Noah’s been the biggest disappointment for me so far. He doesn’t look like he’s learned a single offensive move, and he’s obviously not in the best condition.

He was probably giddy just thinking about getting to face the Bulls’ interior defense.

cause Derrick Rose looked very impressive. I already thought he would be good but he just confirmed it. The rest of the Bulls are really pissing me off. What happen to the team from two years ago,how good would they be with Rose?!

The Lakers clearly outclass the Bulls at basically every position, except of course for Rose. Just as Jordan was the only one left from the 84 team of his rookie season, Rose will be the only player left from this team within 3 years. Luckily he is only 20, so we have a few years to build a team around him. Without Rose, I would seriously have to consider cancelling my NBA league pass.

one of the most interesting and impressive things about Rose, and an indicator of how advanced his game is his ability to defensive rebound and how he always seems to be around the ball as it comes off the rim on the defensive end, it is almost uncanny, especially for a rookie. The guy is greatly exceeding my expectations, and making me think back to the early Jordan years, even though they are different type of players. At least we have one brilliant slice of hope.

That Gordon has bad body control. Anytime that he takes more than 2 dribbles he looks like an epileptic having a spastic fit.

In fact there should be a Gordon rule, that he is never allowed to take more than 2 dribbles before shooting.

I’d bet his shooting percentage with 0 or 1 dribble is over 50, 2 dribbles between 40 and 50, and 3 or more dribbles under 30.

all night, because of the competition.

The inarticulate dufus, Gary Payton said prior to the game, that Mayo was way ahead of Rose for ROY. After Rose blew by the Lakers with ease all night, he reluctantly admitted Derrick was a good player, but still would not concede his greatness, as Webber tried to push him in that direction. “Yeah, Rose is a good player. It’s too bad he’s on such a lousy team.”

I do agree with his sarcasm regarding Deng. He said “Where is Deng, he’s not in my pocket. Has anyone seen him”. ala where’s Waldo? Except for a very nice putback resulting in a 3 pt. play, Luol was nowhere to be found all night.

Tyrus hustled thus earning his 31 minutes, contributing some spectacular highlight plays, especially his steal and behind the back pass for a layup and definitely played himself back into the rotation. He was 3 for 6 from the field, missing his only open jump shot, and 3 for 3 from the line. His defense was solid and he was credited with 3 blocks while his jumping jack ability forced some other shots to go astray. My only complaint is that he lays back too often instead of attacking the rim for offensive rebounds.

The LA announcers were impressed with TT’s athleticism and were completely blown away by the overall awesomeness of D Rose, commenting one time that Farmar knew he was there as he flew by him for a layup, it’s just that DR is so fast, he never saw him. They both aagreed there is not doubt he is the top rookie with potential to become one of the all time greats.

Gordon and Hughes were 8 for 30, but Ben was very agressive and kept the pressure on the Lakers, while Larry ’s game can give any loyal fan serious heartburn every time he touches the ball.

Hunter should play in a seniors league, although I’m not sure he would start.

Aaron gives his all, but appears to be playing at half speed even when he is going all out.

Noah is always going at full speed, but was totally outmuscled all night and continues to be a huge liability, which is why the Bulls are forced to put Gray in who has been slightly less sucky so far.

Noce does not have the size to compete against the Lakers and I know this may sound nuts, but Cedric Simmons looks like he could put a hurt on some of the trees in the paint and maybe deserves more minutes in certain matchups, maybe as a defensive stopper, shot blocker and rebounder when the Bulls have a decent lead and want to run some clock. I know it was garbage time, but he looked tough.

Odom had 10 in 22, while Oden had 22 and 10. While I thought we were still talking about the Bulls/Lakers, BIg D was already looking ahead to tomorrow’s loss if our bigs don’t play big, which is about as likely as having a rainstorrm in Tucson. Actually it does rain here about once every 100 days so all is not lost and hope rings eternal.

actually needs to watch some game film. Any high school basketball coach (though maybe not VDN…okay I’ll stop beating that horse) would notice the amount of space in the lane Rose is creating. Cut, dammit. BG, Nocioni, let them float around the perimeter. You, Luol Deng, 6.9 dude, cut to the damn rim. Get some easy ones. Then, IF they start sagging away from you, you’ll have some open jumpers.

