Da-Bullz

I don’t understand the Bulls at all. They’ve got a handful of good players, ranging from guys who have the potential to be 3^rd Team All-NBA guys (Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon), to guys who could/should be solid role players (Nocioni, Songaila). They’ve got an emerging 12-8 guy (Sweetney), a fantastic swing man (Deng), and a decent shot-blocking/rebounding big man (Chandler). That’s 7 decent to good players right there: 2 PGs, 2 swing guys, 3 bigs. Why in the hell are Pargo and Duhon getting a combined 50 minutes a game?! I actually like Duhon’s game, but 34 minutes a night! Duhon’s a 10 minutes a game backup…tops! I’ve seen these guys play probably 10 games this season, and the story is always the same. Either Hinrich, Duhon or Gordon ends up guarding someone 4-5 inches taller. The other team invariably goes to that mismatch early and often, and as a result the Bulls are never able to get good defensive stops. They still win some games, but only because they’ve got guys who aren’t just talented, but who know how to win (Hinrich, Nocioni, Deng, Songaila). Those guys are subsidizing Scott Skile’s inability to figure out a rotation that would actually win games consistently.

This became comically obvious against the Suns. The Bulls decided to try and match the Suns speed for speed and went to small ball, with a Duhon-Hinrich-Gordon-Deng-Nocioni lineup. Um…yeah. Someone should tell Scott that the Suns have exactly one serviceable big (Thomas). Other than the Matrix, nobody on the Suns team is capable of stopping decent big-men in the post. Yet the Bull who could have just abused the Suns down low was never brought in, instead Sweetney got a nice rest for the game. The one big who did play decent minutes was pretty dominant (Songaila had 14 and 11). The Matrix, freed from having to play any brutal post defense, just went nuts on the offensive end.

The Phoenix game? The Bulls lost that because Scott Skiles forgot to exploit the Suns’ weakness, and instead played right to their strength.

I’ve been thinking though. The Bulls are one big man away. If they can get one guy who can get 18 points a night from the post then they will be right back in the thick of things. Of course, they might already have that guy, if he ever gets to play!

FYI: I’ve decided my favorite player in the league this season is Boris Diaw. I have no record of it, but I did say before the season started that he’d be great.