Dwyane Wade simply looked like he didn't care all game. Maybe that's because he knew even his lousy supporting cast could beat the Bulls without their three best players, maybe he's growing disenchanted with carrying the heavy load every night in Miami without help. Either way, the Bulls managed to keep the game close through a half before letting Miami take over the game in the early third quarter.
Much like the game against the Magic the bright spot of this game was James Johnson playing well in big minutes. He was 8 of 11 from the floor for 20 points. With this game he raised his TS% to 54.6% and his three point percentage is up to 35.3% on the season. Johnson's PER is up to 10.8 after sitting around 7 early in the season, and he looks like a guy who could be much further along right now if he had Taj Gibson's leash early in the season.
The primary thing holding down Johnson's PER from being much better is his insane foul rate of 6.2 PFs per 36 minutes. The good news is that most players who struggle with fouls and turnovers are able to reduce them with experience without effecting the rest of their stats.
Is Johnson going to become a star for the Bulls? Highly unlikely. However, three weeks ago he looked like a complete bust, but after getting legitimate playing time a few times, it's easy to see some of the skills he brings to the table. It just goes to show it's hard to judge a player who doesn't get legitimate playing time.
As for the rest of the game, maybe the only interesting thing was Hinrich getting tossed for collecting two techs after Dwyane Wade drew a foul driving to the basket. Now if only Kirk can teach the whining to Derrick and switch it to the offensive side of the ball, we'd be in business.
Oh, the Bulls fell to two games behind Toronto, who has fallen to eighth place. One interesting dynamic is that if the Bulls do make the playoffs and pass Toronto to get there, it would have quite the psychological benefit in pushing Chris Bosh out of Toronto. That seems awfully unlikely to happen, and of course it doesn't necessarily push him to Chicago. Yet, one can dare to dream.
Filed under: Game Threads
Tags: chicago bulls, james johnson, miami heat, post game
IT's DECISION TIME:
As things currently stand, the Bulls are the 11th worst team in the NBA right now. They sit 7 games ahead of the Clippers for the 10th spot.
Thanks to John Paxson's brilliant trade it looks like the Bucks will be switching 1st Round draft picks with the Bulls. Therefore, it's decision time.
Either John Paxson needs to tell THE THREE "PUSSY"-CATS (Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah) to MAN-UP and play vs. Memphis or he needs to sit their "SOFT" ASSES on the bench for the rest of the season.
The clearly lack TOUGHNESS, HEART and LEADERSHIP.
If they had those qualities, they would have treated last night's game as a playoff game. Instead, I see Derrick Rose laughing on the bench when the Bulls were down by double-digits. Somebody needs to get in his face and wake his ASS up.
Pro sports is about WINNING and nothing else.
Sadly, these guys are apparent LOSERS, not WINNERS!!!
So you want to tank by sitting Rose/Deng/Noah, because they are losers? If they're losers than wouldn't leaving them in make no difference, or did you indirectly admit that when they play our team performs considerably better?
The silver lining in all this of course is James Johnson. I think there's a side to him that's not a bad guy. But there's also a stubborn somewhat immature side I see as well. Hopefully he can pull a Noah, and come around full circle to being a reliable, grinder who is all in it for the team(not himself). Because he definitely has the talent athletically and offensively.
This is what i have been saying...either lose now and try to get into the top 10 and have your pick safe...or try to win and not make the playoffs and then on top of that, lose your draft pick and fall possibly 6 or 7 spots. The Clippers have to win some games though for us to be safely in the top 10. Or else we will be on the outside looking in and hoping for another miracle that we get into the top 3.
Since you brought up that Toronto is only 2 games ahead of us...it could be a good thing to try to make the playoffs since they have Bosh. And if Bosh doesnt make the playoffs this year...I would think he would leave for sure.
I've been thinking similarly, except I like to think my thoughts were coherent. And without all the upper case and man up this and soft that.
I mean look, we aren't going to make the playoffs at this point. Not if Rose is going to be limited by a sore wrist and Noah is out for another couple weeks, and will still likely be in pain after that. Who knows how Deng's knee really is, and Taj is hurt, too.
I think we should sit Noah the rest of the way, Rose and Deng until they're 85% - 90%, and see if we can get Taj some rest. If Vinnie just throws them out there in a desperate attempt to stay competitive, it could very well cut into these guys offseason development. And there are benefits. We get a pretty good shot at a nice draft pick that we actually get to keep. We get to develop some young guys and see what we have. And our role players get a chance to really gel together and better learn each others games, which can only help should a starter go down in the future, or just to help keep the starters' minutes down.
I don't think it's going to give a negative impression on our young guys about effort. Everyone on our team now has that desire to win, and this would only make it stronger. My one fear is that a free agent would look at this and have questions about our organization's desire to win. But I don't think there's not much to worry about there.
By the way, load up the site in Google Chrome. The Facebook/Digg// bar on the left is very broken, and I've had trouble logging in at times. Oh, and where's the Reddit submittal button?
That's one way of putting it.
The Milwaukee swap is based on where we pick, not where we finish, right? If so, as long as we're in the lottery we have a shot.
Around 3%, if we can get Rose we can do this! ;)
Imagine how that would help us attract a free agent! Next year's starting lineup:
PG: Rose
SG: Evan Turner
SF: Deng
PF: Bosh
C: Noah
I think I'll go back to my little dream world now.
