5 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(01/13/15 9:39pm)
Something isn’t right, that much is obvious. After a dominant 2013-14 season that ended with NBA Defensive Player of the Year accolades, Joakim Noah’s 2014-15 season has been anything but outstanding. The eighth-year center was one of the most versatile defenders in the league last season, at times switching onto some of the best ball handlers in the NBA in isolation situations, yet this season Noah looks likes a shadow of his old self after offseason knee surgery.
It was never more evident than during Monday night’s loss to the Orlando Magic. Noah isn’t physically the same player he once was. It’s obvious that his knee is still bothering him, and that’s the reason why the Bulls have struggled thus far to figure out their defensive identity.
In Monday’s 121-114 loss, the Magic exploited the Chicago Bulls weaknesses again and again without hesitation. The two phases of the Bulls defense that led to the 28th ranked scoring team in the NBA tallying more than 120 points were the pick-and-roll and transition, both of which can be directly linked back to Noah and his injured knee.
In years past, the Bulls thrived in defending the pick-and-roll because of their ability to switch their big men onto the opposing team’s guards. Noah’s quick lateral movement allowed for the Bulls guards to recover on the screens and other players to rotate and help on the big man. This success hasn’t shown up on the defensive end this season mostly because of Noah’s inability to switch onto the smaller guards and stop them from driving to the basket.
Another phase of Joakim Noah’s game that has been affected by his recovering knee is his transition defense. A high-motor player, Noah has always been known for running the court better than any big man in the game. But during, Monday night’s game, it was Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic who was outrunning the Bulls big men, and that led to easy buckets for the Magic.
While other issues can be linked to the Bulls defensive struggles thus far, including perimeter man-to-man defense and flaws in rotating to the basketball, the biggest worry is Joakim Noah. In years past, many of these preceding issues would be cleaned up by Noah’s quickness, which has obliviously been lacking this season.
It’s unclear if Noah will ever fully recover from his offseason knee surgery. What is clear, though, is without a healthy Noah, the Bulls’ chances of winning an NBA title drastically decrease. Noah is not just the heart of this defense. He is the heart of this team.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mdlugie and listen to him on "The Round Table" Thursdays from 6-7 p.m.
(01/08/15 11:37pm)
It’s time for a new era in Bloomington. While many called for such change prior to the beginning of the 2014-15 men’s basketball season, there seems to have been a calm that has fallen over Hoosier Nation as Tom Crean’s team began the year on a high note.
Going 10-3 in non-conference play with victories over No. 22 SMU and No. 23 Butler was impressive. I’ll admit I was one who didn’t have high expectations for this year’s Indiana Hoosiers when the season began and was pleasantly surprised when I saw them play a competitive first half against No. 4 Louisville. I was impressed when I saw a team with very little frontcourt depth go into Nebraska on New Year’s Eve and pull off a victory against what many consider a strong Cornhuskers program. But from the beginning, I always put an asterisk next to every game with a reminder to wait until the real competition began and this team started going up against some quality Big Ten basketball opponents. The first one of those matchups came Monday night when IU went into East Lansing and frankly got embarrassed by Tom Izzo and his crew.
Coming into this season, major story lines loomed over Crean’s program thanks to some poor decisions by his players in recent months. For many programs, one or two run-ins with the law is more than enough to seriously question a coach’s effect on his team, but when athletes are consistently making headlines for poor judgment, something needs to change … and fast.
Not surprisingly though, IU stood behind Coach Crean and allowed him to stay on for this season. While the large sum of money due to Coach Crean in the coming years was probably a factor in allowing him to stay on as the head of the men’s basketball program, the image and brand of IU Athletics took a major hit by allowing him to return.
But now, it seems as if an unexpectedly strong start to the season has made some people forget about such incidents that happened just days before the tip-off of the season. While I am not writing to ask for change to things that happened in the past, I feel it is worth noting. Instead, I think change needs to occur for the same reason professional coaches get fired all the time, a lack of production.
A 10-3 record going into conference play is nice, but there are still many facets of Crean’s coaching style that have kept IU from achieving its goal of a national championship. These same weaknesses once again reared their ugly head Monday as IU could do little to stop Michigan State.
On multiple occasions this season — specifically in the second half versus Louisville and midway through the second half of the Georgetown, Pittsburgh and Butler games — IU’s offense has sputtered as opposing team’s defensive pressure has picked up. With a very young team, this is where coaching and play calling become vital to a team’s chances of being successful. Unfortunately for IU, this hasn’t been the case. While the Hoosiers are 2-2 in those four games, a 3-1 record with one or two 10-plus victory margins should have been the outcome.
Crean’s inability to put players in positions to be successful late in games is the same thing that plagued IU when they faced Syracuse in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, not to mention the past two seasons in general.
