Chicago Bulls: How Come They Struggle Against Small-Ball Lineups?

The Bulls have had a dream season so far this year. They sit alone atop the Eastern Conference and are closing in on the top record in the whole league, of course the first time since Jordan that this would happen.

However, despite their dominance for much of the season, the Bulls have strangely struggled against a specific type of team: Ones that go small ball. This was made especially apparent in losses to Philadelphia on March 28th and Golden State on February 5th.

Why do the Bulls struggle against this kind of small ball team? 

Inability To Use Size

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CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 25: O.J. Mayo #32 of the Memphis Grizzlies drives to the basket against Taj Gibson #22 of the Chicago Bulls at the United Center on March 25, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bulls defeated the Grizzlies 99-96. NOTE TO USER: User express

One of the Bulls' best traits is their big man depth. Against teams like the Lakers, they will not get destroyed by the bigs thanks to players like Noah, Gibson and Asik. However the Bulls' bigs are all defensively based. The only player who can really take advantage of weak defense is Carlos Boozer. 

All of the other bigs on the Bulls are not offensively based, meaning they cannot take advantage of smaller guys. This means that Rose cannot easily dump the ball into a big if Boozer is not in the game because they won't be able to do anything with it. This means that Rose has to take more of the offense upon himself even though the defense on him is even tougher, of course leading to offensive struggles. 

Turnover Prone

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CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 25: Derrick Rose #1 of the Chicago Bulls drives against the Memphis Grizzlies at the United Center on March 25, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bulls defeated the Grizzlies 99-96. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees tha

Derrick Rose has had a great season. Saying that, he is very turnover prone, ranking top 10 in the league with 3.5 a game. This isn't as bad as it seems. Rose has the ball in his hands on virtually every possession when he's in the game. With his incredibly high usage rate, he is very likely to turn the ball over a lot, so it's fine. However against small, quick lineups, Rose has trouble. 

In a regular game, Rose is consistently double teamed by the point guard and shooting guard. Then the team will have a big man playing help defense to come and help when he splits the defenders. However in a small ball lineup, the opponent can actually TRIPLE team Rose and still have a help defender. Let's take Golden State for example.

Steph Curry is the primary defender on Rose, with Monta Ellis leaving Brewer or Bogans to double. In this case, then Reggie Williams can leave Luol Deng as well to go and triple Rose. In most scenarios if this were to happen, Rose would find Luol Deng who would be open. However in the small ball lineup, Reggie Williams has enough quickness to be able to get back to Deng before the pass gets there, or one of Rose's defenders can come and take the ball out of the air. This strategy led to nine turnovers against the Warriors, and a loss.

No Secondary Ball Handler

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CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 07: Ronnie Brewer #11 of the Chicago Bulls leaps to pass the ball over teammate C.J. Watson #32 and Jarrett Jack #2 of the New Orleans Hornets at the United Center on March 7, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bulls defeated the Hornets 8

Despite the Bulls' relatively complete starting lineup, they are lacking a second player who can handle and distribute the ball other than Rose. 

This leads to increased turnovers. This is because players like Luol Deng, while having some ball handling ability, is not the type of player that can beat you off the dribble. If his defender leaves him open and he gets the ball, the defender has enough time to recover because Luol Deng isn't beating many guards by putting it on the floor. 

As of late, CJ Watson has been playing next to Rose more, which has actually been relatively successful. However, the Bulls can improve upon this relatively easily this offseason, and it should be a priority. 

Lack of Quickness

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CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 28: Carlos Boozer #5 of the Chicago Bulls stops at the scorer's table as Jrue Holiday #11 of the Philadelphia 76ers flips over the edge at the United Center on March 28, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The 76ers defeated the Bulls 97-85. NO

The Bulls, unfortunately, do not have an overall quick team. There are players like Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah who are quick for their position, but they are not enough to overcome slower players like Carlos Boozer, Kurt Thomas and Keith Bogans. 

Despite their impressive frontcourt defense, it's all based on rotations and muscle. When there are multiple people who can get past the defense and shoot, there's not as much that the frontcourt can do about it. The Bulls' perimeter defense, while also very good, is not as quick as we would like it to be. This means that quick players like Monta Ellis and Jrue Holliday can potentially have a field day when using the small ball lineup. 

Conclusions

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CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 11: Monta Ellis #8 of the Golden State Warriors watches his teammates from the bench near the end of a loss to the Chicago Bulls at the United Center on November 11, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bulls defeated the Warriors 120-90.

While it is a concern, the small ball lineup is not something that we should be too afraid of. Most of the teams that run it are not playoff teams, and small ball is not successful in the playoffs for the most part.

We should attempt to address it in the offseason, but it's not a high priority right now, especially when the top teams in the league (Lakers, Celtics, Heat) are big, not small.