Umm....can somebody explain this Bucks/Bulls draft pick stuff?!?
I never thought I'd be cheering for the Pistons.
Unfortunately we appear to be perfectly screwed, at least with regard to swapping picks with the Bucks.
As long as Noah is out we have virtually no shot of winning enough games to get back into the playoffs, unless Bosh or Wade missed the entire rest of the season also. However, even if Rose, Deng and Noah sat the rest of the season we are too far ahead of the dregs of the league to fall to the 10th spot or lower. Thus all we can do is hope and pray to win the lottery one last time before we become a regular playoff team for the rest of Rose's career.
As for Johnson, while I was pleased to see a little life and activity in his play, but for the most part, it still seems that he just stands around the perimeter doing pretty much nothing.
I don't know if this is his fault or our Bimbo Vinnie's, my guess is both with more of the responsibility on the Bimbo. Johnson is clearly the most talented offensive player on the Bulls with Rose and Deng out, so Del Bimbo should try to run some offense for him or thru him, instead of watching Pargo and Murray jack up a bunch of crapass shots. We have no shot of winning these games, so lets try and find out what Johnson is capable of doing during this extended garbage time. Maybe this could boost JOhnsons confidence and launch him into a productive offseason.
I really felt like Johnson was a bust, kind of like Tyrus Thomas where he doesn't know where to be on the court but has alot of athletic ability. I shouldn't have judged him so harshly though, because he has a better attitude and seems definatly more intelegent. I'd like to see vinny give big minutes to acie law and james johnson, alexander has no hope in the nba and we should forget he even exists....lol, So sorry about that James, maybe you can help win some games for us with everyone hurt...
Take caution.
Even Dickey Simpkins had a good game, now and again.
"Dickey" Johnson had a nice game last night, but he has more to show, before anyone can take him out of the BUST category.
MrHappy I would first like to say I read this blog all the time and have found the comments to be insightful and most time on the points. I am new to posting comments but your assessment of JJ is totally wrong
His development or lack there of could be posted mostly on Vinnie that anyone else. His talent is there and sometimes it is more political than anything else. Remember this is the same coach who had to be told by Pax to put derrick in last year.
JJ will be a starter or sixth man for the bulls or some NBA team in 2 years
How can a guy be a bust and he doesn't get any playing time? maybe Johnson stands around on the perimeter because he has been a power forward basically his whole life and now he is playing small forward on the hardest level of basketball....we should post him up when he has a size advantage, we run post plays for loul deng and he has one of the worst post up games i have seen next to aaron gray.....i wish vinny would put his players in a position to succeed maybe play off there strengths, u cant play like derrick rose is in the game if he is not in the game and somebody tell me how does pargo have a green light to shoot he must have naked photos of gar and pax
So, drop Pargo, Alexander, Murray, and maybe Warrick depending on who were looking on getting, while resigning Acie Law, and hopefully Brad Miller for cheap as a definant back up to Noah. Then we can hope and pray that we get either Wade or Bosh. If we someone miraculously swing of one of those two, if its bosh we dump warrick, if its wade we try to trade hinrich or package him with someone else. However we finish this season, I'll feel good about it aslong as no one has long term injuries that extend past this season, because we have tons of options and lots of cap space.
somhow
In Derrick Rose's own words, "It was ONLY A BRUISE."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/ct-spt-0313-bulls-derrick-rose-heat-chica20100312,0,6044941.story
Then why didn't he play through it? Where's the TOUGHNESS? Where's the HEART? Where's the LEADERSHIP?
I don't see it from him yet. He's got a long way to go.
I'm really going out a limb here, because this would be the first time in history anyone's done this, but...
I think maybe he was lobbying to play by downplaying his injury to the press.
Wow, I don't know where that sudden burst of insight came from. What a revelation!
You cannot be serious... Every time I read a MrHappy post I want to punch myself in the face. You are absolutely one of the stupidest people I have ever not met. Congratulations.
He also said he "couldn't dribble a basketball" with his left hand and was wearing a brace on the bench. The kid has only missed 2 professional basketball games and has proven that he can/will tough out playable injuries. Your criticism is ridiculous. I mean, what's next, "Hinrich needs to play through his suspension"? Absurd.
THIS JUST IN:
Kirk Hinrich has been suspended by the NBA.
http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/03/suspension-possible-for-bulls-hinrich.html
Isn't that wonderful?
That's not true. The pick is top 10 protected.
You fail to understand how the lottery works. Doug is assuming we aren't able to fall into a bottom 10 slot, in which case the worse we'll do is 11. In that case, we can either get one of the top 3 picks, or pick eleven or worse. There is no in-between those two ranges.
There is no grey in pro sports. You either want to win or you don't.
Last night was an unofficial playoff game for this team and their 3 best players decided to sit the game out.
To me that shows a lack of TOUGHNESS, HEART and LEADERSHIP.
I'm holding my breath until at least Rose/Deng are back in the lineup. Hopefully somehow we snag a game out of the next 3. It could take a miracle
Yea I use aol and its been messed up, i now have to use firefox to come here otherwise this site sucks with aol, internet explorer etc.
LALALALA I can't hear you!
*sigh*