The guy made three midrange jumpers!!! I doubt anyone has seen this happen during a shootaround, let alone during a game ... so that's encouraging.

We've all been impatient with his progress, and rightly so, but remember he's the youngest Bull. Hopefully we start seeing some consistency from him this year (get him his PT Skiles!).

We didn't get KG, we're not getting Kobe, we let Tyson go, and we swapped LaMarcus. If we're going to stick with our young core, I really think Tyrus is the key ... his progression will determine if we get to the conference finals and beyond in the next two years.

Age
21 Thomas
22 Deng, Noah
23 Gray, Sefolosha
24 Gordon
25 Duhon
26 Hinrich

After dropping my first 3 Bulls games here in DC, I'm now on a 2 game winning streak after last night's showing.

A few of my thoughts on the game, from several hundred feet up:

1. Joe Smith seems like consistent, stablizing personality out there, espcially when everyone else sucks for the first five minutes of the game.
2. Plenty has been said about Aaron last night.  It was sweet to see in person.
3. Tyrus's jumper was sweet from quite a varied range.  I had to do double takes to make sure that actually was Thomas taking those shots.  If he has nailed down that part of his game, he will be very dangerous very soon.
4. Noah seemed lost a couple times on the defensive end.  I don't remember if it was in transition, but he once switched between covering 3 different guys in under 2 seconds on one possession.
5. We have  long road ahead of us if we continue playing the type of basketball where our performance has Chris Duhon as the best finisher in the paint.
6. There was one span during the game when we had three white guys on the floor at the same time, something I don't remember having seen since Kerr/Kukoc/Longley.  Welcome to the Aaron Gray era.
7. I was bothered by our complete absence on the offensive boards.  I understand that a "jump-shooting team" isn't going to a ton of offensive second chances, but I would like us to average more than one body near the boards per jump shot.
8. If we have the guys full court scrimmage an hour before the game starts, is there any chance they show up offensively before the second half?  Seriously - what do we have to do to shake the rust off?
9. How long is it before teams start offensively scheming to make sure Tyrus is nowhere near the paint when they drive?  If Tyrus is in the paint when it isn't a jump shot, he gets to it.  His ability to do so is asymptotically approaching "Every single time."
10. Last night pushed me a lot closer to Matt's views on Nocioni, playing time, and performance.

Overall, it was great to see them get another W.  Plus, our section won a free Arenas jersey during a time-out, three card monte promotion.  Unfortunately, this was the Bulls only trip to DC this season, so unless I plan a trip up to Philly in January or March, I'll have to wait until next season to see them.

I know Gray appears Sweetney-like at times but there are some big differences.  He gets the tough rebounds.  He is not soft.  What may be perceived as soft is he plays under control.  Others players had their hands on rebounds and he took the ball away.  He appears to be very strong.  He actually was double-teamed at times opening up our guards.  I think Gordon's two key threes came out of Grey passing out of a double-team.  What surprises me is his ability to pass out of the post, including finding the cutters.  

TT makes mistakes but he is the key for us to get to the next level.  His Prince-like block on Jamison was huge.  He came out of no-where and did this at a key time in the game. He also blocked a Jamison jump shot that the Wizards luckily got back and scored.  TT can disrupt another team like no other Bull player.  

Gray and TT should start Friday.  Gray is a good match-up against Perkins and let TT try to guard Garnett.  If they have bad games let's not give up on them.  I also think Noah can be a major contributor to this team if we allow him to play more.  He needs to play within 5 feet of the basket to help us.

And as Orange Juice points out we are still very young.  We only have one bad contract.  I don't consider the Noc contract bad (I know this is arguable).  We could be a threat once Boston gets too old.  Anyway it was fun to watch the young guys do it last night.  

Aaron Gray displayed something for the Bulls that is absent in losses, but evident in wins.  I'm talking about confidence.  Gray wasn't a train wreck down the floor.  He calmly was getting ahead on offense and heading right for the low block on nearly every possession with Andrey Blatche in the game as the Wizards center.  What the?  Was this a Bulls player getting lucky?  No.  This was recognizing a matchup and asserting yourself on offense by getting into position to receive the basketball.  Despite having passes thrown at his ankles, Gray still managed to handled half of these passes and convert a few of them.

Tyrus had a great game.  The box says he had 13 attempts from the field.  That seems high.  I thought he had about 9 attempts.  Nonetheless, he converted 6 of those attempts and 3 of them were 12-15 foot jumpers.  I still bite my lip when Tyrus shoots, but what I did like was that he saw he was open, checked the floor for other openings, and when they weren't there he fired away with confidence.

When the game started I actually thought for a moment that Wallace was benched.  After not seeing him the entire 1st quarter I knew he had to be injured.  Even without Wallace, Chicago held Washington to 39% from the field.

Overall, this was a very thin Wizards roster.  Nick Young started and put up 10 shots making only 1.  I guess they really miss Antonio Daniels.  But they did have a 4 game winning streak.

I just loved watching a half court set with a big body in the paint wearing a Bulls uni.  Can we get Mr. and Mrs. Gray to attend every Bulls game?

This was the Aaron Gray coming out party.