QUOTE
AGGREY SAM
DEERFIELD, ILL.—Offensively, this season’s edition of the Bulls have put an emphasis on execution, ball movement, players moving without the ball and of course, head coach Tom Thibodeau’s rigid stance on inside-out play—at least when they’re in a half-court set.
However, they’ve also made a concerted effort to push the pace in transition.
It’s only three games into an 82-game season, but through the preseason and the NBA’s first week, one of the team’s strengths has been fast-break basketball. In the admittedly small sample size, they are tied for sixth in the league in transition points, at 16.7 points per game.
That might not seem like much, but consider the fact that they only averaged an identically middle-in-the-pack 13.4 the last two seasons, when they had the services of one of the game’s most explosive talents, Derrick Rose. Sure, most coaches start each season with the intent to play at a faster tempo, a mission that often dissolves early, but the Bulls, with few players observers would consider elite in the open court, seem committed to getting up and down the floor in a hurry.
“We work on it every day in practice. Thibs has got us running up and down, trying to get easy plays and easy layups, and we want to try to use our speed.,” Rip Hamilton said. We don’t want to play a half-court game for 48 minutes. We want to try to get as many easy baskets as possible.”
Joakim Noah added: “For us, I think it’s all about getting out on the break, getting steals and just being able to run to the open spots, and just knowing what your teammates’ strengths and weaknesses are.
“I’m not going to be the kind of guy that’s going to catch lobs and stuff like that, so I’d rather my teammates just throw a little bounce pass or something like that.”
One would think that a coach with the mindset of Thibodeau, so concerned with ball security, wouldn’t want to loosen the reins enough to give his players the freedom to run, especially with a roster that doesn’t seem suited for the task. But upon closer inspection, the Bulls do have the personnel equipped for a decent transition game.
Hamilton, while older, was never an elite athlete, but is regarded as one of the fastest and more well-conditioned players in the league, traits that lend themselves to sprinting the floor for layups and uncontested pull-jumpers on the break. His bookend wing, Luol Deng, is in similar shape and while he isn’t an above-the-rim player either, his size enables him to finish at a high level.
Noah, as he himself acknowledged, doesn’t necessarily catch many alley-oops or possess a lot of flash as a finisher, but he is one of the best players at his position in the NBA at running the floor, as well as one of the few centers who can both start—his uncanny ball-handling ability and passing skills have earned Thibodeau’s trust—and finish a transition opportunity. Fellow big man Taj Gibson also runs the floor better than most of his peers and is one of the few Bulls who is known as a pogo-stick type of athlete.
Meanwhile, Carlos Boozer showed up to training camp in much better shape; besides losing weight over the summer, he’s also running the floor a lot better, which allows him to keep up on fast breaks and even when he doesn’t see the ball, the power forward has been able to frequently carve out early and deep post position. Among the reserves, swingman Jimmy Butler offers an exciting and athletic, if seldom-used presence, while sharpshooter Marco Belinelli’s playmaking skills, slashing ability and solid size for his position have yielded signs of also being effective in transition.
But the key to the Bulls’ early success as a fast-breaking team has been the play of their point guards, Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson. Both have employed significant ball pressure to opposing floor generals—the Bulls rank seventh in opponents’ turnovers per game, at 18.3 a night—and whether it’s off a foe’s miscue or defensive rebound, the duo has been racing up the floor in search of easy opportunities.
Hinrich’s style is more about making a hit-ahead pass to a streaking wing player or big man filling the lane, while the diminutive Robinson prefers to keep it in his own hands and making a drop-off to a finisher or kick-out pass to shooter. But whether it’s the starter’s more traditional hoops sensibilities or the backup’s speed-demon tendencies, the Bulls have been effective as a transition team.
They have not, however, been consistent with the approach. All too often, the team will start a game and establish a fast tempo, then fall into its grind-it-out habits as the game wanes on—or, alternately, not push the pace early and adjust to playing faster after halftime—an inconsistency Thibodeau would love to see disappear.
“We want to get the ball up the floor quickly,” Thibodeau said after the Bulls’ season-opening win over Sacramento. “I thought we ran effectively early in the game, and I think we’ve got to do a better job running late.”
Without Rose, the Bulls will need to manufacture points any way they can. While the offense-by-committee philosophy against set defenses is laudable when it works, on nights when it doesn’t—like Saturday’s home loss to New Orleans—they’ll need to speed things up, in order to avoid getting bogged down.
