[Thanks to MPG for today's preview -ed.]

Two days have passed since Vinny del Negro put his foot down with regard to the lack of professionalism exhibited by certain Bulls, which means that I fully expect Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah to log major minutes tonight.

If that sounds nonsensical, consider the man in charge.  VDN's modus operandi, thus far, is to play good-cop/bad-cop all by himself, delivering positivity with one hand and smackdowns with the other.   Neither does the quality of play seem to impact his lineups.  Noc has struggled this year; he's regularly in the game at crunch time.  Tyrus's had a two-game stretch of 21 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks; it was followed by 5 minutes against Washington and zilch against the Knicks.  Gray didn't have a steal, block or point against Washington (though he did have 9 boards); VDN started him against the run-run Knicks, a game for which Aaron was particularly ill-suited.   Now it's completely plausible, and consistent with pre-VDN incidents, that practice-performance is the reason for these otherwise baffling moves.  It's also totally plausible that VDN is over his head, completely lost, and he's just flailing away, both with lineups and his treatment of players.  In either case I fully expect to see both Joakim and T2 play and play well. 

So about Memphis (7-15 overall, 5-5 at home, two-game winning streak).

In most years, O.J. Mayo would be the Rookie of the Year by a wide margin, and deservedly so.  The guy is legit.  Strong defender, terrific spot-up shooter, can draw fouls taking it to the rack, though he doesn't have the quickness to beat his man cleanly off the dribble.  The stuff about him being a point- or combo-guard is wrong for exactly that reason.  He also shoots a terrific percentage for a rookie guard (47%) and rebounds fairly well (4.2 RPG).  Expect him to be aggressive early and throughout.  Rose is popular in Memphis, and gets the vast majority of the pub for ROY, which can't sit well with a player of Mayo's ability.        

Rapidly becoming the second wheel is Rudy Gay, a slasher whose numbers have declined slightly month to month.  He's got a beautiful pull-up jumper and his athleticism has given Luol problems in the past, so tonight should be a good litmus test regarding Deng's progress.  They get steady post-play from Marc Gasol, Aaron's kindred in size and draft position, but are weak at both point and power forward.  Gnashing of teeth is provided by Mike Iavaroni whereas Darko handles the rending of garments.  

We should win this game.  Gasol is the kind of player Gray (who practiced despite knee bursitis) can neutralize, though a better tact might be to take Noah and run Gasol out of the gym. Conley, an awful defender, couldn't stay in front of Rose if his life depended on it, and look for Gordon to bounce back after a lackluster game against the Knicks.  In fact, that could be said for the entire Bulls team.  The Knicks game left a bad taste in our mouths (by which I mean, us the fans), and the Bulls have had a few games to practice.  There's no reason to come out flat tonight.  .500 is within reach. 

More importantly, so are these. 

For a Memphis point of view check out Beyond the Arc.  The other sites I checked out haven't been updated for awhile [ed. note: Forgot 3ShadesofBlue]...which either means the people of Memphis are too high minded for sports blogging, or the Grizzlies stink.