Bench Gordon, Put him back as 6th man Options

[rangercal]

Seriously... I Love Gordon.. However, the Bulls struggle when their opponent has 2 above average offensive Guards in their backcourt. Gordon can't get through screens on time, and is too weak on D to make up for the size advantage. Plus, he isn't a weapon on Offense when faced against a big backcourt.


Gordon Should ONLY play when ONE of Rip or Billups is on the Bench.
(maybe that could get him 15-20 mins and be a real spark plug in that short time span ie how Cedric Ceballos had a role with Phoenix during the early stages of his career.)

Any other team, Start Gordon. Against Detroit? 6th Man .

A Lineup I would Love to see:


Wallace-C
Prown-PF
Thomas-SF
Deng-SG
Hinrich-PG


Thoughts?
Anyone else have Ideas?

[ZoomSlowik]

I'd MUCH rather see Thabo than Tyrus.

[rangercal]

I'd MUCH rather see Thabo than Tyrus.

not against Detroit. Tyrus is at his best against the Pistons.

[TeaLeafReaderII]

There is noone on this roster that can defend Rip on those curls. Any defensive upgrade you get, won't be worth the offensive loss. Especially with the way Prince has shut down Deng... the offense has to come from somewhere and if Gordon can't get his shot dropping, the Bulls are done.

[rangercal]

There is noone on this roster that can defend Rip on those curls. Any defensive upgrade you get, won't be worth the offensive loss. Especially with the way Prince has shut down Deng... the offense has to come from somewhere and if Gordon can't get his shot dropping, the Bulls are done.

I like Deng on Rip. Those long arms may give Rip fits. I don't think we are losing too much on O with Tyrus getting more PT and Gordon getting limited minutes.

[scatterbrain]

With the superior scoring depth the Pistons have I just can not justify benching Gordon personally. Quickness would be what we lack in slowing Rip down more so than wingspan in my opinion. Plus, Tayshaun is very able to put up 20 or 25 points. I would maybe see Wallace-Brown-Deng-Thabo-Kirk (although I still think we need Gordon to play a lot of minutes to win) as a decent compromise.

I just want to see Gordon come alive and spread the court. That will open up Deng in his mid-range game and maybe open Kirk up for a few open 3's every so often. If we can get it going and defend the United Center its a whole new series. We only need one road win if we can protect our home.

Edit - Gordon HAS to stay out of foul trouble... especially early.

[SoxFan1]

I can't believe the overconfidence you guys have in Tyrus Thomas right now.

And if Deng was to guard Rip Hamilton, he'd foul out by halftime and Rip would dominate. Deng isn't fast enough to chase him around those tight curls.

[72-10]

Webber has been the biggest reason we cant stop those curls. They really are not so much well executed as it is Wallace not being able to fill the middle. They spread the floor so well and we have to honor Rasheeds and Webbers shots so much that we cant fill the lane to stop hamilton, etc. I think our D needs to re-assess (sp?) itself and we need to take care of the ball better. Everything else would fall into place then...if its not already too late

[rangercal]

I can't believe the overconfidence you guys have in Tyrus Thomas right now.

And if Deng was to guard Rip Hamilton, he'd foul out by halftime and Rip would dominate. Deng isn't fast enough to chase him around those tight curls.

it would not be the first time a team put a long winged player on a big shooting guard. I highly doubt Luol would be in foul trouble any faster than Gordon on Rip. It would probably work.

[BobDylan]

Luol Deng doesn't have the speed or ball handling to play the guard position. Probably doesn't have the speed to D up a guard either. The obvious choice to man one of Billups and Hamilton is Thabo, but he provides very little from the offensive end.

The Bulls are pretty much screwed in terms of size in this series. But those first two games made look Ben Gordon a lot more expendable in order to bring in a big man next year. Either way, I don't think the Bulls can go into next year having not upgraded their size. P.J. Brown needs to be replaced with a threat, and one of Gordon/Hinrich needs to be replaced with some size. (Preferably Gordon--Kirk may not be the scorer Ben is, but Kirk can score points and pose as a threat and he plays stellar defense. He could cut down on turnovers, though.)

Going to be an interesting off-season, this series is very telling as where the Bulls stand. They're close, but still a long ways away.

[eddog2]

Why not bench Kirk for Thabo? Kirk's been sucking it up way worse than Gordon. Anyway, we don't need to bench either. Kirk and Gordon will have a much better game 3 at home. The crowd will carry the team.

As for Tyrus, I think he should start, but if he does, we have no explosion off the bench. Nocioni looks like a limp duck out there. Hopefully he can find his shot and his defense.

[Serbbojo]

tyrus had one good half. Besides starting Tyrus now when he may have finally gotten comfortable will just make him more nervous.

[ZoomSlowik]

not against Detroit. Tyrus is at his best against the Pistons.

In the regular season maybe, definitely not so far in the playoffs. The only time he was productive was when the game was basically over already. With Thabo in there guarding either Rip or Prince they might actually have a chance, I sure as hell don't want Tyrus on those guys...

Why not bench Kirk for Thabo? Kirk's been sucking it up way worse than Gordon. Anyway, we don't need to bench either. Kirk and Gordon will have a much better game 3 at home. The crowd will carry the team.

The last thing we need to do is make our team ball-handling WORSE...

Kirk was actually decent in the first game, didn't contribute to the turnover-fest and shot well. If anything he probably needed to put up MORE shots, he was hitting. He couldn't do spiff in the second game though...

[TeaLeafReaderII]

I can't believe the overconfidence you guys have in Tyrus Thomas right now.

Its not so much confidence in Tyrus as it is lack of confidence in our other options. Nocioni is playing cosmically bad. Just awful. I don't know if his plantar facitis is acting up or if the month or two without practice is finally catching up to him.... The other reasonable option is PJ Brown, who has looked really old. And for some damn reason he is passing out of open looks. That leaves us with Sweetney, Allen, or Kryhapa... I'm not even going to bother with them.... or a 3 guard lineup.

Personally I want Skiles to keep running out PJ, but I can understand why someone would rather see an unknown quality like Tyrus out there.

[Chicago Bulls Fr...]

You throw EVERYTHING away once you get into the postseason. You go with what is working and you ride it. Right now even after one game, Tyrus's play should earn him atleast more playing time based on his performance of last game and the regular season. Same goes for Thabo.