Like players, coaches are also asked to create a list of their strengths and weaknesses, or at the very least find an assistant coach to do so for them. Many offensive-minded NFL coaches have been fired because of their team’s poor defense and vice versa. Other organizations and college programs have the same mindset. Why should IU be any different?
The point being, coaches get fired for their inability to fix their weaknesses. It’s a standard across all sports organizations and leagues, yet for some reason IU feels it is above that. Tom Crean has had his chance (seven years to be exact), now it’s time for someone else to try and bring this team a title. At the very least, Hoosier fans deserve better.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mdlugie and listen to him on "The Round Table" Thursdays from 6-7 pm
(01/08/15 2:20am)
In a league that's all about its stars, the Chicago Bulls seem to be following the reigning NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs’ format of a team-first mentality.
While the Bulls have many stars of their own, they’ve found a way to play complementary, unselfish basketball through the first few months of the season and now find themselves in a favorable position to make an NBA title push of their own. Even with stars like Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Pau Gasol, and Joakim Noah leading the way, arguably the Bulls biggest star this season is head coach Tom Thibodeau.
In his fifth season at the helm of the Bulls, the 2010-11 NBA Coach of the Year continues to find ways to get his team to buy into the “team before self” mantra that is becoming a rare idea in today’s game. What’s most impressive about Thibodeau though, is that he’s changed his personal coaching style from a defensive guru to an offensive wizard in the matter of a few months. All this comes following a critical past few seasons filled with questions surrounding his ability to manage players' minutes and run an effective offensive scheme.
Just like watching a young player develop over the course of his career, it’s been a lot of fun watching Thibs adjust to a new team this season. With so much frontcourt depth and two possible future stars in rookies Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic, everyone had their eye on Thibodeau to begin the year to see whether or not the former Jeff Van Gundy and Doc Rivers assistant coach would change his mindset on players' minutes. To many people’s surprise and joy, he has, and it’s been paying off big time for the Bulls.
Now, Thibodeau will consistently go eight, nine, even ten players deep in order to win ball games. This depth has not been seen on a Bulls team since they went to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2010-11, Thibodeau’s first season with the team.
While Thibs still plays Butler an NBA-high 38 minutes a night, he’s taken his foot off the gas on players like Noah and Rose, both of whom have battled injuries in recent years and were main concerns of analysts coming into this year. This new mindset on Thibodeau’s part has opened up opportunities for Mirotic, Aaron Brooks and Purdue product E’Twaun Moore. Now, Chicago has a formidable second unit to go with an already top-tier starting group.
After Bulls management reluctantly had to trade away Thibs’ favorite player in Luol Deng last season to avoid the luxury tax, there were multiple reports Thibodeau would be on his way out of town in a short there after. But after an offseason of revamping the roster, it seems things are back in good standing with the Bulls head coach, who has made adjustments of his own to better fit a unit poised to contend for an NBA title.
(01/08/15 2:10am)
Just hours after striking a deal to bring Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to Cleveland, the Cavaliers continued to work the phones Wednesday and came up with Denver Nuggets center, Timofey Mozgov (yes, this guy). This trade means a lot when it comes to assessing the NBA’s Eastern Conference landscape, as well as what the mindset of the Cleveland Cavaliers is going forward.
Who Won the Trade?
The Cavs are officially in win-now mode.
Even before center Anderson Varejao was lost for the season with an achilles injury, Cleveland still needed to add more front court depth if they wanted to compete with teams like the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. Mozgov seems to fill that void somewhat and now presumably helps Cleveland regain a foothold in the race for the Eastern Conference crown.
With all the controversy surrounding the Cavs, the team seemed to be in desperation mode to get another big man. Knowing this, Denver made sure not to give up Mozgov for free. In fact, Denver won this trade by claiming two first round picks from the Cavs. This trade also shows the mindset of the Cavs, as they seem to be in desperation mode only a couple months into the LeBron James-Kyrie Irving-Kevin Love experiment.
Unlike his experience in Miami, LeBron and his bunch have struggled mightily thus far in terms figuring things out. With Love and LeBron both able to opt-out of their deals following this season, Cleveland’s front office definitely felt some pressure to make things better quickly; even if it means giving up the future of their team. In any case, no team would trade two first round picks for an above-average defensive center if they didn’t feel there long term plans were in jeopardy. The Cavs are officially in win-now mode.
Cleveland Back in the Mix
From the very beginning of the season, the Cavs were selected to win the Eastern Conference by almost every NBA analyst. But with a variety of injuries, internal struggles, and a lack of unselfish play, the Cavaliers have found themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to talking about the best teams in the Eastern Conference.
