Breaking Down What's Behind the Chicago Bulls' Defensive Slide
The Chicago Bulls are in a funk. What once looked like the best team in the Eastern Conference has slipped to fourth place, and the Bulls have only won four out of their past 10 games.
Injuries to starters Mike Dunleavy and Joakim Noah have not helped matters. They're two of the team's better ball-movers who churn the offense from side-to-side. Dunleavy can obviously shoot it from deep, and Noah has emerged as a high-quality assist man. But it's their willingness to maintain flow with quick decision-making that helps the offense thrive.
That's why the Bulls offense has regressed slightly during this stretch, dipping to a 104.3 offensive rating from its 105.7 season average, per NBA.com. But it's on the other side of the ball that Chicago is really struggling. Its defensive rating over the past 10 games has ballooned to 106.8, the fifth-worst mark in the league over that stretch and a far cry from the 102.7 rating it's posted all season long.
Pointing to Noah's absence is the easy solution, but such a drastic drop points to causes beyond just one player.
Derrick Rose recently relayed his frustration to the media, singling out the team's communication and effort to fight on a nightly basis, via Nick Friedell of ESPN.com:
"I think communication is huge," Rose said. "We're quiet when we're out there, and it's leading to them getting easy baskets. We got to give a better effort. It seems like we're not even competing, and it's f-----g irritating."
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"We're midway through the season," Rose said. "That should be a part of [the discussion]. There's no excuses. My biggest thing is competing. Playing this game for so long, when you don't have that edge, we're going to keep getting our ass whupped.
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Noah certainly brings that edge when he's on the floor. He's chippy, he's mean and he's relentless. His effort is never a question.
Effort, however, isn't simply about grabbing loose balls or cleaning up the glass; it's about multiple efforts on each play, as head coach Tom Thibodeau puts it, per Friedell: "Right now we're not a multiple-effort team, we're not concentrating, we're not doing our job. We got to change that. We got to change it."
From a purely tactical perspective, the Bulls defense is all about multiple efforts. The primary defensive principle it relies upon is "siding" the basketball, which is to say that the Bulls try to keep the ball on the same side of the floor.
This is accomplished by shading the ball-handler away from the middle of the floor and having the defense load up on the strong side. This way, all the ball-handler sees between himself and the basket is lots of bodies.
When the ball is swung, the defense is expected to rotate on flight time. Help defenders become primary defenders; primary defenders relocate to the middle of the floor to flood the strong side. They're always cutting off penetration and always protecting the three-point line. No threes, no layups.
The key is multiple efforts. Close to the ball, and push all the way over when it's on the other side of the floor. Constantly rotating, constantly helping. The Bulls defense moves as a unit.
The defensive possession below is a prime example of how an effective Thibodeau-style, multiple-effort defense can completely stifle an opposing offense.
Let's start with Kirk Hinrich, who does a great job denying the ball to Evan Turner of the Boston Celtics and completely disrupts the play design.
Turner has a clear physical advantage on Hinrich, but this is all about effort. His willingness to maintain off-ball pressure without giving up a backdoor causes Turner to fumble the incoming pass and gather the ball at 35 feet.
Later in the possession, Hinrich executes a physical switch near the paint, completely stopping the paint cut of Avery Bradley and forcing him to clear out to the weak side.
You'll also notice Nikola Mirotic on the right side, who's both being mindful of the coming back screen while two-nineing in the paint—the term for when defenders stay in the paint for 2.9 seconds then quickly cleanse themselves by hopping out for a moment to avoid a defensive three-second call.
He even throws a hefty shoulder into the body of Marcus Smart just so he can't gain an easier advantage while trying to post up Aaron Brooks. This is a tough balancing act for big men, but he does a nice job of patrolling the paint, being physical and loading to the ball.
And finally there's Taj Gibson, who, on the late-clock pick-and-roll, shifts into a help position as Rose recovers. When the ball is thrown back to Jared Sullinger, Gibson could lazily leave his feet to drive him off the three-point line.
Instead, Gibson manages to sprint over to Sullinger, contest without jumping and slide his feet to guard the penetration. The result is terrible shot and a stop for the Bulls.
It's all of these details—bumping cutters, taking screeners off their line and pushing the offense further away from the basket—that make the difference over the course of the game.
Now that an extended stretch of poor play has fully set in, the Bulls are letting it seep into their effort on defense. What was once a hard contest on a good shooter is a half-raised hand and a short closeout. Defensive possessions aren't finished with a final effort on the glass (the Cleveland Cavaliers had 20 offensive rebounds against Chicago on Monday night).
Even if it's not acceptable, it's at least somewhat understandable. When effort doesn't translate to results, it becomes difficult to maintain such high levels of activity. But the only way Chicago can turn things around is if it continues to trust the system and believe the work will pay off.
In short, possessions like the one below cannot happen.
To start the second half of the recent Atlanta Hawks-Bulls game, Atlanta ran a simple post play to get Paul Millsap a touch on the left side of the floor. As part of the Hawks' post-entry action, Kyle Korver cuts away from the ball after feeding it and screens for Al Horford.
Before Korver screens Pau Gasol, Gasol actually does a nice job sinking into the paint to protect against a curl. But there's no way he should get screened by Korver. He has a huge size advantage and should be able to bust through easily.
Yet on the play, he gives zero effort and gives up a wide-open jumper.
Jimmy Butler is partially at fault as well. He shouldn't allow his man, a wing, to get a free shot at one of his bigs. It's clear on the play that Gasol doesn't see the pick coming, which can only mean Butler said nothing or he did not communicate loudly enough.
Either way, Butler deserves to shoulder some of the blame as well.
To say that the Chicago Bulls are not trying hard enough is an oversimplification of what's going on. It's not as if they've suddenly stopped caring on the defensive end.
What's clear, however, is that they're not totally switched on when it comes to the details. Whether it's one more second of help or an extra hard burst to close on a shooter, there seems to be a single piece missing on every defensive possession.
Plays like this one, with Taj Gibson absentmindedly leaving Kyle Korver on the three-point line, are ruining what should otherwise be solid defensive stops.
Luckily for the Bulls, they still have a hefty lead in the Central Division and are a near shoo-in for the playoffs. They'll be able to withstand this stretch and turn it around with plenty of time to spare before the postseason.
It's just a strange sight to see a Thibodeau-led team misfiring on defense for weeks. It might have a bad day once in awhile but never over long periods of time.
Don't be surprised if Chicago turns it around sooner rather than later.
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