Kirk Hinrich is Killing the Bulls Softly With His Offense

his biggest value on offense, as far as I can tell, was his willingness to move the ball. Unlike Salmons, he wasn’t looking for his shot, so the ball ended up in Rose and Deng’s hands more. But that is not “real” value. That is simply not messing up. Imagine if the Bulls had a really dangerous shooter to pair with the improved Rose

pet theory is that he should have to live in a cage in between games. His best season, 06-07, was followed by his marriage, after which he got way worse. And then he had a kid the next season, and dropped off a cliff. It’s his family’s fault!

However, only one guy can hold onto the ball at once, and Rose happens to be one of the very best in the league at penetrating and scoring. So why would you ask Hinrich to do instead? Instead, Hinrich is primarily a spot-up jump-shooter these days, which is a role he’s pretty good at. However, spot-up jump shooters rarely get to the rim and therefore the line, so they tend to have less-than-stellar FG% and TS% numbers.

Your comparisons to Gordon, Salmons, and Deng are bad ones. Gordon was fantastic at creating his own shot and getting to the line, meaning it made sense to let him take the ball out of Rose’s hands. Salmons was also fantastic at creating his own shot… last year. This year, he wasted precious time jab-stepping and settling for ineffective jumpers, which is the main reason many Bulls fans soured on him. Is that what you want Hinrich to do? And as for Deng, he’s a completely different player than Hinrich and actually doesn’t demand the ball nearly as much as you’d expect, given how effective a scorer he is.

And regarding his ast%, I explained why his ast% is low these days. Regardless, the players you were comparing him to are clearly cherry-picked. Udrih is a PG, and Iverson, Johnson, and Ellis are all combo-type guards who bring the ball up a lot and distribute a lot more than most SGs. I don’t really think any of them have that much of a selfish reputation.

And again, I never said he would be the starting PG. His offensive role alongside Rose is that of a spot-up jump shooter who can occasionally take over the point and be a decent-enough distributor. He’s fairly good at that, despite what you say.

because he makes 36% of his threes. Because he turns down a lot of open looks because he’s timid and because he stinks.

He just seems out of it.

and you want to compare them to any other game he’s played this year, you will see that he showed no energy at all. I’m not saying I’m right no matter what, I personally did not see the same effort out of him that he normally shows. That’s what I saw. If you didn’t, you didn’t. I’m especially disgusted by it because we were already without Noah, then Deng goes down for yesterday’s game and Rose went down in each game. What’s stopping him from driving to the hoop and getting to the line or stepping in to help on the boards when we were getting destroyed on the glass last night? Again, Rose, Deng and Noah are out. Instead, I see him playing hot potato on the perimeter with Flip Murray and Pargo. For the record, I’m not a Hinrich hater either. He wasn’t always this tentative on the court.

“glue” is Kirk? Elhmer’s, Gorilla, or Crazy glue

I feel like this is the fifth time i’ve seen a link related to ti

You’re right

It is very disturbing to me that I have put myself into the position of trying to prove that Kirk is not TERRIBLE, but that he’s actually really almost mediocre. I know Kirk can play better than this, but that might be the most damning fact of all.

I gotta say, with time to think about it, I am getting pissed at Kirk.

It has always been my perception that Kirk has been ‘playing his role’ the last 2 years. That the old Kirk was still there, and would show up when he was needed. For example, he averaged 9.9ppg last season. In the one game last season where Rose didn’t play, Kirk had 24pts. and 8 ast., and this was a late season game against a Detroit team who we were competing against for a playoff spot. He also played well in the playoffs, he was aggresive and even got to the line 25 times. THAT is the kind of play I expected when the Bulls were short handed and trying to secure a playoff berth.

I have always been a fan of what Kirk can do on a basketball court. The problem is that it doesn’t matter what he CAN do, if he doesn’t DO it when it matters. He is hiding behind Rose AND Deng where in the past he didn’t hide behind BG. His passivity seems to have become pathalogical. Maybe it won’t ever get any better as long as he’s with the Bulls, his play is really starting to be depressing to me. Rose can’t do EVERYTHING.

Which he shoots reasonably well for his career.

He still has a low %, but apples to apples for most comparisons, you probably could raise Kirk a pt.

was limited by injury and he finished very strong. Can we throw out those final 18 games like the first 18 this year?

even against the opposing teams weakest defenders. He doesn’t create offense for others at a high rate when he plays the 2 guard. He doesn’t shoot the 3 frequently enough to be effective. He is an inconsistent player, as evidenced by your cherry-picking games to look at. And he isn’t getting any better.

That’s 30% of the season so far for a team that will finish around .500

…was also his fewest minutes played. His numbers last year were very similar to his best year, but those are two outliers among the other four. It’s arguable that last year’s “solid” effort would have regressed to the mean if given more time.

If we’re going to lop off a large chunk of bad this season as a “slump” why don’t we lop off a large chunk of his career as a “hot streak”. Take out his two best years (one of which was cut in half), and he has a 50.6 TS%

I think there’s a lot less deviation in his five worst seasons than in his two best. You’d know that better, though. I bet if you plotted his seasons, two would be huge outliers. Then, if you regressed all of them to the mean, his bad seasons would be way closer than his good seasons.

I think it’s more that his two good seasons have made him look better than his 18 game slumps here and there.

Injuries and JR are killing the Bulls.

And this made me chuckle.

some people here have more mood swings than a bipolar pregnant woman with ADHD

because we have no one better, we must suffer through the crap that is hinrich. I have been anti-Hinrich for awhile. I originally posted all these stats at the trade deadline, when he was playing well, when people were clamoring to keep him. The fact is that in the last 3 years he hasn’t been anything more than an average NBA player. He is overpaid, and this year, he is killing the Bulls on offense. Just like he did in 07-08.

I’d be fine with him as a 3rd guard or if his fans would shut up about how well he is playing sometime. We are talking about a 2 guard who hasn’t scored over 20 pts a game yet this season. That isn’t what the Bulls envisioned when they signed him.

However, this is the NBA. 99% of players who sign 5-year deals are overpaid by the end of the contract.

i think any hinrich fan watching mustve just like sank, cuz there was nothing you could walk away with….hes had poor shooting nights tons of times, its nothing new, but he always brought something to the table, yesterday i saw hinrich do something i dont think ive ever seen him do….take a defensive possession off, he was flat footed, he wasnt as aware as everything going on, when he wasnt being posted up, he looked like he was sleeping, rose would get beat and hinrich just stood and watched. On offense he didnt bother attacking the rim, especially at a state when rose and deng were both out….man i just cant explain how horrid it was to watch that game, im a hinrich fan because of his game, because of how he emphasizes doing the little things in his game, and that play that i am such a fan of, for the first time watching this guy, it wasnt there…and it was dreadful…

Angry Kirk, not being traded kirk, well rested kirk….i dont care what label you wanna give him, it just better not be the kirk hinrich who takes plays off…