The Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro wonders why his job was in jeopardy when the Bulls were giving away games. Even with the Bulls recent success Del Negro is still making a poor decision. That decision is starting Taj Gibson over Tyrus Thomas. Tyrus Thomas is one of the major reasons Del Negro still has a job and Del Negro is repaying him by making him come off the pine. This season the Bulls are just 8-16 when Thomas doesn’t play. Since Thomas has come back from injury the Bulls are 13-6 essentially saving their season. They say athletes don’t lose their starting spots because of injury try telling that to Thomas. Thomas is far more athletic than Gibson and provides the Bulls with a better defender and rebounder as well as block shot ability. If one was to compare their numbers per 48 minutes one would find that Thomas has better numbers almost across the board. I said this when the Bulls first drafted Gibson and still stand by it, he’s a poor man’s Tyrus Thomas. The decision to start Gibson over Thomas is like driving a Pinto when you have a Porsche.
Tuesday night’s game featuring UNC and MSU is technically a rematch of last year’s National Championship game. This game is anything but a rematch of that game that ended with the Tar Heels cutting down the nets. The Tar Heels imposed there will on the Spartans behind arguably one of the greatest college basketball players in the history of college basketball Tyler Hansbrough. They also had an abundance of talent at all the other positions on the floor. Ty Lawson ran the offense almost flawlessly by having six assists to only one turnover while scoring 21 pts of his own. On the defensive end he was a nightmare for the Spartans as he produced eight steals. Wayne Ellington found his shooting stroke, hitting seven of his 12 from the field and sank all three of his three-pt attempts. Those three players along with a versatile Danny Green are in the NBA.
The two players remaining from that game for the Tar Heels are Ed Davis and Deon Thompson. They also have a healthy Marcus Ginyard back in the starting line-up. The Tar Heels lost 74% of their scoring to this past year’s draft. On the other hand the Spartans return three starters from that game and four bench players who played 10 plus minutes. This might be a rematch between the two schools but it’s hardly a rematch between the two teams. This game should be more competitive than the National Championship game. The Tar Heels most likely won’t be able to duplicate their 17 pt win eight months ago.
The keys to the game for the Tar Heels are ball control, dominating the paint and defending the Spartans experienced guards. Ball control has haunted the Heels all year long before the game with Nevada they were averaging 19 turnovers a game. They cleaned up their act a little bit against Nevada by turning the ball over only eight times. The Tar Heels need to use their size up front to wear down the Spartans. With Hansbrough gone Thompson has picked up the slack. He’s averaging 17.7 PPG and 8.9 RPG. Ed Davis who gave up his possible top five selection status in the NBA draft to return to school is pulling down almost 10 RPG and putting up 12.7 PPG. These two need to dominate the paint on both ends of the floor for the Heels to be successful. The Tar Heels will have their hands full with the guards from the Spartans as their top three scorers are guards.
The Spartans must keep the Heels off the offensive glass, play good transition defense and great guard play. The Tar Heels are averaging 17.5 ORPG their last three games. The Spartans will have to box out well to battle the Heels length on the boards. The Heels will look to run at all times, even off of made baskets they will try to run. The Spartans need to get back on defense and prevent easy buckets. Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers and Chris Allen will all have to play solid for the Spartans to come away with a victory. They will have to score, defend and control the ball.
In the end I believe the Tar Heels have too much size up front for the Spartans and playing in Chapel Hill is a definite advantage for the Heels. If their turnover problems are really behind them as they showed against Nevada the Heels will walk away with a W. The Heels win the “rematch” 83-78.
Saying what the fans want to hear has been increasingly popular lately for coaches/players who are being rumored to leave their current team. They say they would love to return to their current teams and then jet as soon as the opportunity comes. Nick Saban said he wasn’t going anywhere when he was coaching the Miami Dolphins and ended up leaving for the University of Alabama at the end of the season.
The latest example of this is Ben Gordon who said he’d like to return to Chicago. But today he agreed to a 5-year $55 million dollar deal with the division rival, Detroit Pistons. This is only $1 million more per year than the Bulls offered Gordon two years ago. For someone who claimed to have wanted to stay a Bull, $1 million more per year doesn’t seem like that much more for a professional athlete. The deal was agreed upon on the first day of free agency, looks like he gave the Bulls plenty of time to match or better that offer. The Bulls would have been crazy to do so. This is exactly why the draft was such a failure. They had plenty of options to ease losing Gordon to free agency which seemed inevitable when the rumor came out that the Pistons were willing to pay him $11 million per a year.
The Bulls went in the completely wrong direction with the draft. They drafted at a position, small forward which was already manned by John Salmons and Luol Deng. Then drafting a player just like one we already have but he’s older and not half as athletic. At 16 the Bulls could’ve taken any one of the five point guards taken immediately after they picked Johnson. This would allow Hinrich to back up Salmons at the two. Now he’s supposed to back up both spots? At 26 they passed on Wayne Ellington, Toney Douglas and Jermaine Taylor all players who know how to put the ball in the bucket from just about anywhere on the floor.
Can we rescind the trade that sent Thabo Sefolosha for a first round pick please? The once crowded back court is looking quite thin at the moment. The inability to re-sign Gordon means Hinrich is most likely staying put. Guessing what the Bulls do now is almost impossible I just hope the bad decisions this off-season are over. Although letting Gordon walk has been the best one so far. Who would think that letting your leading scorer for the last four seasons walk would be your team’s best decision of the off-season thus far?
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