that was a fucking ballgame. i was at a friend's killing time waiting on ol girl to get off'a work and he aint a sports guy per say, but i'm like "yo whaddap on the bulls" i get sms on @score670 to the phone so i saw his lampooning of kc johnson pointing out a ~22-5 start by the suns. i turned the game on in the 2nd quarter and the bulls were down 19 with ~5 mins left. hakim warrick was going off like "where the fuck did this come from?" i think he had ~20 in the first half.
kendall gill remarked @ halftime "...and hakim warrick has 20 at halftime? i don't think he had 20 points as a bull last season" LOLworthy.
2nd half started off meh tho the bulls didn't have a usual early-3rd swoon. nash and pals were screening/pick-n-rolling us to death and it looked real bad. thankfully, hakim warrick decided to become hakim warrick and it seemed only grant hill was really the only one who would just up and take a nice ~15-18 foot jumper here and there as if to say "just keep scoring guys"
d-rose is maturing into a stud who would make the league absolutely shit themselves if he was 6'7". right now i'd venture to say that i like his jumper more than lebron's.... he hasn't gotten the clutchness fully down pat yet, namely cuz he's gassed by the end of games (49 minutes last night i think?) and IT'S AMAZING WHAT A REAL FUCKING COACH CAN DO. holy shit, just imagine if we had a non-braindead coach working with derrick from day one. i get that vinny was on the cheaps and the bulls must have figured something like "ok we're going to build around derrick and going to need to overhaul this team it's going to take a few years... so fuck it we'll bite the bullet"
the bulls didn't know that the round was still live and it exploded in their mouth. it didn't kill them, but they had to get moderately expensive dental work done. i can only imagine where derrick would be if he had a legit coach for his first two seasons, but c'est la vie.
fuck it, i'mma babble: obviously, we still have much to learn about thibodeau. how will he respond to a bad stretch? how will he fare in playoff series when coaching/scouting plays a giant role? we'll see. thus far i'm very very impressed with thibodeau, as i thought he was just a guy with a potential to be a legit coach. early returns show that he's a legit coach with the potential to be very good, maybe even excellent. it's nice to see an NBA lifer get a crack at the big job and not just OMFG IM A COACH WOWWW MY HAIR IS AWESOME HEY HERE'S LOU HOLTZ, moreover, the dude is constantly moving around (ironic for a fat man) and shouting to the point where i swear i've heard him hoarse already. sometimes you can pick up his barking/shouting in the background of the game's commentary. coming out of timeouts you see him telling derrick things more often than not, whilst assistant coaches have a talk with omer.
and how about that play that got the bulls a nice layup to tie the game and ultimately send it into the second overtime? that was a beautiful play that measures favorably in the wake of some of the scripted things we'd see skiles do from an inbound.
all in all, i really hope that boozer brings something to the table (i wasn't in charge of jazz basketball over the last few years and have only had a chance to really sit down and watch boozer a handful of times) i know he's a polished player, he's legit, and he's a serviceable running mate, that is, until a body part falls off or a gym bag gets in the way of the door two days before your announce that you're divorcing your wife in the wake of a puncher's hand injury. it happens. that said, a skilled post scorer with a + jump shot and basketball smarts will certainly help this team.
still, my kingdom for a two guard. and depth too... really, i think during the lakers game the point tard (cj) took on a 1-on-4 situation and promptly bricked the shot or got it blocked or something stupid. dude, nellie isn't going to show up here and sleep through your chucking. this isn't dont'antoni. i'll be very interested to see if the bulls can add some quality depth/roleplayers somehow, tho i don't know what they have to trade. obviously noah is their most tradeable asset, but i'm of the mindset that unless you get a 1/1a type player to put there with rose, aka a franchise-calibur player, noah is very valuable to this team as presently constituted with rose being the only guy who can say "fuck you, i'm scoring" because during this west coast trip his tip ins come in at big times in the game. also i'm impressed that his ugly ass J is seemingly solid enough to take if left open from ~17, but he doesn't force it or look for it. hell, when he ends up with the ball with ~7 seconds on the clock and everyone rotates away leaving him in an iso he's like "oh shit do i have to?" as opposed to lol deng or the point tard. noah doesn't have the bumslayer disease, meaning that he doesn't feel himself like he's masturbating.
oh and ronnie brewer is meh. ugly jumper, and i dunno if his hamstring(?) injury is still affecting him but for a try-hard hustle spaz guy, he sure seems to get winded quite often. korver seems to be on more often than not, tho his being off really cost the bulls chances for precious momentum during the lakers game. still tho, i'm glad they got him as opposed to reddick. i wish sheed had something left / didn't retire, although if you think you've got something in asik he'd just eat up those minutes.
all in all, the bulls really need a two guard who can start with derrick and move bogans into the rotation spot that cj wilson has. let the point tard get comfortable next to kurt thomas on the bench and he and scalabrine can grab some pom poms and work on dance moves and raps or something. bogans would be fine in watson's role, as it was evident in the lakers game when derrick got him THREE OPEN LOOKS AT THREES IN ONE FUCKING POSSESSION that he's past his prime and in a little bit over his head in his current role, but he doesn't force things or really look for his shot and he tries to play defense so you can do work. ideally, you want to get a 2 who can score and be that #3 option, that way i think lol would be stomachable.
do you think the bulls would be a legit contender if, say, they had brandon roy starting at 2 with this cast of characters? hmmmm.
that said, if the bulls play their cards right if thibodeau isn't fool's gold and rose continues his ascent to top-5 superstardom and get some depth over the next season or two, i think they could manage to be legit contenders without adding melo (who is the only top-5 scorer/player who you can realistically get in the league for the foreseeable future, right?) altho i'd obviously take melo. otherwise, barring a kid from the draft pulling a durantula and saying "hey guess what? while you slept i decided that i'm in the top-5 of the NBA...." all of the big stars are spoken for. and fucking shit brandon roy signed a 5 year extension last year. c'est la vie.
ah well, there's my tl;dr state of the bulls marathon post that nobody will read. you can print out this post and take it to your local mcdonalds and get a complimentary big mac for your tenacious reading ability.
_________________ Curious Hair wrote: Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?
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