No time for a full blame game (although I have some suspects), so we'll do this bullet-point style:
-I'm really not going to kill TT for having White Mamba in for the last minute. He was obviously in for a defense/offense switch with Boozer, but the Bulls got a fast break and TT didn't want to ruin the advantage with a timeout. While I'm not sure Scal is really a defensive upgrade over Boozer in terms of guarding David West, the whole last 5 minutes were really the type of game when having a healthy Taj would have changed the game. I think having either a healthy Taj or Lu would have meant a 10 point win for the Bulls, which is a comforting thought since we're playing one of the better teams in the East.
-I love that Derrick is the type of player to pass the potential game-winning shot off to the 12th best player on the team. We picked up an L tonight, but that decision will pay off down the line, when teams have to think twice about collapsing on Derrick in situations like that.
-Joakim looked alive again. If I was doing a blame game, I think he'd be absolved. Maybe Boozer too, although there were some brutal lazy defensive plays by him down the stretch.
-Rip, CJ, and TBN were a combined 0-12 in the 4th quarter. Looking at the stats, it's amazing it was even close.
-We really need Turkish to play better than that while Taj is out. 0 points in 13 minutes tonight. While I love Scal and think I'm probably on the upper half of the scale in terms of respect for him as an NBA player, it would be nice if TT could have faith in a Asik/Noah frontcourt when Boozer needs a rest, but that's a combination you rarely see, and it's not going to be more likely with Asik putting up gooseggs.
-Ahh...Jimmy Butler. I've been leading a #freejimmybutler twitter campaign, but this is not what I had in mind. I want to see Jimmy get some significant playing time, but maybe we should start with games where one or two possessions isn't going to be the difference. Tonight it was, and some of those 2nd quarter turnovers were ugly. I still like Butler getting about 8-10 minutes a game, though.
-I wonder if TT listened to critics in not putting Derrick back in until there were 7 minutes left in the 4th, despite CJ not being able to hit water from the ocean.
-Just watched the White Mamba shot again. The worst part of the play: Scal is standing in the corner, while Rip hangs out on the short corner of the baseline, clearly trying to spread the floor for Derrick, but Scal is already in the spot he'd normally go to. Taj, had he been in, would have been right where Rip was, while Rip would have been in position to take that shot, which would, of course, been a much more ideal situation.
Showing posts with label White Mamba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label White Mamba. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Credit Where Credit is Due: Bulls-Celtics 1/13
This post originally was going to be a blame game, at least during the third quarter. The Bulls have been making a habit of letting teams get back in games instead of turning them into blowouts. Derrick talked in his ESPN post-game interview about being a 48-minute team, and there's still obviously a little way to go to get there. However, they got the job done, and since it was so nice to see the starters (besides just Derrick and Lu) have such a big hand in it, I think they deserve a post about it.
Joakim-25%
I'm not trying to grade Joakim on his own curve, but it was nice to see Joakim have the kind of game that was commonplace last year. The trick to a good Joakim game is having him run the floor in transition, be active on the offensive glass, and be engaged in a good one-on-one matchup on the defensive end, and he was three-for-three tonight. Let's hope this is the start of a trend.
Boozer-25%
While I mentioned it in the comments the other night (which I know everyone reads), I decided to go back and find the actual stat. Quote from Matt McHale at Bulls by the Horns (via TrueHoop):
"The one troubling difference in Boozer’s game this season is where his shots are coming from. According to Hoopdata, from 2007 to 2011, Carlos averaged between 7.4 and 6.0 shot attempts at the rim. This season, that number is down to 3.1. Meanwhile, his attempts from 16-23 feet have jumped from 3.0 last season to 5.2 this season."
As my lovely wife likes to say, I'll take any shot from Carlos where he's going to the basket, and cringe when he takes his turnaround baseline fadeaways. It's always nice when he's hitting the outside shot, like tonight, but it doesn't really do the job we signed him for, which is to score inside and take pressure off of Derrick on the outside. Instead, he's basically been Kurt Thomas with less defense.
That being said, I'm giving Carlos credit tonight because he was active on the defensive end tonight, and I think did a more effective job guarding Brandon Bass than Taj and Turkish did. It helped, though, that Pierce and Rondo only decided to make him play help D for about a five minute stretch in the third.
Derrick-20%
With KG being old and slow, and Perkins not around anymore, the Celtics are suddenly ripe for the plucking at the rim, and it seemed like Derrick could get there whenever he wanted. He loses a little credit because it felt like he could have wanted to get there more.
