Was Miami Game a Fluke??, Halloween Night Options

[Cute Little Bull...]

You know this is gonna come up. I wanna hear some loyal fans' thoughts on this. Go ahead discuss.

[Chicago Bulls Fr...]

Too early to tell but Ill tell you that were NOT 40 points better than Miami and were not 20 points worse than Orlando. We are still building chemistry with the new faces.. Give us to about the 10th game untill we have our full chemistry. Thats where you will see this team looking good again.

[SoxFan1]

Give us to about the 10th game untill we have our full chemistry. Thats where you will see this team looking good again.

What are you basing that off of?

[Chicago Bulls Fr...]

Just how the team isnt really in sink. Were still pretty inconsistant. Once we start to get in the groove we will be fine. Big Ben has done a nice job but the other new faces still have to gell and im just saying it might take untill the 10th game before they start to get some good chemistry.

[SoxFan1]

Just how the team isnt really in sink. Were still pretty inconsistant. Once we start to get in the groove we will be fine. Big Ben has done a nice job but the other new faces still have to gell and im just saying it might take untill the 10th game before they start to get some good chemistry.

Thats what I'm asking. Why 10 games? It will take WAY more than 10 games for them to gel completely. I dont expect them to hit their full stride until 3/4 into the season.

Chemistry cannot be built overnight.

[spencer958]

They will be fine once they get used to playing together. Plus when Skiles figures out what rotations
he will use it will smooth things out.

[ZoomSlowik]

A couple of things:

1) We need to figure out who our go-to-guy is late in the game. I really hope Skiles doesn't think it's Duhon. That's one of the drawbacks of not having a superstar scorer. However, we should be able to overcome it as long as we know what the hell we are doing. Hinrich should probably be that guy most of the time, with Gordon, Deng and Nocioni trying to get open for kick-outs. Gordon and Deng would also be other acceptable options, though I trust Kirk more.

2) I think we forget how young most of our players are. We aren't exactly veteran-laden, so that's going to create inconsistency on occasion. It appears that they were really pumped up for the Miami game, weren't quite as ready for Orlando (understandable on a back-to-back), and were just sloppy against Sacramento.

3) I really don't think Miami is as good as most people think, especially not at this point in the regular season. Wade is obviously a star, but Shaq is basically half-assing it, and he's a shell of his former self anyways. The rest of the roster just isn't that impressive. Haslem is decent, Walker and Williams have some talent but have been problems in the past (and the latter was hurt), and Payton and Mourning are ancient. They don't really have a bonafide #3 scoring option, and Payton, Williams, Walker, and most of the time Shaq are defensive liabilities. Until Shaq decides that he wants to play all out they're going to be vulnerable.

[madisonsmadhouse]

It wasn't a fluke in the truest sense. Yeah we are not 40 points better than Miami, but we are a very good team. What we saw the last two games was turnovers killing these guys, along with the missing of wide open shots. I think part of the problem is a whole lot of new players getting used to each other, so there might be some growing pains still to be seen. I kinda guessed we would get off to a slow start, but there is no need to panic or anything like that.

[Chicago Bulls Fr...]

YES!

[SoxFan1]

YES!

You're overreacting big time.

1.) There are still 77 games left to play.

2.) We started 12-19 last year, 0-9 the year before.

3.) Cleveland is playing out of their minds tonight. Flipping Anderson Varejao has like a triple-double.

[TeaLeafReaderII]

Once Gordon gets used to the new ball, he is going to be dangerous!

[Bullseye]

no, this team is off to a rough start. Look at Dallas, they got their first win last night. Who here thinks Dallas is really a 1-4 team?

This team will get rolling really soon, hopefully.

[Balta1701-B]

no, this team is off to a rough start. Look at Dallas, they got their first win last night. Who here thinks Dallas is really a 1-4 team?

This team will get rolling really soon, hopefully.

It all depends on the defensive parts learning to play together well. Except for Ben Gordon, I'm convinced we have the best defensive assembly in the league at 3 of the 5 positions, with Hinrich, Wallace, and Deng/Nocioni, and we have solid parts to back those guys up with Thabo, Tyrus, and PJ Brown. This team needs to learn 2 things in order to dominate; how to play together as a defense (so that each person's strengths cover someone else's weaknesses), and how to turn a dominating defense into points.

If they learn those 2 things by the end of the season, watch out.