Hawks 129, Bulls 117

Via Yahoo! Sports

For some reason, despite the fact that we will certainly target Bosh, Amare, and Wade before Joe Johnson, I have an odd feeling like he will be wearing a Bulls uni in 2011.

LINK

Adamant in his stance that he’s a high-minutes starter since the February day the Bulls traded for him, Hughes expressed frustration over his playing time for the second time in five weeks Saturday as Thabo Sefolosha started for the injured Luol Deng in the 129-117 loss to Atlanta.

“I don’t accept it, but I deal with it,” Hughes said.

When Hughes last spoke out Nov. 18 in Los Angeles, it prompted a meeting among himself, coach Vinny Del Negro and general manager John Paxson.

the one thing i want to say is that i appreciate the hawks announcers. i thought dominique (who i’ve actually met!) and whoever else were very good. it was nice to hear them talk about how it was a fun game to watch and even when calls went against their team, how the refs made the right call.

I fell asleep for 4 hours before tipoff but at least from the boxscore it seemed like an entertaining game

they could be worth something if given consistent playing time.

I say trade or bench the flawed and/or costly veterans (Gooden, Hughes, Noc, Hinrich) and let the younger players develop. Paxson needs to make this happen through trades.

and why hughes played at all in the second half, confuses me more

all the times JJ scored off a simple screen so Rose would switch on him?

And reading that quote above made my anger towards him flare even more. Him of all people has no place in talking about players going 1-on-1 and playing defense. Has he gone absolutely insane?!

Noc hurts this team with his selfish play, non-existent defense, flopping, flailing, and complaining to the refs. He’s a total bafoon out on the court. He makes me completely sick when I see him raise his palms and start bitching at the refs, which is after EVERY SINGLE CALL.

He took several selfish shots in tonight’s game and had no clue what he was doing on the defensive end. I about threw the remote through the TV and busted every window in the house when I saw him completely ignore BG in the 4th for what would’ve and should’ve been a wide open 3 pointer. Instead of hitting the open man, he took a contested 3, which missed badly, and which ended up as a basket for ATL. As Doug Collins would say, that was a 5-point swing….at a crucial time in the game. Sure, Ben takes his share of contested shots, but I would rather Ben take those shots 150% of the time, than idiot Nocioni.

His constant bickering, complaining, crying, bitching to the refs has gotten way out of control. It happens after every single call. Even when it’s completely obvious that he has basically chopped someone’s arms off. I would honestly applaud if some un-important goon player turned around and caved Noc’s face in. He does NOTHING on defense, so his counter-attack is to complain to the refs. This act is old and a million miles past annoying.

I could honestly care less what we get back for him, as far as talent is concerned, but Paxson needs to trade this idiot now. It makes my skin crawl every time I see him walk to the scorer’s table to check in. I would not care if we lost the next 30 games in a row if it meant not playing his ass.

Trade this fool and trade him now. He has no more use on this team. He has been beyond terrible this year, without having the “he’s playing injured” excuse. Let him be another team’s last piece or two to help in a playoff or championship run. The team should cut their losses and remove this bum immediately.

“It’s definitely not the effort,” coach Vinny Del Negro said of the defensive woes. "Guys are playing hard and giving me what they can. Right now, one of our better big guys ( Drew Gooden) is out. Lu (Deng) is out. Kirk (Hinrich) has been out all year. Defensively, if you don’t control the paint in penetration, it’s hard to win.

“We changed defenses. When you don’t have the length or size or power up front, you have to scramble.”

Here’s the link.

Is there another coach that makes as much excuses as this guy? I suppose injuries are also the reason your team doesn’t run ANY offensive plays? And injuries are the reason why a mentally challenged person can make better substitutions than you? Not good.

is going on? This is so embarrassing. Do we have to go through this again? VDN with no clue? What the F was with his lineups? Even my gf was bitching at him.

it’s the only logical explanation as to what goes on

I have tried being fair to Vinny. To give him a chance. For the most part, I think the offense is fine. It features are two best players, gets guys plenty of open shots, and when the Bulls move the ball, they shoot a high percentage. But the defense, the defense causes me Hulk like rage. Here are some of my biggest pet peeves -

1. Zone defenses are for shitty college teams and the Olympics, not the NBA. A zone in the NBA is junk. The players shoot the ball too well and move without the ball too well. These guys are in the NBA, they can pass to beat a 2-3 zone. Zone defense is a cop out and allows guys to not take responsibility. Any time the Bulls play zone, they give up about 2 offensive rebounds a possession. Further, the Bulls play the most lackluster 2-3 zone I have ever seen. Scrap this crap D. Its a gimmick

2. The Chicago Bulls do not rotate. They don’t rotate out to shooters. They don’t rotate to pick up guys driving to the basket. They don’t rotate off double teams. It is really amazing. I can’t tell if it is selfishness, a complete lack of recognition on the players parts, VDN’s coaching or some combination thereof. Obviously Aaron Gray has 2 cement feet, but you would think noah, tyrus or Noce could anticipate the play before the guy is at the rim.

3. VDN too often creates mismatches for the other team. The Hawks want to run a pick and roll with Bibby and Johnson? Well, why not switch it and make Rose guard Johnson. Horford is having problems scoring over Tyrus and Gray. Well lets see how he does against Nocioni.