TBN- 15%
5-7 from the field and solid defense on Ray Allen. Pretty much all you can ask out of the Baseline Ninja (although he hasn't performed a good baseline ninja move in awhile).
It's time for the question to be asked: Should Ronnie remain the starter when Rip comes back? I was against it at the beginning of the season when Judson threw it out there. I liked Ronnie's chemistry with the bench mob and thought Rip's offense would help take the pressure off Derrick to carry the starters. However, the Bulls with Ronnie starting are back to where we were last year, with opponents' starting wings not getting going early because of Ronnie and Deng's defense. TT, of course, can be stubborn at times and I'm sure will start Rip as soon as he's healthy, but I still think the question is worth asking now.
Deng- 10%
ESPN has Deng as the top performer due to his great line: 21 points, 16 boards, 2 assists, a steal and a block, but he loses some percentage points for his shot selection, especially in the first half. He was settling for the kind of weird jumpers he liked to take in the VDN era that made me annoyed with him a lot.
Fortunately this is an exception now, and it'll be a travesty if Deng doesn't make the all-star team for once. He has clearly been one of the 5 best forwards in the east, but right now he's currently at 7th, behind LeBron, Melo, STAT, KG, Bosh, and Pierce. Fan voting is, of course, stupid (hey, look, everyone ahead of Deng plays for one of three teams! And Boozer and Hedo Turkoglu are somehow 9th and 10th), but they should still pay a little attention. Deng has been better than everyone ahead of him except LeBron and maybe Melo, but it's close. I'm sure the coaches will fix this, though, if the fans don't.
TT- 5%
A very wary 5% for TT. I think the starters needed a confidence boost, so I'll give him a pass on the fact that they played a combined 192 of 240 minutes on the front end of a back-to-back, especially because Noah and Boozer clearly could use a game when their minutes were in the 30s. But please, please, please, TT, find some more time for Derrick and Lu to rest. We want them to be OK in the playoffs, too, you know.
No Credit-
Bench Mob
It's OK, they've been great all year, so they're entitled to a bad game every now and then, but just look at the Bulls' +/- numbers tonight:
Boozer +19
Deng +16
Noah +13
Brewer +15
Derrick +16
Fredo -9
Lucas -7
Taj -10
Turkish -4
Ouch. And the Celtics ain't a deep team.
While we're on the subject of the Bench Mob...I'm not a big fan of the "Scal-A-Bree-Nee" chant. It feels incredibly condescending. I know White Mamba has a good sense of humor about it, but Scalabrine isn't just goofy-looking white guy, he would be a rotation player on about half the teams in the NBA, and was killing over in Italy before the season started. The Bulls have the luxury of having a deep frontcourt, but I would feel comfortable with Scalabrine playing important minutes for the Bulls in the (knocking on wood) event that one of our four big guys gets hurt. You want to chant for someone on the bench? Let's do it for Jimmy Butler. Then maybe we can see what he can do, finally.
Free Jimmy Butler.
Joakim-25%
I'm not trying to grade Joakim on his own curve, but it was nice to see Joakim have the kind of game that was commonplace last year. The trick to a good Joakim game is having him run the floor in transition, be active on the offensive glass, and be engaged in a good one-on-one matchup on the defensive end, and he was three-for-three tonight. Let's hope this is the start of a trend.
Boozer-25%
While I mentioned it in the comments the other night (which I know everyone reads), I decided to go back and find the actual stat. Quote from Matt McHale at Bulls by the Horns (via TrueHoop):
"The one troubling difference in Boozer’s game this season is where his shots are coming from. According to Hoopdata, from 2007 to 2011, Carlos averaged between 7.4 and 6.0 shot attempts at the rim. This season, that number is down to 3.1. Meanwhile, his attempts from 16-23 feet have jumped from 3.0 last season to 5.2 this season."
As my lovely wife likes to say, I'll take any shot from Carlos where he's going to the basket, and cringe when he takes his turnaround baseline fadeaways. It's always nice when he's hitting the outside shot, like tonight, but it doesn't really do the job we signed him for, which is to score inside and take pressure off of Derrick on the outside. Instead, he's basically been Kurt Thomas with less defense.
That being said, I'm giving Carlos credit tonight because he was active on the defensive end tonight, and I think did a more effective job guarding Brandon Bass than Taj and Turkish did. It helped, though, that Pierce and Rondo only decided to make him play help D for about a five minute stretch in the third.
Derrick-20%
With KG being old and slow, and Perkins not around anymore, the Celtics are suddenly ripe for the plucking at the rim, and it seemed like Derrick could get there whenever he wanted. He loses a little credit because it felt like he could have wanted to get there more.
