i was at the game on

saturday night.  I have some concerns.

Ok, first off let me state that i missed the first quarter.  cta problems, you know the dish. But so that means i missed Derrick Rose's 7 point madness.  But let me say this:

In the first half, Vinny Del Negro's choice of play was Kirk with ball at top of key getting a pick from noah.  This play worked twice and then it just kept getting botched up cause noah isn't a threat and kirk isn't that good of a passer in traffic.

In the second half, Vinny D ran this play.  He had rose bring the ball up to the top of the key, out past the three point line.  Drew gooden stood at the post position and tried to screen out kirk's man, as kirk was under the rim.  Kirk would run circles around this screen, out past it, then back towards the hoop.  Rose couldn't make the pass, not even once, when kirk  was open moving towards the hoop with his defender behind him.  The play then called for rose to dribble towards the wing where he attempted to throw a post-entry pass to gooden who was trying to get position on boozer.  Because gooden is goofy and has no post skills what so ever, not to mention he was guarded by a beast, he would eventually receive the post up pass, out far far FAR away from the paint.  He would then proceed try to go one-o-one with boozer and then would, obviously, fail.  He succeeded only once when he got into the lane using his quickness missing the layup then rebounding the ball and putting it in.  

Ok.  Vinny Del Negro ran these plays into the ground.  Good lord, in the 2nd and 3rd quarters it killed us.  Rose was great in the open court, but you could tell vinney was trying to do his thing: running these ridiculious two plays, yelling from the sideline like an over zealous coach and having his way.  First off, gooden is not that good in the post. He has good instincts, but doesn't know how to use his body in relation to his defenders body (i.e. shifting his weight to counter-act the defenders position).  I understand that vinney probably wants to establish a post game for bulls,  which everyone says they need.  I understand that he is intrigued by the prospect of using Gooden to his full potential.  But seriously? What coach hasn't tried doing that.  I bet he watched gooden play in college and thinks he can be that good at the pro level.  You have to play to your personell. You dont have a post player who can demand doubles, then stop goign to it. 

i know you are going to say he is "tinkering" or playing around with the lineup.  Its a joke.  I started a "fire vinny" chant at the end of the game where he went to the gooden play in the last 30 seconds when they were down by 5.  It resulted in an open look at a three but mostly because a jazz defender slipped.  I think the fire vinny chant is funny cause it is still pre-season and he has only coached like 5 games. hahaha. 

With a line-up of kirk, deng, noah, and tyrus thomas with rose handling the ball, which was actually what was in for large stretches.  Any person who knows anything about basketball would say to run.  This lineup is our future.  Rose is really great in open court at this point.  RUN RUN RUN RUN. tyrus and noah can rebound and they are like deer running the break.  All the other players are just fill-ins for future better players that we can trade for or sign to contracts that are made by getting rid of these guys. Hughes, Gordon, and Gooden are not going anywhere.  Unfortunately for us, those players make too much money given how much they will contribute.  Im sure they will be useful once their current contracts run out and they can sign on a championship level team for what they are actually worth.  They aren't working hard to improve.  Forget em and get over it.   Those five -- kirk, deng, noah, tyrus, and rose -- are the ones with potential and the ones with the best set of skills.  Start that five and run. 

and fire vinny.  Especially if it is still the pre-season cause that would be super funny. 

mando