One thing the Bulls, Wizards, Atlanta Hawks, and Toronto Raptors all have in common is their front court depth. The Bulls and Wizards in particular bolster two of the top front courts in the NBA. After seeing the trouble Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah, and Taj Gibson caused the Houston Rockets on Monday night, the Cavs knew something had to be done to match their deep rotation. Enter Timofey Mozgov.
While Mozgov may not be the answer to the Cavs' issues, he certainly helps when it comes to correcting the team’s poor rim protection. With Love expected to produce most of the low post offense, Mozgov will be looked upon to grab rebounds and challenge shots for his new team. The biggest question still looming for the Cavs is whether or not they’ll be able to gel in time for when the games really count.
(11/17/14 7:17pm)
An eerily familiar drop of my gut occurred during Thursday night’s Chicago Bulls-Toronto Raptors game as superstar point guard Derrick Rose seemingly slipped on a wet spot and collapsed to the court in pain. With Rose immediately grasping his knees, my thoughts quickly raced through what another season without Derrick Rose might be like. Thankfully, these thoughts won’t be coming to fruition for at least the near future as Rose has reportedly been diagnosed with “cramps” in his legs. But my thoughts, along with Twitter’s reaction following Rose’s exit of the game in the late stages of the fourth quarter, got me thinking of what Bulls fans really want out of Rose.
The Chicago Mindset
It seems ironic to me that the city of Chicago has wavered so heavily in their perception of Rose over the course of the past two and a half years. Whether it be Rose's lack of public speaking skills (which were on full display earlier this week) or the lack of certainty surrounding his health, it seems like Bulls fans don’t know exactly what they want out of Rose. A perfect example of this came this season as Rose was battling to overcome having sprained both his ankles on the same play during the Halloween night game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers. While some fans were comfortable with him sitting until he felt that he was fully recovered, others wanted him to play through the pain.
These differences in the pulse of the fans’ feelings are exactly the type of issues surrounding what people want out of Rose. Everyone knows that Rose needs to be healthy come playoff time if the Bulls want a chance at winning a title, so what is the point of playing against the Milwaukee Bucks or Philadelphia 76ers in November? This idea of fans wanting Rose to play in these games if he isn’t 100% healthy is the exact opposite of what they were calling for earlier in the season when the petitions for coach Tom Thibodeau better managing his player’s minutes during the regular season made their way around various web and media outlets.
So let me get this straight…You want Rose to play through a sprained ankle in November against the worst team in the NBA, but you also want Thibodeau to do a better job of managing his player’s (Derrick Rose in particular) minutes. Seems like pretty flawed logic to me.
We’ve Seen This Before…And It Doesn’t End Well
Unfortunately, Thursday night’s game was a stark reminder of just how seemingly fragile Derrick Rose has become. None said it better than ESPN Chicago’s Nick Friedell, who eloquently tweeted the following:
This feels a lot like lockout year already. Rose's body continued to break down after turf toe injury.This yr it's his ankles, now hamstring
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) November 14, 2014
The season Friedell is speaking of is the 2012 season in which Derrick consistently battled through injuries to his foot, leg, and back and ultimately resulted in him tearing his ACL during the playoffs. No decent human being would want to see Rose suffer another devastating knee injury, but the thought is always in everyone’s mind.
So while you may be demanding that Rose to play in November even if he is only 75, 80, or 90 percent healthy, the thoughts of Nick Friedell need to be firmly considered in your reasoning.
At this point, the question of “What’s the point?” needs to be asked. What’s the point of Rose playing in November on two sprained ankles? What’s the point of a guy who’s had two major knee injuries in the past two-plus years going at it when he’s not at full strength? Sure, you might win five meaningless games and the Bulls might be 8-1 rather than 7-3 right now. But what’s that going to matter if Rose isn’t healthy come playoff time?
100 Percent or Nothing
Yes, Rose needs to play. There is no doubting that. After being away from NBA basketball as long as he has, there is no reason to think otherwise. But the overall health of Rose also needs to be considered. Like Friedell hinted at, the possible reason why Rose tore his ACL in 2012 was due to the multiple injuries he incurred during that season. Rather than giving them a chance to fully heal, he decided to battle and play through them, ultimately leading to more injuries. If he wants to stay healthy this year, that can’t happen again.
If you are frustrated at the fact Rose is sitting out games right now, I understand. I really do. But I refuse to believe he desperately needs to play this early in the year if he has a nagging ankle injury. That conversation can come post-All-Star break. For now, I want to see a Derrick Rose who is fully healthy, someone who isn’t hobbled by even the slightest ankle sprain. I commend Derrick for taking himself out of the game versus the Raptors, he realized that the future chance of winning a title is more important that one game in the middle of November. Now, hopefully Chicago does as well.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mdlugie and listen to him on "The Roundtable" Thursdays from 6-7 pm