(Preseason) Mavs 88, Bulls 83: Savvy vets Bogans and Thomas, Bad rebounding a trend?

I assume he sees the same stuff as us, Derrick’s not aggressively looking to get to the line, passing at the top of the key and not moving around on offense.

I think his defense looks much improved and his mid-range jumper is perfect; but he could be incredible if he just worked on his offensive game a bit.

Bulls went from the Suns wide open run and gun to the Celtics slow it down half court sets. I’m interested to see how this effects Rose. While Luol Deng may like this offense I think Rose becomes more of a passing point guard. Anyways only two games.

"The defense was a little bit better. I liked the start of the game," said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. "I thought we got off to a good start. We were executing the play on both ends of the floor. But we’re nowhere near being a 48-minute team, and that’s what we have to do to be successful. We have to gang rebound. Our smalls aren’t helping, our bigs aren’t driving back, so right now (rebounding is) a team problem that we’ve got to work on. It’s hard to run if you are not rebounding. I’d like to see us get to the line more. I think we have to drive the ball with more force. We’ve got to make the officials make the calls. We’re bailing out at the end and flipping the ball up. You’re not going to get calls when you play like that."

Sam Smith

I really like hearing that last part. It sounds like that will be a point of emphasis under Thibs.

Also, here’s another jewel from Sam:

It seems fairly obvious to me, though it is early, that the two free agent roster spots should go to Scalabrine and Weaver

That’s strange, because it seems fairly obvious to me that Scalabrine should be watching the games from his couch like I am.

Though, there seemed to be a tinge of intensity from both teams during that third quarter. It was Regular season intensity, but at least that’s higher than preseason intensity. Nonetheless, I took notice of a bunch of things from watching:

—It was nice seeing Luol Deng operate within this offense. I forgot how effective he can be when there is a purpose for him. When Luol was on, he moved off the ball like an all-pro tight end looking for weaknesses in the defense (space), and his corner three ball looked good. But watching Luol, even in this meaningless preseason game, only reminded me of the main criticism of him: he disappears as the game goes along. I don’t know if it’s him losing interest or focus or what, but Thibs should be ready to give him a quick hook when that sort of thing happens. In this case it could have been he lost interest because it was, you know, a preseason game. But seeing Luol reminded me that it’s something to watch, and he wasn’t real effective during that “meaningful” third quarter.

—The emphasis on the corner three reminds me of how the Spurs always stress that shot. It is the shortest three point distance outside the arc and a straight shot. It seems like an obvious strategy, but so few teams stress it on offense.

—As YFBB mentioned, Asik (7’0" 255LBS) moves really well for someone that big. I was watching the Nets vs Celtics and by comparison Brook Lopez (7’0" 265LBS) seemed a lot slower than Asik. Lopez is better in every single other area as a Basketball player though, I just wanted to make sure I pointed that out in case of confusion. Asik has no touch nor does he have any clue what the hell is going on around him, but dag nabbit, he’s big and fast. We’ll see what happens with him. He’s definitely a project.

—I loved seeing the use of the flex plays. They really take advantage of the passing ability of the Bulls’ big men. Especially Joakim (6 assists).

—The funniest part of the game was listening to Neil get angry when Rick Carlisle brought Dirk back in the game (to serve as a big decoy). Neil seemed so flustered that it ensured Dallas would win that I thought he would say something along the lines of “I hope Dirk breaks down because of the minutes he played in this game. It would serve the Mavs right for denying the Bulls this preseason win.” In terms of strategy it was defensible. Dirk wasn’t looking for any offense (though he did start taking shots once the Bulls left him wide open) or playing defense (not sure if this was a change from the norm), he was just in there to intimidate/draw attention. Coaches can’t treat their players like glass that is inevitably going to break. If you can grab a cheap preseason win for the sake of not having to eventually worry about wondering why the team hasn’t won a preseason game, you do it. Basketball is an emotional game that demands constant focus from the players, and negativity leads to a lack of focus.

—In a related note Rose played 31 minutes, while Nowitzki played 35. Hmmm.

—The new defense seems to put an emphasis on making sure every shot is contested. As a result, the Bulls are going to give up more offensive rebounds. The benefit is that their opponents will shoot a lower percentage overall because of the higher number of contested shots. Bulls need to find a balance so that the offensive rebounds grabbed by the opposition don’t completely mitigate the strategy of causing opponents to shoot a lower percentage. A reason that Rajon Rondo has been so valuable to Boston is that he can grab rebounds for them when a big comes out to contest a midrange jumper. Can Derrick be that guy? Thibs seems to like “gang rebounding” to solve this, whatever that means.

—Brian Scalabrine is the least athletic player I have ever seen play the NBA, but I get why Thib is giving him so many preseason minutes. He understands how to play in the system and he’s probably serving as a auxiliary teacher of how to operate the way Thibs wants the team to. Hopefully Scal’s usefulness runs out soon and the key guys grasp things quickly because I hate watching him. I don’t like watching any NBA player who I think is less athletic than me.

—I know he went 3-for-3 tonight, but I don’t trust Bogans to sustain shooting like that At one point or another the Bulls are probably going to need someone to hit those shots consistently. Korver could be that guy (despite sucking tonight), but he doesn’t seem comfortable playing shooting guard. My money is on Watson, though a trade may be the best way to address this.

—Oh and Kyle Weaver looks like he can play for reals. I wanna see more Weaver.

Is he makes me long for the days of Malik Allen with how much he’s playing “Scal”….

Oh well that better go away in reg season.

I thought we played well tonight when it was our main guys.

I felt Shawn Marion is totally awful these days, what a shell of his former self.

I was shocked to see Carlisle trot out Dirk and keep Terry out there against our scrubs in the 4th quarter.

I know we “lost” but like the game before, I think in reg season that’s a different story (presuming of course “Scal” doesn’t play the seemingly 25 minutes a game he seems to be there).

John Lucas III looked downright awful for much of the game, but he did have that nifty little teardrop move in the 3rd quarter.

I like Korver, Korver didn’t play quite as much as he did game 1, but he seems to have a sense for his role in Thibs offense already.

Bogans played great yesterday.

And Rose/Noah look poised to do more when it matters. Noah looked great.

Still play of hte game for me was Kyle Weaver’s block (Asik’s was #2), I’d give that guy a contract….in the “he better than JJ” mold.

Same ol’ Derrick. Sigh

It still remains, who will pick up the slack now that Boozers gone until January

Seemingly every loose ball ended up in Dallas’ hands. This team needs another big and has cap space, not signing Dampier is stupid.

bogans, lucas, scal.

maybe not by a lot, but at least he’s not so far on the wrong side of the mediocrity line.

Ive always wondered why we never employ the pick and roll well.
It always seems like our guys are trying really hard to get open
for the ball but are not getting the picks they need to get open.

We should be able to get korver more open looks for his sweet
shot. Deng seems to get open at the 3pt line, so hopefully when
his shot starts falling that will relieve the pressure on korver when
he comes in.

Additionally why is it that James Johnson is always set up in the corner.
It seems like the only play that is run for him is: stand in the corner and
wait for someone else to shoot the shot, and then run in and try to slam it
in for the put back. Unfortunately it looks like he has lost some hops since
he has lost his weight so he doesn’t have that athletic punch to get him over
the top.

but i enjoed the game as a whole. We kept our scrubs in at the end and still looked decent against dirk and terry. Plus it was a good game to see what we need to work on. Rose got better, but his shot still sucks. Overall..i thought it was a solid C performance. Go Bulls

That’s it.