DEERFIELD, ILL.—Offensively, this season’s edition of the Bulls have put an emphasis on execution, ball movement, players moving without the ball and of course, head coach Tom Thibodeau’s rigid stance on inside-out play—at least when they’re in a half-court set.
However, they’ve also made a concerted effort to push the pace in transition.
It’s only three games into an 82-game season, but through the preseason and the NBA’s first week, one of the team’s strengths has been fast-break basketball. In the admittedly small sample size, they are tied for sixth in the league in transition points, at 16.7 points per game.
That might not seem like much, but consider the fact that they only averaged an identically middle-in-the-pack 13.4 the last two seasons, when they had the services of one of the game’s most explosive talents, Derrick Rose. Sure, most coaches start each season with the intent to play at a faster tempo, a mission that often dissolves early, but the Bulls, with few players observers would consider elite in the open court, seem committed to getting up and down the floor in a hurry.
“We work on it every day in practice. Thibs has got us running up and down, trying to get easy plays and easy layups, and we want to try to use our speed.,” Rip Hamilton said. We don’t want to play a half-court game for 48 minutes. We want to try to get as many easy baskets as possible.”
Joakim Noah added: “For us, I think it’s all about getting out on the break, getting steals and just being able to run to the open spots, and just knowing what your teammates’ strengths and weaknesses are.
“I’m not going to be the kind of guy that’s going to catch lobs and stuff like that, so I’d rather my teammates just throw a little bounce pass or something like that.”
One would think that a coach with the mindset of Thibodeau, so concerned with ball security, wouldn’t want to loosen the reins enough to give his players the freedom to run, especially with a roster that doesn’t seem suited for the task. But upon closer inspection, the Bulls do have the personnel equipped for a decent transition game.
Hamilton, while older, was never an elite athlete, but is regarded as one of the fastest and more well-conditioned players in the league, traits that lend themselves to sprinting the floor for layups and uncontested pull-jumpers on the break. His bookend wing, Luol Deng, is in similar shape and while he isn’t an above-the-rim player either, his size enables him to finish at a high level.
Noah, as he himself acknowledged, doesn’t necessarily catch many alley-oops or possess a lot of flash as a finisher, but he is one of the best players at his position in the NBA at running the floor, as well as one of the few centers who can both start—his uncanny ball-handling ability and passing skills have earned Thibodeau’s trust—and finish a transition opportunity. Fellow big man Taj Gibson also runs the floor better than most of his peers and is one of the few Bulls who is known as a pogo-stick type of athlete.
Meanwhile, Carlos Boozer showed up to training camp in much better shape; besides losing weight over the summer, he’s also running the floor a lot better, which allows him to keep up on fast breaks and even when he doesn’t see the ball, the power forward has been able to frequently carve out early and deep post position. Among the reserves, swingman Jimmy Butler offers an exciting and athletic, if seldom-used presence, while sharpshooter Marco Belinelli’s playmaking skills, slashing ability and solid size for his position have yielded signs of also being effective in transition.
But the key to the Bulls’ early success as a fast-breaking team has been the play of their point guards, Kirk Hinrich and Nate Robinson. Both have employed significant ball pressure to opposing floor generals—the Bulls rank seventh in opponents’ turnovers per game, at 18.3 a night—and whether it’s off a foe’s miscue or defensive rebound, the duo has been racing up the floor in search of easy opportunities.
Hinrich’s style is more about making a hit-ahead pass to a streaking wing player or big man filling the lane, while the diminutive Robinson prefers to keep it in his own hands and making a drop-off to a finisher or kick-out pass to shooter. But whether it’s the starter’s more traditional hoops sensibilities or the backup’s speed-demon tendencies, the Bulls have been effective as a transition team.
They have not, however, been consistent with the approach. All too often, the team will start a game and establish a fast tempo, then fall into its grind-it-out habits as the game wanes on—or, alternately, not push the pace early and adjust to playing faster after halftime—an inconsistency Thibodeau would love to see disappear.
“We want to get the ball up the floor quickly,” Thibodeau said after the Bulls’ season-opening win over Sacramento. “I thought we ran effectively early in the game, and I think we’ve got to do a better job running late.”
Without Rose, the Bulls will need to manufacture points any way they can. While the offense-by-committee philosophy against set defenses is laudable when it works, on nights when it doesn’t—like Saturday’s home loss to New Orleans—they’ll need to speed things up, in order to avoid getting bogged down.