I still chalk this up to him not being comfortable the offense. Eventually it will come around.

We all expected the loss last night.

Last night’s game was perfect in that, it is the Bulls’ reality.
Of course the Bulls will force their guards to shoot and drive a lot, because that’s their best chance!
Of course a strong inside opponent will deliberately bash the Bulls inside!

Tyrus’ highlights were huge high points. Something good might be happening.
Gordon is great as Gordon is made. But Kobe is big and terrific.
Deng just does not appear to fit. Are injuries the only issue?

Damn it, we need a center.

For a while there, it appeared that many on this blog were beginning to face reality. But TT makes a couple of athletic plays, and suddenly hope is alive?

Please. It’s painfully obvious that the very best possibility is that the will develop into a useful role player. But given his lack of toughness, both mental and physical, even that it a long shot.

Ben Gordon is one-dimensional, and, while more valuable than Thomas, he’s also a useful role player at best.

The deficiencies on the Bulls’ roster are glaring, and there’s no need to tick through them in detail. But to my mind, what is by far the most disappointing aspect of the current team is coaching. Del Negro is either way over his head, lacks a talent for the (head coach) position. I say that because the apparent lack of planning, poor cohesion, failure to design plays around the strengths of particular lineups, etc., is appalling.

I noticed last night that after three consecutive timeouts called by the Bulls, they utterly failed to produce anything positive immediately afterwards. And while of course execution plays a big role, it seems clear that Del Negro is lost.

There are basically two main issues: maximizing the current roster, and building a better team for the future. In my view, Del Negro was obviously a poor choice to accomplish the former, and several players need to be moved/traded in order to strengthen the Bulls’ long term prospects.

1.) How to call a time out when the other team starts to pull away

2.) Which line ups work against which team. I thought Noah played great last night. I liked the run we went on with D Rose, BG, Deng, Tyrus, and Noah in the 1st half. Of course, Vinny decides to bring in Larry Hughes.

Al,

you said:

“If VDN were a seasoned, winning, top notch coach, would he be developing his strategy based on this roster’s needs, or would he be installing his system, and letting the personnel strengths and needs reveal themselves? We’re assuming that because plays don’t work that it was due to them not fitting the personnel. Either the staff has a plan or it doesn’t; anyone see evidence one way or another?”

Any organization would attempt to do both simultaneously. We have no idea what the Bulls’ management has in mind in terms of trades, etc., but it’s pretty damn clear to me that they have already made some serious mistakes in investing so much in TT, and failing to trade Gordon when they might have gotten some real returns. (To be fair, getting rid of Ben Wallace was very smart – cutting losses – and they couldn’t have done that without accepting Hughes. But of course they should never have acquired BW in the first place…)

But in terms of maximizing and developing current personnel, I’d argue that VDN and whoever else has serious input are failing badly. Thomas, for example, should be reigned in and used mainly as a defensive shot-blocking presence (one of the few things he is actually good at), and lob plays should be designed to take advantage of situations when opposing teams have their big men cheat on defense in an effort to stop Rose from penetrating (as they will, more and more).

The last point is an illustration of why I believe Del Negro to be such a poor, and unpromising coach. The Lakers’ big men were (understandably) cheating like crazy in order to stop Rose from driving, yet what plays did Vinny come up with to counter that strategy? None that I could discern. Why not have Rose execute a quick pass to another player who could immediately lob to TT around the rim, before Gasol and others could recover? Pretty basic stuff, really.

NBA Observer makes an excellent point above, and I agree completely. I thought exactly the same thing at the time: the Bulls’ strategy should have been to drive and drive and drive, picking up many free throws for the rest of the quarter. But what did VDN do? Apparently he went with the ‘chaos’ approach to offense, which the Bulls happen to suck at.

when Gooden was guarding Bynum for a short stretch in either the 3rd or the 4th quarter. They went on a little run and basically put the Bulls out of it. Everyone on the court realized the mismatch and the lakers just kept throwing it inside why didn’t VDN notice this?