The Debbie Downer Playoff Stats: The outlook is not good for the Bulls

AirGordon7 said:

its not really far fetched if you think about injuries to Noah/Taj and Jimmy being more focused on offense

ive also been a firm believer that Gasol is about 50% of the problem on defense..if not more

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Injuries definitely factor into Noah's performance. Not sure what is up with that knee, but he hasn't really been right all year save a handful of games. Taj I think has been fairly consistent defensively. Maybe not quite as lockdown as a couple years ago due to multiple ankle issues, but he's still been good. Likewise, Jimmy has generally been pretty good. However, I do agree that having to carry more offensive load has taken away from Jimmy's defense. It's very hard to be the team's #1 offensive and defensive option for 40 minutes a night. This is why we've seen Jimmy be very passive offensively on tougher defensive matchups and less intense defensively on easier matchups I think.

Gasol is a weird situation. He's better than Boozer...I don't think you can argue differently. He's a good help defender and he blocks a lot of shots...things Boozer couldn't dream of doing. Gasol's P&R defense is pretty bad, but we knew that coming in. He's not really worse than Boozer in that regard, he just fails differently. Boozer generally played off of the ball handler and gave them the jumper. Gasol will play up a little more and get beat on drives. I think the real difference may be that Noah played much closer to the basket when Boozer was here which allowed him to grab more rebounds and be the help defender. Now he's out more on the perimeter guarding stretch 4s which negates his strengths.

Generally we also have the issue of giving up way more offensive rebounds. Generally, our opponent's FG% has been on par with previous years. We're ranked 4th in the league in that category this year. The problem is, we're not getting those rebounds which gives opponents second and third chances so they end up scoring anyway. Funny enough, Golden State is very comparable to us in terms of rebounds and rebound percentage. The difference there is that Golden State destroys opponents offensively.

Personally, I think the personnel hasn't changed much in defensive effort, it's just that we're not getting those 50/50 balls. Call that lack of effort if you like, but I don't think all of sudden the team stopped caring about defense.

Gasol isn't that great of help defender

if a guy directly challenges him then sure....but if it involves moving his feet then hes of no use

ppl say hes better than Boozer but is he really? obviously on offense hes leaps and bounds better but defense i'd argue Gasol may be worse or atleast more detrimental to the defense due to the fact hes got to defend the rim

AirGordon7 said:

Gasol isn't that great of help defender

if a guy directly challenges him then sure....but if it involves moving his feet then hes of no use

ppl say hes better than Boozer but is he really? obviously on offense hes leaps and bounds better but defense i'd argue Gasol may be worse or atleast more detrimental to the defense due to the fact hes got to defend the rim

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I guess it depends on what you're looking for. Gasol isn't a great one on one defender and he's definitely useless on the perimeter. He does put his length to use though around the rim and at the very least you know he'll try to contest someone at the rim and have a chance at success as opposed to Boozer. I ain't saying he's amazing or anything, but I do think he is a better defender than Boozer.

I suppose you would agree with this little blog piece though (regarding the defense): http://www.blogabull.com/2015/1/31/7956711/signing-pau-gasol-was-a-mistake

clonetrooper264 said:

I guess it depends on what you're looking for. Gasol isn't a great one on one defender and he's definitely useless on the perimeter. He does put his length to use though around the rim and at the very least you know he'll try to contest someone at the rim and have a chance at success as opposed to Boozer. I ain't saying he's amazing or anything, but I do think he is a better defender than Boozer.

I suppose you would agree with this little blog piece though (regarding the defense): http://www.blogabull.com/2015/1/31/7956711/signing-pau-gasol-was-a-mistake

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i actually agree with a majority of what he said

AirGordon7 said:

i actually agree with a majority of what he said

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I guess I'm not surprised. All I can say is...oh well?

If you think Boozer is better than Gasol on defense then you might need glasses. When Gasol was on the bench for large stretches in games you can see the team having the same defensive issues so he is not the problem.

The team having defensive issues has to do with various reasons. Noah is clearly not the same player from last season that won DPOY, and while Jimmy has stepped up his offense his defense has dropped a bit.

Let's just be happy that Gasol > Boozer (even with the defense) and Butler this year >>> Butler last year. Rose > no Rose as well. This team is better overall, even if it is worse defensively. It's got problems of its own, but this is as good of a shot as we've had in 4 years.

clonetrooper264 said:

Let's just be happy that Gasol > Boozer (even with the defense) and Butler this year >>> Butler last year. Rose > no Rose as well. This team is better overall, even if it is worse defensively. It's got problems of its own, but this is as good of a shot as we've had in 4 years.

