the technical know-how to pull this off right now, but I'm hoping to teach myself over the course of the year, in what little free time I do have. But if anyone with the skill wants to collaborate...

-Speaking of, it's always nice to have more authors, so if you're reading this and want to contribute, just let me know.

-As should be quite obvious by now, I clearly only have the motivation to write about the Bulls. So if/when I move the site, I need a clever Bulls-related name. If anyone has any ideas, again, let me know.

Now on to thoughts on 2012-2013

-I still have no faith in Thibodeau. I think this year might be even worse, really, since he'll be even more reluctant to turn to the bench, the starters are going to play some ridiculous minutes. I wouldn't be surprised to see Deng's minutes somehow go up, along with Rip, Kirk until Derrick is back, and maybe even Joakim. This as we should be aware by now, is not a recipe for long-term success. I'll come into the season with an open mind, maybe TT will prove me wrong. But I doubt it.

-Even worse was the front office decisions. I know we couldn't have kept everyone, but by dipping into the luxury tax a little (which we could have easily afforded), we wouldn't have gone from having our greatest non-Derrick-related strength (the Bench Mob) turned into our biggest non-Boozer-related weakness. I love JFB, but it worries me that he's now our seventh best player (well, maybe 6th, Boozer), and it's a steep drop to number 8 (Nazr Mohammed? Or Nate Robinson?). I had no idea I'd miss JL3 this much already.

-Speaking of the front office: Pay Taj. 4 years, 40 mil. He is absolutely worth it. I know they can let it ride and match in restricted free agency, but then the Bulls once again have a vested interest in not seeing Taj putting up huge numbers this year. Which is absolutely moronic. The worst part is the number one argument that people keep making against Taj is that he hasn't shown he can keep his production up with starter's minutes. Simple solution: PLAY HIM STARTER'S MINUTES. I can't believe I need to tell you that, TT. It has been mathematically proven to make your team better. If he's good enough to play in the 4th quarter, he's good enough to play in the 1st quarter.

-Marco Belinelli is going to make all you Ronnie Brewer haters (you know who you are) missing the glory days of the baseline ninja by halftime of the opener tomorrow night. He's not good at anything, and is somehow going to be asked to play 12-20 minutes a game. Hopefully, if TT insists on playing Deng 44 minutes a game, we see some JFB at the 2 with the second unit. Of course, then our entire offense will be run through Nate Rob, but...that's just the kind of year it's going to be.

-Sigh...Go Bulls.

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.

A Halfhearted Blame Game- Bulls/Sixer Game 4

Another disclaimer: this isn't going to be fun or interesting. I have very little to say about this game, or the series in general, that I haven't been screaming from the mountaintop all season long. The rotation doesn't make sense. Ball movement is stagnant on offense, especially when JL3 is on the floor. Boozer drags down the defensive rotations significantly. The Bulls need to stop giving a half-assed effort.

Oh, wait, that last one is new. I would love to know why the Bulls are playing some of their least inspired, energetic basketball in the playoffs. Did Derrick's injury take that much out of the sails? Obviously it was a huge setback, but, and I quote Kyle Korver's facebook post here:

Bulls fans. Now is not the time to ask why or to get bitter. Now is the time to refocus and ask "How are we going to win this Championship?" We have the best Team in the league. This season has proven, we are a TEAM and it has taken us ALL to have the best record. Lets focus on whats ahead. This is an incredible opportunity for All of Us to step up and make it happen. We're all gonna have to work harder and smarter. We are all gonna have to believe in ourselves. That we are more than the sum of our parts. We need YOU to believe with Us. We need You to believe for Us. We are going to keep going strong. One quarter, one game, one round at a time. Until its over. That's how we're gonna do it.

What a load of crap. Not that it's Kyle's fault (other than all the unnecessary capitalization). But the percentage of hard, smart basketball has been lower in the last 3 games than any other point in the season. The Bulls have done the opposite of what a championship team would have done.

I blame, as you may have guessed, TT for this. It starts with the coach. You can say all you want it's on the players to be the ones to bring the intensity and heart, but if they don't, it's the coach's job to sit their ass on the bench. Yet take a guess which 3 Bulls played the most minutes today?

