Naptastic
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Agreed. We have so many bigs, it should be a rise the hot hand mentality.
Axl Rose
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why? entitlement?
GalePayton
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Noah will be key when we face Cleveland in the next round.
Part of me believes that Thibs is using this series to get the guys physically prepared for the next round.
Part of me believes that Thibs is using this series to get the guys physically prepared for the next round.
Axl Rose
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how? by trash talking?
Cavs will ignore him on offense just like the Bucks and they may go Bron at PF which would be a matchup nightmare
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Butler would still guard LeBron on defense...
Honestly Thibs need to match the small ball or hope Gasol is scoring points at will to take away the small ball lineup
Axl Rose
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leaving noah to guard a wing on the perimeter
PolarBear
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Noah will show up next series. He fucking hates Lebron/Cleveland. I expect him to be a lot more pumped up and have a lot more energy.
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PolarBear
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I know what you mean. The knee injury has seemed to zap his energy a little bit. I am hoping a series against Lebron can light a fire under him.
Jerry Cortez211
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Trade his ass to Miami :derbulls:
But seriously its looking like Noah is taking a step back, and Thibs won't bench him because he's in love with him.
But seriously its looking like Noah is taking a step back, and Thibs won't bench him because he's in love with him.
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Second Chance Points: Joakim Noah is killing the Bulls
Joakim Noah is playing at Kirk Hinrich levels of bad this series.
ybe it'd be better to say Joakim Noah is hurting -- and leave it at that. Because Jo's clearly not right. Something is bothering him, something is holding him back. Smart money says it's probably something in his lower body, likely his surgically repaired left knee. Whatever the case may be, this much is obvious: the Bulls are better without Joakim Noah on the floor right now, in every imaginable way. Yes, there are other areas of concern, too. And we'll get to them. But first, let's just take a closer look at the real problem with playing Joakim Noah right now.
Nobody Is Guarding Jo
One could say this has been going on all series, and to an extent that's true. The Bucks came into this series knowing Noah wasn't going to hurt them offensively. But as the series has moved along, Milwaukee has stopped getting cute with it and is now blatantly ignoring Jo:
Any time the Bulls put Noah in any sort of pick-and-roll situation -- whether it be sideline or at the top of the key -- the Bucks were begging the ball-handler to put the ball in Noah's hands. And to that end, the Bulls obliged, as Game 4 saw Noah receive 72 touches in his 30 minutes of play, which was good for third-highest on the team. I mean, Noah ended up with nine fewer touches than Jimmy Butler, and Butler scored 40 freaking percent of the team's offense in Game 4. That's plain unacceptable. And to put it into context even further, Nikola Mirotic only got 28 touches in his 20 minutes and Taj Gibson only saw the ball 36 times in his 24 minutes. But wait, there's more:
This is where you'll start to notice Jared Dudley "guarding" Noah, which the Bucks used to great effectiveness as Dudley basically had free reign to double-team endlessly:
And the best (worst?) for last:
Now that you're visually aware of the damage -- also, props to TNT's Steve Smith as he called out the Bucks' disregard for Noah at almost every opportunity -- here's what the results say: the Bulls are 27.7 points better with Noah off the floor this series, per NBA.com. Granted, that's in a sample size of 58 minutes, but the Bulls are also 25.8 points worse when Derrick Rose is off the floor in 49 minutes. To translate that in a simpler way, the Bulls instantly become miles better once Noah is out of the game and essentially fall apart when Rose is out.
Even when Noah's on the floor, though, he's the only Bulls' starter with a negative net rating (-2.3) for the series while every other starter is sitting at 10 or better. The Bucks have figured out that Noah is harmless on offense yet the Bulls keep giving him the damn ball. Every time Noah catches the ball he's being dared to score, and he just can't.
Jo has scored a total of 18 points in a staggering 144 minutes this series. He has attempted six free throws and missed them all. Literally the epitome of a non-factor. The Rajon Rondo of big men. Borderline unplayable and that's even considering his value defensively. I mean, if you think this isn't going to be a problem against Cleveland? Think again.
This isn't a plea to see bundles more Gibson because it's not like he's setting the world on fire, either. And Mirotic hasn't quite looked like himself; some of that is due to battling injury but mostly due to playing out of position. Like, when Thibodeau has gone to the jumbo lineup of Noah, Gibson and Mirotic -- they haven't been able to exploit Milwaukee in the post hardly at all. However, the way Thibs uses Mirotic here -- on a positively vital possession, no less -- takes advantage of everything Milwaukee has had success with when trapping:
Folks, the answer here is an easy one: reduce Joakim Noah's minutes and role. Plain and simple. No other option can possibly be worse.
http://www.blogabull.com/2015/4/27/8501853/second-chance-points-joakim-noah-is-killing-the-bulls
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I said this in another thread, after his 19 rebound performance in Game 2: the defensive issues on this team is not the pairing of Noah-Gasol. It's that Noah is obviously playing on one leg. It is a very big catch-22 with him, because if there is one person who needs an off-season right now it is him. His overall value going forward is his expiring contract. I honestly don't expect him to be on the Bulls roster by playoff time next season.
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After his game 2 performance I thought he was back on track, but nope.
I honestly have to say he may need to become a 1st / 3rd Q player.
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How the mighty have fallen
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Well he is an offensive liability. You don't need the screen shots from your article to understand that. Mosgof is going to be able to sit in the paint next series. What concerns me more, is his apparent lack of focus on the offensive end. He just does not seem to be flowing through the offense. Think back to Game 3, I want to say it was the Rose drive to the basket to force overtime - Noah was in the god damn way. Want more, here is the +/- for the starters on Saturday:
Butler: 14
Dunleavy: 15
Gasol: 18
Rose: 14
Noah: -23
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Thibs need to take a page out of his own book and possibly use Noah in the way he was used during the second round vs Atlanta in 2011..But then again the Bulls don't have a defensive backup center, so that's not likely.
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Not disagreeing with you by any measure.
His +/- stat has been awful all series.
And the entire season Noah hasn't looked the role offensively he did last year outside of a few games.
The Bulls need to see more Gasol/Niko Gasol/Gibson for Game 5... We can re-evaluate next round as the match-ups are different.
Thats also another reason why I didnt get why Thibs didn't press more for a timeout in the closing seconds of Game 4 as he had two duds on the floor for that last play.
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so mosgov wont be guarding pau?? if Cleveland is truly that stupid, then pau will have a field day scoring on Tristan Thompson(or whomever else they try and put on him).
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I fully expect Cleveland to put LeBron at the 4.
Our bigs should have a better series if Love is indeed out.
Cleveland also has to go two deep into their bench if JR Smith is also out for a few games.
Thus we will see more of old veterans Marion and Miller, who can kill at the 3 pointer.
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Im sure Cleveland will do that too. my point was mosgov will be guarding pau, not noah
