Chicago Bulls: Short Q&A With Taj Gibson: Work on His Three-Point Range
Doug Thonus was at the Chicago Bulls media day yesterday, he have caught up with Taj Gibson for an interview more like a Q&A session.
"You had a breakout rookie season, what do you expect this year?
“Bring the energy, the same way, I’ll be behind booz. I’m looking forward to learning from him in here in practice and getting better.”How’s your foot doing?
“It feels a lot better, spent the whole summer rehabbing just getting it back. It feels way stronger than last year.”So how long did you have to rest this summer before getting to really work on your game?
“I had to rest mostly the whole summer. I stayed in Chicago, in the training room here, took most of the summer off until late and focused on rehabbing.”What are your first thoughts on Thibodeau?
“He’s like a drill sargeant. Knows every small detail on the basketball court,a nd he’s so easy to talk to and learn from.”How will things be different this year under Thibodeau compared to last year under VDN?
“I think it’s going to be a lot more crisp this year. I can tell from the mini camps that everything is going to be real crisp. We go at each other really hard. He wants the players to really understand it, so I think we’re going to be a lot better and guys are coming back better because we’ve been working out together.”Have you gotten to see the scheme yet or will that have to wait for practice?
“The scheme is really up tempo, fast paced, we’re going to add some things and I’m looking forward to seeing it.”What have you worked on this off-season?
“I’ve been shooting threes actually. Last season Vinny and his staff wanted to see me step out to 18 and eventually three point range. This coaching staff is helping me work on threes, and this staff is helping me work on it.”How’s your three look? Are we going to see it this year?
“It looks good, but it’s still probably a year away. They changed my whole jump shooting form to a new, easier, quicker form. i’m looking forward to using it.”Are they working you in at Center or just Power Forward?
“In some of the drills I’ve played some Center a bit, and whatever he (Thibodeau) needs me to play I’m open.”What’s your overall take on the off-season?
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“It’s all basketball. Lots of trade rumors, free agency stuff, but we’ve got lots of good guys on our team. I look at our guys now and we have a lot of depth all the way down the bench.”
Very interesting, Taj Gibson who is working to be a stretch four. I do not mind him working on it to develop his game long-term, expanding his game is always a good thing but I am hoping he also work on his low post game. Maybe with the signing of Carlos Boozer will benefit for Taj Gibson and probably work with him for some post moves.
Another interesting thing is he stated he change his form, it will be interesting what this new form he have. He is a good jump shooter from 12 ft but not consistent, perhaps with the new form will help him evaluate it and be more consistent with his shots, if he can do that and plus added his range from behind the arc he will be dangerous. However, I do not see him shoot the three much or at all this season, I think next season he will start shooting the threes. In fact I could see him start shooting threes this season but not as much.
Also another interesting note, an observation by Doug Thonus as he mentions from his blog.
"Other observations:
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I’d say he definitely appears to have bulked up since I’ve last seen him in person, which was probably a couple weeks into last season, but he looked definitely looked like he added some muscle though that could have taken place during the season as much as the off-season.
The interesting part is that it seem like that Taj Gibson have bulked up, it seem like that he added some muscle which is a good thing but we got to wait and see. Before I end this, I think with Taj Gibson’s new form it may take some time to adapt but we see what the results will be with his new form for this season.