4. Speaking of Nocioni, he and Hughes ARE NOT DEFENSIVE STOPPERS. In truth they are two of the more poor defenders on the team. Hughes gambles too much and doesn’t like to play physical. Noce fouls way too often, many times when he doesn’t have too. A foul is a foul, whether it “sends a message” or whether it just gets the other team in the bonus.

5. Defensive rebounding is IMPORTANT. Noce and Deng are not going to keep McDyess and Maxiell off the defensie backboards. The Bulls need to keep 2 of these 4 guys on the court for 90% of the game (Noah, Gooden, Thomas, Gray). Yeah, they aren’t great, but having Noce, Deng and Sefo play the 4 all the time leads to us being beaten on the boards every game.

6. The Bulls pick and roll defense is horrendous. The guards play it poorly, the big guys play it poorly. Poor Aaron Gray. He makes Shaq look like Ussain Bolt.

7. The Bulls get lousy defensive efforts from a number of players. Gooden, Rose, Noce, and Gray are, in my opinion, the worst offenders. Sometimes it seems as if Gooden just moves out the way when opposing guards drive to the hoop. I’ve never seen a player get caught looking the wrong way on a play so many times. Rose… what can you say. I was especially disappointed with his effort tonight as he went under screen after screen on Bibby. Sometimes it as was as if he was daring him to shoot. He’ll get better, but right now he is a sieve. Rose plays defense for about 16 seconds of every 24 second possession. Opposing teams have started to take notice.

8. Drew Gooden’s defensive classes. Obviously, the guys just aren’t attending.

(When healthy):

Rose/Gordon/Deng/Thomas/Noah

Bench: Hinrich(20-25), Gooden (somewhere near), Nocioni (13-18), Gray (10-25), Hunter (scrap metal)

Oh, did I not talk about Hughes? That’s because he doesn’t belong in the mix. Maybe it’s because I’m such a one-sided person, and because I don’t know what’s going on in the locker room, but it seems beyond obvious to start these five people.

Regardless of: past performance this year, mental fitness, of physical fitness. I firmly believe that after a while, these five can win games, and subsequent playoffs.

Keep faith…until the deadline…after the deadline if there is more of this…

(scroll down)

BURN THE FREAKIN UC DOWN TO THE GROUND, SCALP VINNDY DEL NEGRO, AND MAKE PAXDORF HUGHES" B**CHES!!!!!!!!!!!

Trapping D.Rose always and live with 55 combined points from both Gordon and Rose. is the key to victory against the lowly Bulls. Especially with Gooden out.

Deng will rarely beat you or rarely is deciding factor. And Kirk brings small ball, and is only effective when his shot is on. Which for Kirk is not often, similiar to Hughes. One difference in hughes from Kirk, is Hughes has tougher skin, his confidence never is display being down and he keeps shooting.

Noc seems frustrated, and it seems he believes he’s playing with a bunch of chumps and shoots always. Tyrus and Noah aren’t ready if ever they will be? I see very little team unity. It will be important now during this stretch that the guys don’t lose confidence and give up like they did last year.

Paxson has allowed the players to mostly all have little value, he holds on too long to evauate, while everyone else has already reached a conclusion or establied a ceiling. He thinks too slow. Like .. “Deng as a SG?” Deng has skinny ankles, wrist and weak hands, he’ll probably live on the injury list for years to come, unless he hits the weights and strength training hard.

The Bulls are turing into the Clippers.

beside that, bahhumbug

Despite there being no D, that game was the most fun I had up until the end of the third. Gray had a decent game, TT and Thabo had great games, Rose had a career high and BG was BG. That I can live with.

But the little voice in the back of my head that kept saying the Bulls could win it choked and died when Thabo and Gray came out for Noc and Hughes.

Pardon the armchair critic, but if a player is on fire offensively and has proven over the last 2 seasons to be able to guard the opposition’s best off-guard, you leave him on the damn floor.

This game is the last straw, if VDN wants to be a coach, let him get his licks as a staffer or asst then let him had a head coaching job in the very distant future. Any half bright GM would be able to see that VDN is not at all cut out to coach a basketball team. Give the team to Harris or Bickerstaff.

A rookie coach can be forgiven, but abut 30 games in, the same mistakes don’t shw a raw coach, just a stupid one. At this point, any regular on BaB is more qualified than this guy.

He pretty much blames the loss on Ben being short and the ATL players having their way with him. I don’t quite remember it being as bad as Sam is saying…maybe I was too busy thinking of ways to hurt Nocioni through the TV. In any event, he’s still a tool.

And because their perimeter starters, Rose and Gordon, both are not good defenders, Rose likely because of inexperience and Gordon generally being overmatched in size no matter who he plays…Still, the Hawks picked on Gordon as much as they could, sending Johnson at him to open the game as Johnson and Gordon had one of those first quarter shootouts reminiscent of the Jordan-Dominique Wilkins matchups of the mid 1980’s…So when Gordon switched to Marvin Williams, Atlanta went to Williams over and over, seeking out matchup advantages. They even had Flip Murray drive at him when he came in.