TBN- 15%
5-7 from the field and solid defense on Ray Allen. Pretty much all you can ask out of the Baseline Ninja (although he hasn't performed a good baseline ninja move in awhile).
It's time for the question to be asked: Should Ronnie remain the starter when Rip comes back? I was against it at the beginning of the season when Judson threw it out there. I liked Ronnie's chemistry with the bench mob and thought Rip's offense would help take the pressure off Derrick to carry the starters. However, the Bulls with Ronnie starting are back to where we were last year, with opponents' starting wings not getting going early because of Ronnie and Deng's defense. TT, of course, can be stubborn at times and I'm sure will start Rip as soon as he's healthy, but I still think the question is worth asking now.
Deng- 10%
ESPN has Deng as the top performer due to his great line: 21 points, 16 boards, 2 assists, a steal and a block, but he loses some percentage points for his shot selection, especially in the first half. He was settling for the kind of weird jumpers he liked to take in the VDN era that made me annoyed with him a lot.
Fortunately this is an exception now, and it'll be a travesty if Deng doesn't make the all-star team for once. He has clearly been one of the 5 best forwards in the east, but right now he's currently at 7th, behind LeBron, Melo, STAT, KG, Bosh, and Pierce. Fan voting is, of course, stupid (hey, look, everyone ahead of Deng plays for one of three teams! And Boozer and Hedo Turkoglu are somehow 9th and 10th), but they should still pay a little attention. Deng has been better than everyone ahead of him except LeBron and maybe Melo, but it's close. I'm sure the coaches will fix this, though, if the fans don't.
TT- 5%
A very wary 5% for TT. I think the starters needed a confidence boost, so I'll give him a pass on the fact that they played a combined 192 of 240 minutes on the front end of a back-to-back, especially because Noah and Boozer clearly could use a game when their minutes were in the 30s. But please, please, please, TT, find some more time for Derrick and Lu to rest. We want them to be OK in the playoffs, too, you know.
No Credit-
Bench Mob
It's OK, they've been great all year, so they're entitled to a bad game every now and then, but just look at the Bulls' +/- numbers tonight:
Boozer +19
Deng +16
Noah +13
Brewer +15
Derrick +16
Fredo -9
Lucas -7
Taj -10
Turkish -4
Ouch. And the Celtics ain't a deep team.
While we're on the subject of the Bench Mob...I'm not a big fan of the "Scal-A-Bree-Nee" chant. It feels incredibly condescending. I know White Mamba has a good sense of humor about it, but Scalabrine isn't just goofy-looking white guy, he would be a rotation player on about half the teams in the NBA, and was killing over in Italy before the season started. The Bulls have the luxury of having a deep frontcourt, but I would feel comfortable with Scalabrine playing important minutes for the Bulls in the (knocking on wood) event that one of our four big guys gets hurt. You want to chant for someone on the bench? Let's do it for Jimmy Butler. Then maybe we can see what he can do, finally.
Free Jimmy Butler.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
The Bulls as Ninja Turtles (Part 2)
Taj Gibson= Casey Jones
Like Casey, Taj can come in and have a big impact in support of the main guys, but sometimes lets his temper get the best of him and says something to make things worse (see: Chris Bosh in the ECF)
Ronnie Brewer= Karai
Mainly just because they're both ninjas.
CJ Watson= Shadow
(there are no good pictures of Shawdow on the internet)
I like to think CJ is Derrick's mentee, even though he's older.
Big Sexy= Splinter
I was thinking about Bogans for Splinter, but I thought about it a little more and decided Sexy was a perfect Splinter, since nowadays he's so old and slow he mainly just gets the other guys into trouble.
White Mamba= Zippy Lad
Mainly because when he's involved, you know the situation isn't too serious.
Like Casey, Taj can come in and have a big impact in support of the main guys, but sometimes lets his temper get the best of him and says something to make things worse (see: Chris Bosh in the ECF)
Ronnie Brewer= Karai
Mainly just because they're both ninjas.
CJ Watson= Shadow
(there are no good pictures of Shawdow on the internet)I like to think CJ is Derrick's mentee, even though he's older.
Big Sexy= Splinter
I was thinking about Bogans for Splinter, but I thought about it a little more and decided Sexy was a perfect Splinter, since nowadays he's so old and slow he mainly just gets the other guys into trouble.
White Mamba= Zippy Lad
Mainly because when he's involved, you know the situation isn't too serious.
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