Did you guess Boozer, Deng, and Watson? AKA, the three worst Bulls in this series so far?

We are in the darkest timeline. I would love to see what the other timelines look like. Forget the one where Derrick doesn't get hurt, even just one where Taj and Boozer's minutes are flip-flopped, or Mike James plays half the minutes that JL3 and CJ have played. I bet we're up 3-1 in that timeline. (Side note: what the hell is Mike James on the playoff roster for, if not to provide offense from the point and veteran leadership. Those are 2 things the Bulls have been sorely in need of in this series.)

I'm not going to break this game down by percentages like usual. There's blame for everyone. Maybe Boozer would get a little more (they made a big deal about how Boozer was having a good game by looking at the numbers, but the shots he didn't make were bad, and he was his usual terrible defensive self.) But other than Taj, everyone deserves some blame.

After Game 5, which I'm quite confident will be the last game of the Bulls' season, I'll break down what the Bulls need to do in the offseason. Will and I have had some intense arguments this season about whether the Bulls need to make drastic changes, or if they're fine with what they have. I was obviously on the wrong side in this argument. This is not a champion roster, even with Derrick. But this is a discussion for later.

Last note, on the refereeing: yeah, it wasn't great. But there's no conspiracy against the Bulls. If the fix was in, which do you think the NBA wants to see in the 2nd round; a rematch of the best first round series ever from a few years ago? Or Philly-Atlanta (God, I fell asleep just typing that.) Chalk these calls up to incompetency, not malice. And frankly, the Bulls didn't really deserve close calls today. Usually the team that plays harder gets those calls. Today it was the Sixers. Play harder next time, then we can complain about the refs.

We Need a TT Intervention

Even though I don't agree with the decision to keep Derrick on the court in Game 1, I could at least see where he was coming from with that. There is no fucking reason that Joakim Noah should have kept playing tonight, let alone come back on the court. This is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. This is VDN levels of stupid. Joakim might have made his ankle even worse, and for what? To hobble up the court a couple times, unable to jump for rebounds? In what world is an injured Joakim a better player than a healthy Taj or Omer? What the HELL were you trying to accomplish with that???

And now we're coming down the stretch with maybe the worst defensive 5 we can have (and I'm including Deng, JFB guarded Evan Turner much better) on the court to hold a 10 point lead. And apparently the offensive plan is to have JL3 and Boozer throw up off-balance shots? I'm writing this down 1 with 1:50 left, and I can safely say, win or lose, that today is the day I have officially lost faith in TT.

I don't know what the hell is going on. TT needs to protect the basket, and has no big man to do it (Asik is moving too slow), and Deng is doing a terrible job staying in front of Evan Turner. Yet he's staying on in crunch time with maybe the WORST 5 I've seen the Bulls play this year in a must-win game.

And now Deng is bricking ill-advised 3s. And we're doing nothing to counter them. This is one of the worst-coached games I've ever seen, and I've seen Tim Floyd and VDN for most of the past decade.

I want TT gone. We are not going to win a championship with him. He doesn't adapt, and has clearly shown he's too stubborn to stay out of his player's way. I have no faith in TT at all anymore.

What a terrible way to end the season.

Blame Game- Bulls/Sixers Game 2

It's probably a good thing that I'm writing this a day after the game, and not right after, as it's already probably going to be the most profane post ever. If I had wrote it last night, it might have been nothing but swear words.

TT- 50%
Quick disclaimer before I rip into Thibodeau here, what I'm about to write has exactly nothing to do with Derrick's injury. Well, not nothing, since if Derrick was around to bail the Bulls out, we wouldn't be here right now. But I would feel the same way as I do now about TT if Derrick got hurt in the 1st quarter of game 1, or was just missing one game.

Heart. Toughness. Defense. Depth. These are all the things that were supposed to be strengths of the team, that were going to get the Bulls to the 2nd round despite the lack of a superstar. Instead we saw the opposite of those things on display last night. And TT stood by gaping while it was happening. And not just the 3rd quarter. It seemed like he was checked out all night.

