Hollinger's disappointment notes, Aka the usual suspects Options

[Balta1701-B]

Some of the Bulls made Hollinger's list of biggest early season disappointments. Something tells me you can guess who they are without reading on.

2. The $70 million gang
Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala and Emeka Okafor all got some serious cash as restricted free agents this summer. Each is a high-character guy with a good rep around the league, each is in his early 20s … and each has done exactly squat to justify his new contract so far. The weird part is that their teams seem to be going out of their way to ignore them offensively.

...
Deng has also found himself marginalized in a Chicago system that spreads the floor to allow rookie guard Derrick Rose to create. This has taken away a lot of the midpost and pull-up jumper moves that were Deng's bread and butter under Scott Skiles, and as a result he's struggling at 39.3 percent from the floor and averaging only 16.7 points per 40 minutes -- down from last season's 20.1. A recent groin strain hasn't helped matters.

10. Chicago's frontcourt
Taken with lottery picks in consecutive drafts, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah should be the Bulls' frontcourt of the future. They still might be, but the present is another matter.

Thomas' problem is a simple one -- his shots don't go in. He's hitting 29.0 percent, and his 38.1 true shooting percentage isn't much better. He's also turning the ball over too often, a side consequence of being forced to drive to the basket because his jumper can't find the net. While he has defended and rebounded reasonably well, the upshot has been a 9.47 PER -- not exactly what you'd expect from the fourth overall pick in the 2006 draft.

But at least Thomas is playing. Noah has been nailed to the bench, dropping behind 2007 second-rounder Aaron Gray in the rotation. And in his few opportunities he has fouled so often that he has rarely stayed on the floor for long. He's rebounding at a high rate and his PER isn't terrible, but he has made far too many defensive mistakes and is averaging a foul every 5.5 minutes. He averaged a foul every 8.9 minutes last season, so one hopes this is just an early-season fluke, but subjectively he has really looked out of it in the Bulls' games I've seen.

A variety of other Bulls-involved guys also make his list, whether trade rumors from the past or guys we actually had. The Clippers top the list. Mike Conley is on there, Artest is on there, JR Smith is on there.

[dasox24]

I read this article yesterday and it's just sad. I mean, we completely wasted 2 high draft picks in back-to-back years as Hollinger points out... and Deng just hasn't played well yet. Though, I do expect that to change. But in regards to TT and Noah, they're just kind of taking up space right now and not much else.

But whatever... If we had, for example, kept Aldridge and drafted Hawes instead of Noah, we would have had a better record and not gotten the chance to draft Rose, which would have still left us without a true superstar which is what Rose should be.

[Balta1701-B]

I read this article yesterday and it's just sad. I mean, we completely wasted 2 high draft picks in back-to-back years as Hollinger points out... and Deng just hasn't played well yet. Though, I do expect that to change. But in regards to TT and Noah, they're just kind of taking up space right now and not much else.

But whatever... If we had, for example, kept Aldridge and drafted Hawes instead of Noah, we would have had a better record and not gotten the chance to draft Rose, which would have still left us without a true superstar which is what Rose should be.

I dunno, I'm still of the opinion that I wan to try to give those 2 as many minutes as their foul situation will allow. I think it makes 1 of 2 things happen...either they'll start to turn a corner and legit adapt to the league (what happened to all that work with Thorpe that TT put in this summer anyway?) or they'll be bad enough that we'll keep losing games and wind up in a solid position to draft another big man or two over the next 2 years, and we can maneuver them around in 2 years for extra cap space.

[Chicago Bulls Fr...]

I still think Tyrus has the chance to develop into a pretty good player in this league but the chances of that get worse by the day. I'm still hoping that he and Rose can develop some chemistry together ala CP3 and Chandler.. So far, the only player that has gelled well with Rose has been Nocioni. Gordon is just doing his own thing, going one on one, dribbling way too much, and Deng is out in la la land.

