Bulls Media Bitten by the Cubs Bug

I awoke from my 2nd consecutive night of nightmarish Bulls dreams to a Sam Smith article entitled, “The State of the Bulls is sound."  It’s quite interesting the word “sound” is not in proper title case, and I thought perhaps Smith was at his peak playoff prose performance in defining it is “errant noise” rather than than that of being “sturdy and strong.”

Unfortunately, I think instead he is as deluded as our current President who – with record poverty, record REAL underemployment/unemployment and record debt, deficits and fear of America’s financial future also characterized the state of the nation the same way.

Granted, I think the Bulls are better off than the nation as a whole.  But c’mon.  The Bulls are “sound”?  If you believe that you may be the same guy who thought signing Carlos Zambrano or Soriano would singularly set up a World Series run.  Like the delusion we Cub fans have had for years, I’m not so sure we are a player away from our playoff fantasies.  In fact, I think Thibodeau may need to go to the Theo school of rebuilding a number of things about our Bulls.

Let’s start with everyone’s #1 Bulls issue.  Derek “the thorny” Rose.  Clearly Bulls aren’t playoff competitive without him.  So the two salient questions are:

1. Will he ever be healthy and have sustainable basketball brilliance?; and,

2. Is his surrounding cast truly sufficient for championship contention?

Derek Rose’s Unreal Body Dynamics

Of course no one knows the answer to the first.  Everyone assumes he can return given his age and drive.  Smith references Bernard King and Zydrunas Ilgauskas as examples of why this is likely.   However, it is more likely that Rose is probably more similar to Tiger Woods in the enormous torque and stress he places his body under to accomplish his acrobatic feats.  He’s never been a pure shooter or (yet) developed the Jordan/Kobe (and even Ray Allen) dynamics that rely more on basketball IQ than physicality, so CAN he be an All Star premier player without his unreal speed and creative contortions?  Doubtful.  The 2 games just prior to his latest injury showed signs that he could be the original Rose.  But I think we are deluding ourselves to think that the long term proposition for Rose being “Rose” beyond even a year or two is 50/50.  Athleticism will fade and he won’t get any taller.  Truth be told he looked old against the young guns like Wall in the beginning of the year.

And what of that supporting cast?  We know OKC can survive without Westbrook (and Hardin) and suspect that Pacers might not be any better with all of their talent at full speed.  Are we REALLY just a Rose away from greatness?  Noah’s standout year was wonderful, but at the end of the day – he couldn’t do squat against the Wizard’s big men.  Butler still hasn’t come of age offensively (and may never do so) but clearly Taj showed sustainable greatness even in the playoffs.  Dunleavy, Boozer and Snell are all expendable.  Do YOU think a Noah/Gibson/Butler/(Hinrick or Augstin) platoon equals the offensive firepower that Miami, Washington, OKC, Houston or the Clippers have?  The “bench mob” was profound because it showed just how important a second unit was to long term winning.  Like my beloved Cubbies, you can have an MBL leading starting rotation but without a stellar bullpen you will continue to be…well.. the Cubs.  I’m not sure the Bulls can sustain any prolonged San Antonio caliber offensive or defensive threat at a championship level with our mix of players.

And the addition of a star like Carmelo Anthony seems to bring the Bulls to (perhaps) a 2nd round contender but not a Championship team if you add up all the numbers.  The brilliant article by Kelly Scaletta shows, a ‘Melo addition is a diminishing one in more ways than one.  (Kevin Love on the other hand isn’t.)

I actually believe the Bulls position is much better than the Bears and slightly better than the Cubs.  The addition of the “Real Madrid MJ” AND someone like Kevin Love would make the Bulls uber-competitive with or without the re-blooming of Rose and the current cast.  But Rose’s unknowns and an aging selfish shooter like Carmelo doesn’t give me much confidence.

Perhaps the major concern of the Bulls is one that no one dares entertain.  One Coach Tom Thibodeau.

On one hand it is remarkable that any coach could motivate professional prima donnas to the playoffs after the triple sucker punch of loosing your MVP twice and your only other All Star leader.  I truly can’t understand how Thibs only came in 4th in Coach of the Year voting after what he accomplished this year.

On the other hand you have to ask, “how is it that you couldn’t make significant enough STRATEGIC adjustments (not just tactical ones) to the Wizards after barely eeking out 1 win in 4 tries?”  The whole “we just have to play harder” mantra is great time-out tutelage but doesn’t address the key fact that your “defense wins all” strategy …doesn’t.  Or at least it didn’t last year or this year.

All the Wizards had to do was swarm Dunleavy to dampen his deviate scoring display and use an Ariza antidote on Augustin and waala – no O.  Thibs seems to think that scoring is merely a nuisance for the NBA pansies who won’t work at defense.  It might shock him to know that James Naismith create a game that focused on giving points for putting a ball in a basket and didn’t reward any points to the opposing team for deny them.

Don’t get me wrong.  I still love Thibs, but it turns out he is perhaps the best REGULAR season coach in the NBA and the worst playoff coach.  The whisper that he overworks players during the regular season to overperform (and that the Bulls have no 2nd gear come the playoffs) is now louder and more persistent than Boozer’s mouth.   They have yet to show they DO have a different  - more competitive gear – to match the intensity of their playoff opponents.  All that “practicing top effort” for an entire season hasn’t paid off TWO YEARS IN A ROW.  (Yes, the Heat were beatable last year.)

Clearly, Tom T overvalues defense and despises offense.  His first year success came more from merely delegating offense to Rose than any ingenuity in embracing and creating it in his other players.  Didn’t Phil focus his players on defensive excellence despite his offensive calling card?

