Bullish On The Bulls

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, October 08, 2014 with No comments
The Chicago Bulls are currently 0-2 during the NBA's exhibition season.  They fell in the last game, in OT,  111-109 against the Detroit Pistons. One fact stands out, nobody got hurt.  Guard Derrick Rose had a good first outing, a loss to the Washington Wizards.  That game cost Joakim Noah $15,000 for a skirmish.  It was a rough game.  Rose scored on some layups and hit some outside shots.  The Detroit game saw Rose in limited minutes as he still is working on adjusting to the physicality of the NBA.

One thing is for sure, this team has offensive talent.  Last year, when Forward Luol Deng was traded to Cleveland, the team's focus shifted to Noah, who became a bona-fide star in the League. Noah functioned as a point-center, like a hub around which players passed in and moved with the ball on a return from Noah.

One of those players, D.J. Augustin, a mid-season pick-up became an weapon and often lead the team in scoring during March and April.  Ironically, Augustin now plays for the Pistons.  The Bulls got quicker and bigger with the addition of Aaron Brooks, Pau Gasol, and the European big Nikola Mirotic.

The analogy is building a race car.  It takes many parts to get a highly polished, powerful roadster. Once it is built you have to take it out and test race it, giving it all kinds of situations to see how the car responds.

That is kind of where the Bulls are at now.  The team is learning to play together.  Coach Tom Thibodeau, who loves practices, said his team needed to get in the gym to practice. Now is the time.  He has to find a way to use the new players as well as a returning former MVP, with Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, and Mike Dunleavy.  Last season the Bulls often used 7 maybe 8 players in a game.  This year, the team could use 10 players.

It will be a battle for minutes as training camp winds down. The end result, is hopefully, the Bulls will be a better team. Let's say this: The Bulls second Unit, whomever that is, will be a pretty good one.