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:yep:

Bear06 said:

If you think Boozer is better than Gasol on defense then you might need glasses. When Gasol was on the bench for large stretches in games you can see the team having the same defensive issues so he is not the problem.

The team having defensive issues has to do with various reasons. Noah is clearly not the same player from last season that won DPOY, and while Jimmy has stepped up his offense his defense has dropped a bit.

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and ive said its not all on Gasol and pointed how Noah isn't the same and Jimmy is more focused on offense

however Gasol is def a problem...no need to gloss over his terrible defense

[video=youtube;8A0v6YxwVhU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A0v6YxwVhU[/video]

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also Pac is gonna be light work for Money May

AirGordon7 said:

and ive said its not all on Gasol and pointed how Noah isn't the same and Jimmy is more focused on offense

however Gasol is def a problem...no need to gloss over his terrible defense

[video=youtube;8A0v6YxwVhU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A0v6YxwVhU[/video]

[VINE]euvd9qu3Qin[/VINE]
[VINE]euvFZiaLwm3[/VINE]

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Like I've said before Gasol's defense is not the best but I'll take his defense over Boozer's defense any day of the week.

AirGordon7 said:

also Pac is gonna be light work for Money May

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Not the place to talk Boxing but Pacquiao is going to expose the cowardly woman beater.

Bear06 said:

Like I've said before Gasol's defense is not the best but I'll take his defense over Boozer's defense any day of the week.

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the only thing Gasol has over Boozer is length

the point im trying to make is he actually may be more detrimental to a defense due to the fact hes the one defending the rim where is boozer didn't and was more easy to hide

AirGordon7 said:

the only thing Gasol has over Boozer is length

the point im trying to make is he actually may be more detrimental to a defense due to the fact hes the one defending the rim where is boozer didn't and was more easy to hide

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Idk what you're talking about. Gasol's defense is actually elite and he's been awarded for it in the past.

AirGordon7 said:

Gasol isn't that great of help defender

if a guy directly challenges him then sure....but if it involves moving his feet then hes of no use

ppl say hes better than Boozer but is he really? obviously on offense hes leaps and bounds better but defense i'd argue Gasol may be worse or atleast more detrimental to the defense due to the fact hes got to defend the rim

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I'm a huge Gasol critic but he is much better than Boozer defensively in that he does block shots and does get in the way more. He's frustrating to watch because I think that if he had ever committed himself to being a better defensive player early on he would be a no doubt HOFer. He might get in anyway but he takes so much off defensively for a guy his size.

To review:


The qualifiers Atlanta, Golden State, Portland, and San Antonio, two of them (Por and SA) were knocked out in the first round and Atlanta was swept in the Conference Finals by LeBron on the Cavs. The Warriors with their #2 and #1 ranking are in the Finals and are the favorites to win.

The Bulls, ranked 11th and 11th pretty much lived up to the history of such ranked teams by losing in the 2nd round. Yes we can go on about how we were a short way away from a 3-1 series lead and all that jazz, but it doesnt matter, we lost.

Cleveland being in the Finals is not that shocking despite their poor defensive rating and all the injuries they've had. And the fact Atlanta didnt make it isn't all that shocking either. As I said in my OP these stats are not 100%, but they do provide insight. Atlanta lacks a Superstar and thus was unlikely to make the Finals. Nearly every teams downfall is explained in these rankings, except for San Antonio's. That one is an eyescratcher to me, and my only thought was if they had just won their last regular season game they would have been the #2 seed and things would have gone differently.

Memphis dispatching Portland isn't all that surprising given Memphis' ability to have suffocating defense. The fact they struggled to score against the Warriors in the 2nd round (though they did take a 2-1 lead) isn't all that surprising as their offense lacked that difference maker.'

The Clippers took a 3-1 lead against Houston, but their ability to stop Houston's offense in Games 5-7 pretty much lives up to their defensive ranking.

Going back to Cleveland, they seem to play better defense without Kevin Love, and even Irving. This team can be like the 2000-2001 Lakers (2nd and 21st in O/D). But even so the situations are both entirely difference as that Lakers team didn't have a health issue.

In these playoffs the #1 vs #2 were in both conference finals, there was no real upsets in these playoffs. Things pretty much went according to plan.