I don't even think Tyrus needs to be an offensive player to be good. He's becoming a much better defensive player, he's starting to get "that" part of it. They need to just turn him into a Dennis Rodman style of offensive player where he makes his living under the basket getting dunks instead of floating around the perimeter trying to hit a shot that misses 70% of the time.. Vinny has already said that's not going to happen because he wants Tyrus to have the confidence to make those kinds of shots and doesn't want to take anything away from him.

[jorgefabregas]

Tyrus had two drives yesterday where he didn't look like a spazz. He made a shot on one of them, too--a short, pull-up J.

[ZoomSlowik]

I'm relatively confident that Deng will get back on track, though it does look like we overpaid quite a bit at the moment. Noah and Tyrus are just bad though, neither one has any actual skills and they're getting absolutely torched inside. If we're going to play one or both of them regularly we have to give them a "nothing but uncontested dunks/layups" madate and/or add another big time scorer to compensate and/or get a legit center that can score and defend the bulkier big men.

[MB33]

Tyrus definitely has potential but i think he is over thinking too much he just needs to concentrate around the basket.When he drives its out of control he just need to calm down and be patient.If he could learn a decent post move by not going too fast he will get there.He relys too much on his athletic ability but in the NBA there is more too it than that and thats being smart and knowing your opponents.Everytime he tries to block a shot even when a guy is not a jumpshooter just put your arms up and you wont get in foul trouble.I was against the swap for aldridge because i believe aldridge was more polished and is what we needed at the time.But u have to go with what u have if it dont work out dont blame tyrus blame pax.

[SoxFan1]

I still think Tyrus has the chance to develop into a pretty good player in this league

Shocker. We're 3 years in and he's made little, if any, progress.

[Sanitarium]

I don't even think Tyrus needs to be an offensive player to be good. He's becoming a much better defensive player, he's starting to get "that" part of it. They need to just turn him into a Dennis Rodman style of offensive player where he makes his living under the basket getting dunks instead of floating around the perimeter trying to hit a shot that misses 70% of the time..

exactly!

as for noah... i don't think there's any hope for him. i thought it was a bad pick from the start.

[DutheDoduhon21]

im pretty sure tyrus would be just a senior in college right? i think its too early to give up on him. i already gave up on noah, he doesnt have enough talent to be a starter but would be a solid backup. everyone gave up on duhon and he went and had 22 assists tonight. had to throw that out there lol

[ZoomSlowik]

im pretty sure tyrus would be just a senior in college right? i think its too early to give up on him. i already gave up on noah, he doesnt have enough talent to be a starter but would be a solid backup. everyone gave up on duhon and he went and had 22 assists tonight. had to throw that out there lol

He'd be a 5th year senior this year if he had stayed (redshirted), though there are numerous NBA starters in the league from his high school class out there, including Dwight Howard and Josh Smith so that's probably not the greatest logical argument. He's in his third pro season now, which is usually when you have to start figuring out what you have, and thus far he's putting up a woeful 9.72 PER (to put that in perspective, Robert Swift has a 11.94 right now) while getting lit up in the post (he's allowing his opponents to post a 21.3 PER at PF and a whopping 42 at C). Granted it doesn't help that we have no other big men to help on D or scorers to cover his deficiencies, but he still is a terrible scorer and makes bone-headed turnovers and doesn't make as big an impact on D as his rebound/steal/block stats would make you believe. He's had 162 games and 3 off-seasons since he got drafted to work out the kinks, the success rate at this point drops considerably. I'd be quite surprised if he ends up as more than a fringe starter at this point, he's still just bad in a lot of areas.

As for Duhon, just about anyone will put up stats if they get 40 minutes per game playing for D'Antoni, especially against an awful defensive team that runs like the Warriors. He's still only posting a 13.16 PER even after last night and is less than ideal as a starting PG. He's a great backup though because he's a pretty good passer, a solid defender, and he doesn't dominate the ball.

[Chicago Bulls Fr...]

22 assists tonight for Duhon. Boy it sure would be nice to have Mike D'Antoni right about now..