They get a good big man
The Bulls have no deep presence under the basket. Other than Drew Gooden, who is decent at best, Chicago does not have anyone who is able to be a big man under the basket on the defensive end, and no one to make the easy basket on the offensive end.
Noah and Gooden are not doing the job in Chicago, and someone else needs to be brought in.
They improve their defense
With no big man, the defense is definitely lacking. The Bulls are not playing good transition ball and they are having a hard time making stops. Teams are getting very good looks at the basket, and have a very easy time scoring from not only under the basket, but also from behind the arc.
They play consistent basketball
The Bulls have no consistent players. The closest thing they have in terms of consistency would be Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose. The last time I checked, two players cannot win a game. They can do a good job keeping you in a game, but if only two of your players are shooting well, then you are going to lose.
- B/R Ticket Guide
They play hard from tip-off until the final buzzer.
Nothing can frustrate a team more than falling behind by a couple points early in the first quarter. With that being said, I cannot even imagine how hard it must be mentally to fall behind by 20 points in the first quarter. The Bulls start slowly almost every game, and are usually playing from behind right out of the gate.
Take the Dallas game, for example. Chicago fell behind 21-4 within the first six minutes of play. Somehow the Bulls were able to fight their way back and get the win, but that is not a way a team wants to start a game. It makes the players exhausted once the game finally ends.
Then you have the games against the Lakers and against the Trail Blazers. Both of these games started very badly for Chicago. They were shooting poorly from the floor, and allowing opposing teams to run the score up on them early.
Chicago's poor play isn't necessarily reflected statistically:
Points per game – 98.7 Opponents – 98.2
Field Goal percentage - .421 Opponents - .432
Rebounds per game – 45 Opponents – 44.4
Free Throw % - .794 Opponents - .777
Some of these stats should be shocking to people considering how poorly the Bulls look at times. With numbers like these, the Bulls should be winning every game.
Let’s hope Vinny can get things turned around, make the moves he needs to make, and get the Bulls back on track to have a good season.
Coach Del Negro has the second-best record of any brand-new Chicago Bulls head coach. Let’s hope he can continue this record and finish strong.
Chicago needs to get off of this ridiculous circus of a road trip, so that they can get back to a normal schedule.
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about 1 month ago
I agree... their biggest most glaring need right now is a Big Man. They cannot guard the big man and they cannot score on the big man. Joakim Noah looked straight up awful tonight against portland and for most of the season. Thomas takes to many jumpshots which he misses nearly all of them. Gray has limited post skills, but they are post skills none the less.
This team will be playing from behind every game unless someone steps up or someone is traded.
about 1 month ago
I think for the Bulls to become better they need to start using Tyrus Thomas in the post more. Design plays to run through him such as the pick and roll with Derrick Rose. They're a young team and it's going to be a long season.
I do believe that Del Negro was a better choice than Mike D'Antoni beacause Del Negro will also want more defense then a D'Antoni would. It's just going to take a while for the team to evole and get any kind of chemistry.
about 1 month ago
This road trip is gonna potentially kill their season. If they don't win one game (which is realistic) they'll return to Chicago seven games under .500 with another nine road games before January 2--including games at Boston, Detroit, Atlanta and Cleveland.
They need to trade some of these young guys before they make the mistake of re-signing all of them. I would make everyone available except Rose and Deng. I would trade Thomas, Noah and Sefolosha and hope that someone would be willing to take Nocioni off their hands. Then they need to just let Hughes and Gooden go and build around Hinrich, Deng and Rose.
Their roster is so imbalanced. They have no bigs who can create. All of them get their points on put-backs and dunks.
You make a lot of good points but the Bulls will not make the playoffs unless they shake up their roster. There isn't a team from last year's Eastern Conference play that you can make the case the Bulls are better than. Atlanta is playing better than last year, the Sixers haven't been overly impressive but teams like the Knicks, Pacers and Heat are now in the mix and looking better than the Bulls.
This might be one of those seasons where you're better off tanking it and getting a top-four pick.
about 1 month ago
you might get better in 2010 if you win the lebron lottery! aha! there s your answer! build around rose a good start! deng and hinrich solid also/ get a big man 1st priority , then spend the bucks get lebron... good luck outbidding knicks and boston. maybe san antone and dallas!
about 1 month ago
yet another great article, love the stats. the bulls need a big man.period. gooden bothers me becuase he loves the perimiter shot, thomas and noah have energy but need to control it. they need to play hard, against the blazers that was awful. i couldve played better. they looked dead, like last year. and yes consistentcy is key for a young team. the only one who does play hard other than rose is nocioni. at least they are off to a better start than last year. i do see them barely getting in the playoffs, because the east is always up for grabs from 6-8. they have a lot of talent, but they do need to make some moves as andrew pointed out. GO BULLS
about 1 month ago
Tyrus certainly needs to learn to bring consistent energy every night he comes to the arena, and hopefully some more seasoning will do it (although I really don't think that's the answer). I also agree that we need a real post presence, not Noah, who is good for rebounds and nothing else, or Gray, who is too much of a wild card to rely upon. Hopefully, Paxson can pull off a good trade as opposed to some of his other doosies.
about 1 month ago
Da Bulls just need to play simple basketball. It seems like they are unorganized to say the least. The last Bulls game I watched I nearly turned off. It was against Portland. More than once did Ben Gordon shoot the ball on offense without a pass. Their offense and defense are sickening. Hopefully they can start playing basketball like the professionals they are.
Great article, Scott!
from about 1 month ago
I totally agree Craig,
They were not passing the ball, they were not playing any offense! They would run it down the court and whoever had the ball got the shot. They looked like some unorganized high school team playing a pro team. It was really sad. The Portland game was one of the ones I also got to watch because I live in TN so I have no way to watch the games!
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