But lets talk about that 3rd quarter, where the Bulls took an 8 point lead the Bench Mob gave them with defense and hustle (with an assist from Joakim's sudden offensive prowess) and turned it into a 14 point deficit. It was a 7 point deficit by the time TT sprung into action and decided to make a substitution with 4 minutes left, putting in Taj and Turkish. Apparently he needed Boozer to do more of this first:
8:14 Carlos Boozer 3 second
7:54 Carlos Boozer shooting foul
6:41 Carlos Boozer bad pass (Spencer Hawes steal)
6:39 Carlos Boozer personal foul
5:31 Carlos Boozer misses 19 foot jumper
And the box score doesn't even mention all the times Boozer had a front row seat to a Jrue Holiday layup. One of the things the media loves to give TT credit for is a willingness to hold his big men accountable for poor play. I believe the last time we all slurped TT for it, I qualified it by saying I wanted to see it in the playoffs. Last night he had the chance to make changes in the middle of the third quarter, before things got out of hand. Instead he waited until the Sixers had all the momentum. That was a fucking VDN thing to do.

The other thing about TT that's driving me crazy?

Deng- 20%
So you can sit Boozer and Noah when they're having bad games, and Rip pretty much all the time because you think he's Keith Bogans for some reason, and even Derrick towards the end of the season, but there are times when Deng is actively hurting us, yet stays on the court. If you don't want to play JFB for whatever reason (despite the fact that maybe he could have shut down Evan Turner, and brought energy to the offense, but whatever), then at least play Korver and Rip together, or the Korver/TBN combo, but Deng didn't help on either side of the ball last night, and needed to sit a lot fucking earlier than he did. Hold all your players accountable, TT.

Boozer-15%
See above. Great first shift in, kind of crappy 2nd shift, and then he clearly came out from halftime ready to take fadeaway jumpers and play no defense. We won't even get out of the first round if Boozer doesn't step up on offense.

CJ Watson- 8%
No one's asking you to replicate Derrick's offense, but it would be nice if you could not make Jrue Holiday look like the second coming of, well, Derrick. I know he'll never replicate those shooting numbers again this series, but that out of control. If the shots not falling, you can at least play decent defense. Otherwise, I want to see some Mike James action, TT (or is that too crazy for you?)

Rip Hamilton-4%
I know it's not your fault you're on the Bogans plan, and you played pretty well in the first quarter, but everyone who was on the floor for that 3rd quarter (except Noah) needs a little blame.

Fredo-3%
Again, for some reason Korver wasn't really part of the offense last night, which isn't totally his fault, but he needs to find a way to get more than 4 shots off in 24 minutes.

Absolved
Joakim- A lot is being made today about how Holiday and Evan Turner's numbers last night were flukey, and unlikely to be replicated, but let's be honest, Joakim isn't shooting 10-11 again in this series, either.

JL3- Wasn't great in the 4th, but no one was, and we're going to need some instant offense in this series, so hopefully he keeps that up.

Fix this shit now, TT. The wheels are falling off.

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.

2012 NBA Playoff Prediction Challenge

Here's how it works. In the comments, post your picks for the winner of every round in the playoffs, along with the number of games you think each will series will go. You get 5 points for a correct pick multiplied by the round number (so 5 for the first round, 10 for the second round, and so on). You get 2 bonus points for getting the right number of games in a series you also picked correctly. So in later rounds you don't need to pick the correct opponent to get the bonus points (i.e., I picked the Bulls over the Celtics in 6, and it ends up being Bulls over Hawks in 6, I would still get 12 points.)

Since we're in a truncated season, and there's such a quick turnaround between the regular season and playoffs, I'll give everyone until the end of the day Sunday to make your picks. So I guess you could wait and see what happens in game 1 of every series first, but don't be a Bosh like that.

Here are my picks:
Bulls over 76ers in 4
The Sixers have been one of the worst teams in the NBA lately, and then Evan Turner decided to run his mouth off saying they want the Bulls? He can backtrack all he wants, he still gave a team that feels constantly disrespected despite having the best record in the NBA bulletin board material. The Bulls could win this series with a starting 5 of JL3, TBN, JFB, White Mamba, and Turkish D, and I'm only being half-facetious here. I would really like to see that series. I bet it would go 7 games.

