Open Game Thread #32: Bulls vs. Sacramento Kings

GO BULLS!!!

Seahawks just wrapped up a huge win (although they did try to implode for the first couple minutes of the 4th).

It's up to the Bulls to close out the day in style.  :)

"[something sounding like Abdur-Rahim], Ron Artest, Henry Bibby, and Kenyon Martin"

Tyrus at the 3 is a bad idea, especially with Noah and Wallace as the frontcourt. And especially if Boylan wants him closer to the basket. At the 4 with Gray (who sucks, but takes up space) is a better combo.

This time instead of Gordon forcing a shot he threw it out backwards to nobody in particular.

10 points, 1 assist, 4 rebounds, 1 TO

It is difficult to justify not playing him

Hope we see more of the young guys in the second half.

Look who's on the floor: Duh/Hinrich/Noc/Smith/Wallace. The only options are jump shots or Wallace getting blocked by the rim.

And I find college basketball (the 'basketball' part) pretty boring.

(if only he made more FTs...)

I'm not sure how great Tyrus will be as a Basketball player, but he'll definitely make a great businessman.

Only up by one against this shitty team?!

Anything Matt happens to say about this game, I'll just go ahead and agree with it before I even watch the replay.

This is just lame

Kudos, sir.

Not to mention the poor shooting again.

Every coach knows to just throw the whole team on Gordon at the end of games

He is just gonna take a wild shot over 3 Kings and hopes it goes in

FUCK YOU BOYLAN!

That said, no worries for me. If the young guys play, and only win at 33%, it would take at least a year before I'd start to really complain. Though I don't know if my attitude is shared by many here...

It's been a hard week.

I needed the laughs for when i stared at the boxscore...it all balanced out....maybe the boxscores got a bit more leverage.

I hear that ben wallace had a clutch block at the very end to keep the kings from scoring...but my source is my brother so i wonder of how reliable it is.

ehh well i thought a bit and the laughter has faded, im depressed....

I understand that he can jump out of the gym, and he is by far the most athletic player on the Bulls, but Tyrus Thomas (a second year pro) still plays like a rookie (for which I mostly blame Skiles), and this team isn't nearly good enough to carry a rookie in big game situations.

Almost everything he does on this team stems from oppurtunities that arise from either blown coverage, broken plays, or missed shots. He's like Tyson Chandler (feasting on these moments of pure athleticism) in that regard, except for some reason Tyrus isn't content to just block or steal the ball. NO, he has to dribble it all the way up the court and telegraph an easy pass back into Udrih's waiting hands... Are you kidding me? That's a play I expect to see at the YMCA, not in an NBA game from a 6 foot 9 forward. Lobbing it to a barely 6 foot guard ten minutes after he was wide open in the middle of the court (who was so badly covered by the time it even got there)! Was he expecting Ben Gordon to rise up and dunk it over 2 players anyway? It was a bad pass that led to a 4 point swing and highlighted yet another reason Tyrus can't stay in the game. Horrible basketball IQ, and It drives coaches nuts.

That's why he wasn't on the court in the final moments, and as sad as it is we were better off with Ben Wallace shooting free throws with the game on the line. Even more sadly I'm not sure Tyrus will ever get this. Watch him closely on defense. For every shot he sends into the front row he gets beat for easy layups or ends up fouling (or causing his helpside D to foul) his man. He should know this by now, and when it happens he doesn't seem to learn because it happens over and over again. At least Noah seems to understand when he makes a mistake.

This team is not good enough to play him right now.

Sacramento actually knows something we don't.  THAT should scare all Bulls fans.

They had god bounce and aggressivenes.  Thabo took it to the hoop.  He may have an ugly flat jump shot, but around the basket he's got great feel.  And TT's mind wasn't wandering.  He missed one look for an inside pass from Du, but got twoo great--I mean great--lob dunks.

Yes, the game wasn't perfect, but the thing many of us here care most about--high level performance by the kids--made this the best game we've seen in a long time.  

23 minutes
    14 points
    1 stl, 3 blocks
    9 rebounds
    2 assists
    2 turnovers

What more can we ask from a 21 y.o. player?  Yes, he makes dumb-ass miss-stakes that make me drop and shake my head.  But he does things that impact and energize our game.  His two blocks late in the game were awesome.  He is 21 years old.  He played great for a 20 year-old rookie last year.  Did all of a sudden he become horrible requiring ADHD treatment to get him minutes?  Management should not repeat the lack of patience and tolerance we showed Chandler. We gave away someone who appears to becoming one of the NBAs best centers.  Tolerating 21 y.o. miss-stakes is necessary or we risk passing on someone who 2-3 years from now is an NBA star.  Josh Smith is now coming into his own in his 3rd NBA season.  TT is one of the few players who provides a spark.  Management needs to tolerate the dumb plays that come along with a 21 y.o. talented player.  We need TT.

A player similiar to ...
E-Rob or Shawn Marion?

Hopefully Marion because he just scores points mainly on put backs (garbage baskets) without being a first or second option, and also SM has decent outside (3pt) shot, although it's a strange looking jumper.  SM has great anticipation and timing, a outstanding defender and grabs lots of rebounds.   I think this would be a best case model for Tyrus, and it seems to be what Paxson envisioned.  So I believe Tyrus should not try to be like a Tracy McGrady type player and attempt to run the point.  

I hope he really gets to a similiar SM level one day, but he'll need to run the floor always, improve his outside shot (maybe add 3pt), improve positioning and anticipation to the offsensive boards (especially when Kirk/Duhon shoots), defensive block outs, learns to play solid defense, and limit fouls.  Wallace doesn't run and doesn't finished, but there are different expectations of Tyrus if he wants to get to another level.  Now, how is he going to learn all of theses fundementallySound basketball skills