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Nocioni's historical shot record

By your friendly BullsBlogger

UPDATE(11/14): Latest rumor, from KC Johnson (via TYI): Nocioni starting for Tyrus Thomas. Because Skiles hates rebounds. I'd actually be somewhat supportive if it was only for the Phoenix game (since they can't rebound either). But we know Skiles won't change things game-to-game.

Or something. I don't quite get what Skiles is saying to his parrot (at least he seems that way on his radio show, anyway) Brian Hanley:

Nocioni is a guy who's made shots for us, historically, so right now, when we're struggling to shoot, it makes sense to try to get him into that lineup. One of the things that's happened to us is when we miss, the misses start snowballing. We need to find a way early in the game to get some shot-making going. If we do that, we feel the guys will relax and start playing well again.

Funny that this strategy can apply just fine with Nocioni coming off the bench, yet somehow so far he hasn't stopped any 'snowballing' of missed shots. While Noc has a higher FG% than Gordon this year, he doesn't on 3-pointers where he's at 23%, and that's bolstered by a garbage-time performance on Saturday. (Why does Skiles have to do anything? Stuff like this makes me cite stats from 6 freaking games.)

The idea is then presented to (of course) get Gordon out of the lineup, by moving Deng to the two:

The good thing about Lu at the two is; when he's gotten the ball in the post-up area at the two and he's put [the ball] on the deck, teams come and run at him and double a little bit. Then we've moved the ball and missed the shots. We've got to be able to make those. So it's a valuable tool to have. Because it does open up the floor for us a little bit and allow us to move the ball and hopefully step into some good looks. We just have to step up and shoot it.

This is a slightly better idea than starting Duhon, but having the slowest wings in the league face Phoenix seems like recipe for disaster.

Plus the inherent problem with continuing to jerk around Gordon (how's his shot, historically?), but we went over that already. For his part, Gordon's resigned to 'whatever's best for the team' mode. But the best for the team is for Ben Gordon to be playing well.

Skiles needs to stop these 'win-now' shenanigans. You don't need to pander to us by 'trying stuff'. Just let them play their way out of it, or the season's screwed regardless.