Heat over Knicks in 5
This series will be entertaining, and I think the Knicks can steal a game, but I think all the Heat's supposed vulnerabilities are going to go away come playoff time, and the Knicks will be overmatched.

Pacers over Magic in 5
The Magic are the only team in the playoffs I'd rather play than the Sixers. Who are the threats you need to worry about? Jameer Nelson and Ryan Anderson? I think I'd rather play the Magic than the Bucks, Nets, Rockets, or Suns.

Celtics over Hawks in 6
The Celtics worry me. They're playing well at just the right time (wrong time from a Bulls fan perspective.) They match up well with the Bulls, and if any of our secondary players don't show up for the series, it could be ugly. But these are second round problems, and we're talking about the first round. The Celtics have enough to handle the Hawks. Josh Smith will help by taking stupid shots. Also, Avery Bradley will shut Joe Johnson down, and Rondo is going to own Jeff Teague.

Spurs over Jazz in 6
I like the Jazz, I think this will be one of the more entertaining series of the first round. This is not the same Spurs team that got exposed by the Grizzlies last year though. They can score with anybody, and almost have an embarrassment of wing riches with Gary Neal and Kawhi Leonard, along with the usual suspects.

Thunder over Mavs in 6
I like Dirk to steal a couple games, but this is not the same Mavs team without Tyson Chandler and JJ Barea. It is, pretty much, the same Thunder team though.

Nuggets over Lakers in 7
The only real upset I have in the first round, I think the Nuggets style is going to be hard for the Lakers to handle. And I really like the George Karl- Mike Brown matchup for the Nuggets. I realize this pick might screw me over in the long run, but I'm making it anyway.

Grizzlies over Clippers in 5
Three words: Vinny. Del. Negro.

I'll break down the 2nd rounds when I actually know them. Here are the rest of my picks, for the record:
Bulls over Celtics in 7
Heat over Pacers in 5
Spurs over Grizzlies in 6
Thunder over Nuggets in 6

Bulls over Heat in 7
Thunder over Spurs in 6

Bulls over Thunder in 7
(Three straight game 7s. I predict a lot of stress in our future. Buckle up.)

Seventh Round Draft Justifications

I apologize again that these are coming so slowly. I wanted to be done by now. Anyways, here are the full results, let's take it away.

Will- Joakim Noah
It's a little easier to critique this one since Noah's had so many lackluster games lately (last night notwithstanding.) He's really got to pick up the intensity as we approach the playoffs here. But I don't want to harp on Noah too much here, as Gomez says, that's bad karma.

Gomez- Jermaine Dye
The 4 most similar players on Baseball Reference for Jermaine are Torii Hunter, someone named Greg Luzinski, Reggie Sanders, and Tim Salmons. I feel like you could get more value here.

Ron- Harold Baines
Like Harold Baines, for example.

Conall- Joe Crede
Did you know Joe Crede only had 4 seasons of more than 100 games played? I forgot he flamed-the-fuck-out so quickly.

BJ- Mark Grace

No stats necessary for this one. Admittedly at this point I was partially motivated by trying to steal Cubs from Tristan, I could never be mad at myself for drafting Grace too high. The man was an institution at 1st for my entire childhood. Rarely flashy, or even athletic, Grace was a perennial borderline all-star and Gold Glove runner-up. His lack of obvious speed didn't keep him from being an outstanding defensive first baseman, and more than his range or assists would show, his consistency and dependability were a perfect building block for an infield. Also gets bonus points for single-handedly keeping the Cubs in the '89 playoffs and then bridging that lonely gap to the 98 team.

Sam- Will Perry

Sam will fill this in later.

Ethan- Aramis Ramirez
Just to be fair, I decided to see who the 4 most similar players were for Aramis, and number 2 was Jermaine Dye. They're still both a hell of a lot better than Joe Crede, though.

Katz- Johnny Red Kerr (coach)
I don't want to tear down Red. But if people want to give me crap for my pick's winning percentage, they should know that Kerr's as a coach was .329.