One of the greatest things Phil Jackson and Pat Riley did was to create entirely different “looks” both offensively AND defensively against their opponents to keep them off guard in the playoffs.  (Tex Winter was a big part of that).  Outside of tweaking spacing or  - as in Dunleavy’s 35 point extravaganza – merely running plays for one guy, Thibodeau seems out matched when it comes to creating scoring.  Mentioning the best pure shooter the team was worse than saying “Tea Party” in the oval office.  “Jimmer” who proved he was the most productive scorer in his limited minutes wasn’t even allowed to take his sweats off even in second platoon relief.  Imagine where the Rockets would be if they were afraid to put Troy Daniels in?

Someone needs to spend his summer learning how to be just as ingenious at offense as he does D.  And with his knowledge of the game, who knows he doesn’t come up with something rivaling Phil’s “triangle” offense to match his defensive brilliance?

My guess is not only is the current coaching approach not “sound” for the future of the Bulls, it will never create a dynasty we all long for.

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Bulls Boozer Rips Hamilton Hope

UPDATE: Bulls won their first exhibition game against the Pacers but Boozer didn’t impress.  Says the Sun-Times: It wasn’t a great start for Boozer, who missed his first five shots, including a layup, and picked up his fourth foul midway through the third quarter. He had as many points as fouls (five) until he scored on a putback in the final two minutes. Meanwhile, his defensive assignment, Tyler Hansbrough, finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds — the kind of numbers the Bulls need Boozer to accumulate nightly.

Original Post here:

I have been a constant, consistent critic of Chicago Bulls Carlos Boozer after his signing last year.  Or more correctly, his playing. I wasn’t always that way.  I remember Boozer looking formidable against various playoff teams with Jazz and, having not really followed closely, envisioned a constant, consistent scorer/defender to make the Bulls look like, you know, a REAL championship basketball team. 

I gave him a pass on tripping over a gym bag and missing the first part of the season because A) he seemed like a GOOD guy and B) those that live in glass houses like me should just shut up.  When he came back he showed flashes of bumblery to brilliance – but never broke out.  His stats SEEM to give hope though (quoting the Trib):

…he averaged 17.5 points on 51 percent shooting last season. That's more than his career 17.3 points per game average and just shy of his career 53.7 shooting mark.

And now, the great K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune is trying to book me on the Boozer bandwagon all over again.  He quotes MVP Rose as saying that Boozer looks faster, and they want to get him the ball more because they have confidence in him. Then goes to daCoach:

"We want our offense to be versatile and attack in different ways," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "And not only in set offense, we want to do it in transition. The fact is he's in better shape, he can outrun people and beat them down the floor. Hopefully, we can run more off our defense and attack teams before they get set."

WHAT??  What are you doing to me KC??  Have you no compassion? Is this really fair to pull on a Cub fan? …where is the next meeting of Hopeless Chicago Sports Romantics Anonymous?  Or better yet Chicago Romantics Anonymous for Sports Hopelessness.

Sigh.

In fact, Boozer seemed to be the anti-Tebow, actually performing WORSE in clutch situations last year.  Even Thibs opted in favor of Kurt Thomas in post season as Boozer was still on the recovery bubble and most of us breathed a sigh of relief.  (Don’t get me started on letting Thomas go and keeping the White Mamba).  Boozer’s post-season average dropped to 12.6 albeit being injury impaired.  He has two years of increasing production in post season, two years miserably falling and one year where he performed at the same level. Here is a comparison of his REGULAR and POST season averages:

Year	Reg Season	Post Season
‘06-‘07	20.9	23.5
‘07-‘08	21.1	16.0
‘08-‘09	16.2	20.6
‘09-‘10	19.5	19.7
‘10-‘11	17.5	12.6

Through a Tebow-performance-lens, Boozer has been inconsistent.  The two years of where he IMPROVED in the post-season do give a glimmer of hope although, at 30 years of age, I would have expected him to have developed a winning clutch HABIT by now and no one can argue he showed that with the Bulls in the post-season.

The Bulls exhausted themselves playing with 110% effort for 100% of the games last year with a slave master coach to rival Attila the Honey Badger.  The stats tend to lend credence to the idea that the Bulls overachieved while other teams were conserving their mojo for the post-season.  An improved Boozer in post season would certainly add that “next gear” many analysts thought had been fully exposed in regular season play and we just pray that Taj and Deng had Rose-like offseason dedication to improve too.

People say it’s all about beating the Heat.  The signing of Rip Hamilton makes me fantasize about how different at least 3 of the close playoff losses would have turned out when Rose uncharacteristically wilted in the 4th quarter with no help from Boozer or Bogans.  But…

I’ve already expanded a great deal of my foolish expectation quota with a Mr. Theo Epstein on the North Side.  Is there any left for Mr. Thibodeau?

Possibly.  My Jay Cutler Juggernaut option was never executed and Hanie has done nothing to make me believe (as I once did) that the Bears wouldn’t loose that much offense without Jay.  I’m not too invested in the Bears meeting last years achievements much less exceeding them.

But I will say this for the “faster, stronger” practice extrapolation Team Bulls are selling.  It worked for Forte.  Training camp reports by David Haugh on Forte made me wonder if his wife was getting concerned.  Forte WAS stronger and faster and it translated into REAL productivity.  Although as strong, healthy and prepared as Matt was, it didn’t inoculate him from play-ending injury.

And the Boozer/Injury correlation is just strong enough lead us back to a natural thought progression to the Chicago Sports psychologists couch.

Thanks a lot KC.  Let me observe this new Carlos against Los Angeles and I’ll get back to you.  In the meantime, has he made any progress on stopping the incessant yapping on court?

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MVP Rose Makes BOLD Claim

MVP Rose Makes BOLD Claim Says he is going to win "multiple" championships.

Well, everyone laughed last year when he declared he was going to be the MVP, too!

Go Bulls!

Read full interview at link above.

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