Tristan- Ed Belfour
So far I've picked a team full of good character guys and consummate professionals. We need some color in this clubhouse, so I'm taking one of the bigger characters in the Chicago sports world in Eddie the Eagle. My team needed a Vezina Trophy Winner and a guy who would try to offer a cop a billion dollar bribe. Good value.

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:

Opening Day Blame Game: Cubs-Nationals 4/5

So normally I'd continue to ignore the Cubs until they act like they know what they're doing. Which we can obviously see isn't today, as the Cubs decided to lose in the most Cubs way possible. But the fact that this loss was so self-inflicted makes me want to sound off on it.

Jeff Baker- 45%
What the FUCK were you going in the top of the 8th inning? You looked like a beer league softball player. Wouldn't anyone with even a modicum of baseball instinct put their glove down and at least try to make a play on the ball? It looked like he was trying to get out of the way of the ball as it rolled by like he was a base-runner. Anyways, with any normal first baseman with as much range as Prince Fielder, Dempster has a shutout going through 8.

Kerry Wood- 30%
While he should have been out of the inning a couple of times with the ridiculous strike zone, his WHIP is now 81. That's not OK. While I love Kerry Wood, and can't wait to write his justification in a few rounds, it's obvious he can't blow pitches by people for a third strike anymore. Maybe Wood isn't the right choice for set-up man.

Dale Sveum- 15%
Let's make a deal, Sveum. I won't completely dismiss you as another manager underqualified for your job, and you stop calling for your 36 year old outfielder who has had knee injuries in the past to steal frigging 3rd base.

Carlos Marmol- 5%
The double wasn't entirely his fault, but he would have probably given up 2 home runs if the wind hadn't been blowing in.

David DeJesus- 3%
I thought DeJesus was brought in to improve our fielding, and take pitches and improve our on base percentage. Instead he swung at the first pitch a bunch of times, and botched a catchable fly ball in the 9th inning. Not a great start.

Joe Mather- 2%
I don't know who you are, but maybe when you're put in to be the tying run on third base, and the ball is hit hard three feet away from you, you shouldn't charge headfirst into a sure out. There's no way Tony Campana would have done that.

Absolved-
Ryan Dempster- The silver lining of today was how well Dempster pitched. Maybe if he can keep that up the starting pitching won't be a complete disaster.

Marlon Byrd- While we're at it, Sveum, what the hell is our most reliable hitter doing batting 7th? Please fix this, too.

RW's Justifications: Round 1, Michael Jordan

There is no Chicago athlete more iconic. He is considered by many to be the best athlete of all time. You know the numbers, but it never hurts to see them once in a while. Here is a mere selection of achievements:

6-time NBA Champion
6-time NBA Finals MVP
5-time MVP
11 All-NBA Selections
10 Scoring Titles
9 All Defensive Selections

Two thoughts: He should have had seven MVPs (Barkley and Malone were each gifted one...it's OK, MJ got their rings) And how about those last two numbers? Holy shit. I think I knew each of those independently, but to see them side by side is impressive. Watch this.

Michael Jordan. How much can we say anymore? It's all been said. He is Chicago's most _______ athlete. No, I like that. Chicago's Most Athlete. He's on my team.

RW's Justifications: Justification of Lateness

There is probably no really good reason why I haven't posted any justifications for any of my players. Maybe the rounds that were happening around the time my grandfather died and I went back to Chicago are OK to have missed out on. But even then, none of my players require too much explanation, so I could have hopped online to put together a couple sentences to "convince" you that an individual is indeed bringing something important, or even indispensable to my team.

I haven't even read all that's been posted yet. I probably won't until I've gotten up to date with my posts. But I did read Tristan's fair and balanced thoughts on my Stacey King pick. He posted a fake link to the Stacey King Soundboard, but instead it sent you to his career stats. I sure hope T has placed pitfalls throughout all of his explanations of my selections.

How long did you spend playing on the soundboard?!?!?! It's awesome, isn't it?! I wish there was one about Kwame Brown's small hands... (More to come in the justification on Dr. King's developments into a key piece of the current Bulls' future successes.)

Time to justify!