2013-2014 NBA Season

[jim]

The Bulls are going to be kicking themselves if they lose, because Indiana is toast. There is no question in my mind the Bulls could get to the Conference finals, how fun would that be to play Miami there?

This is pretty crazy what is going on, usually the first round of the playoffs are kind of cookie cutter but this year it's all messed up.

[jim]

Forgive me for what I am about to say because this game is far from over but ... is it a curse having a coach like Thibs? He gets so much out of guys and the overachieve all year and you forget there is this little thing called talent that is really important in the playoffs. I'm watching this series and wondering how I ever thought the Bulls could win. Yeah, regular season matchups Thibs will get his team ready, but you don't need to wakeup any NBA player in the playoffs.

Am I wrong for saying this?

[Maclowery]

No, his staunch refusal to adjust any damn thing at all is really upsetting, especially once the playoffs hit, and our all-hustle team of overachievers became a tired and injured team with the ugliest offense I think Ive ever watched.

Thibs does some great things. I hope we get healthy star talent next year to see if his style can come through in playoff environments.

[Socnorb11]

I hate to say it, but we wouldn't be discussing Thibs or the Bulls for the last month and a half if they were in the West, because they would have been out of playoff contention in mid-March.

Blow it up, in my opinion.

[StL Dan]

I admit that I'm not an NBA fan. I have no dog in the hunt (because StL doesn't have a team). But, I know enough about it to know the Pacers were one of, if not the best team in the East this season. From the highlights I've seen on ESPN and such, it looks like they are completely broken. They were down 20 to ATL in Indy the other night. I think they were down 3-2 in that series too.

[thrill]

Forgive me for what I am about to say because this game is far from over but ... is it a curse having a coach like Thibs? He gets so much out of guys and the overachieve all year and you forget there is this little thing called talent that is really important in the playoffs. I'm watching this series and wondering how I ever thought the Bulls could win. Yeah, regular season matchups Thibs will get his team ready, but you don't need to wakeup any NBA player in the playoffs.

Am I wrong for saying this?

It's Thibs job to coach the players he has. He's a curse in that the front office tried to get in the lottery this year when they traded Deng, but the combination of a weak Eastern Conference and Thibs unbelievable coaching guile made them better after Deng left. I don't think he'll ever coach a team that lands in the top of the lottery in the hopes of getting a franchise changing prospect.

On the other hand, I think he's the best asset they have, including D Rose, and if the front office wants to build a champ around his coaching, they know they need to acquire the talent to put around him. There's no way having him is a detriment. If his teams never win a title, it will be because of the front office, not him. The Bulls didn't lose because they were tired. The Bulls lose in the playoffs because they haven't had contending talent since 2011. His "style" of playing a shallow rotation a ton of minutes is a reaction to the loss of talent. In 2011, when they got beat by a better Heat team in the ECF, he played his bench all season long. His second unit was the best second unit in basketball. I guess you could say that another curse of Thibs is that he's so good at getting value out of mediocre to bad players that the Bulls sign them to one year deals, they perform well and get expensive, multi-year deals on other teams. He's never had bench continuity because of that. A coach turning turds into gold isn't something a fan should complain about though. Greg Popovich has won 3 Coach of the Year awards in his career. I think Thibs should have won the last 4. I'm biased, but what he does in terms of defensive game-planning and motivating his players to go hard every single game is unlike anything I've ever seen.

[BW23]

So OKC and Memphis have played four straight games that have gone into OT. I wish I cared more about the NBA. Sounds like an amazing series.

[jim]

I admit that I'm not an NBA fan. I have no dog in the hunt (because StL doesn't have a team). But, I know enough about it to know the Pacers were one of, if not the best team in the East this season. From the highlights I've seen on ESPN and such, it looks like they are completely broken. They were down 20 to ATL in Indy the other night. I think they were down 3-2 in that series too.

Think of the Pacers as this years Blues. At the end of the regular season they looked like they were toast. Begin behind Atlanta isn't shocking at all given how bad they were the last part of the regular season.

[jim]

Forgive me for what I am about to say because this game is far from over but ... is it a curse having a coach like Thibs? He gets so much out of guys and the overachieve all year and you forget there is this little thing called talent that is really important in the playoffs. I'm watching this series and wondering how I ever thought the Bulls could win. Yeah, regular season matchups Thibs will get his team ready, but you don't need to wakeup any NBA player in the playoffs.

Am I wrong for saying this?

It's Thibs job to coach the players he has. He's a curse in that the front office tried to get in the lottery this year when they traded Deng, but the combination of a weak Eastern Conference and Thibs unbelievable coaching guile made them better after Deng left. I don't think he'll ever coach a team that lands in the top of the lottery in the hopes of getting a franchise changing prospect.

On the other hand, I think he's the best asset they have, including D Rose, and if the front office wants to build a champ around his coaching, they know they need to acquire the talent to put around him. There's no way having him is a detriment. If his teams never win a title, it will be because of the front office, not him. The Bulls didn't lose because they were tired. The Bulls lose in the playoffs because they haven't had contending talent since 2011. His "style" of playing a shallow rotation a ton of minutes is a reaction to the loss of talent. In 2011, when they got beat by a better Heat team in the ECF, he played his bench all season long. His second unit was the best second unit in basketball. I guess you could say that another curse of Thibs is that he's so good at getting value out of mediocre to bad players that the Bulls sign them to one year deals, they perform well and get expensive, multi-year deals on other teams. He's never had bench continuity because of that. A coach turning turds into gold isn't something a fan should complain about though. Greg Popovich has won 3 Coach of the Year awards in his career. I think Thibs should have won the last 4. I'm biased, but what he does in terms of defensive game-planning and motivating his players to go hard every single game is unlike anything I've ever seen.

I didn't mean to say Thibs was a curse, but being lured into thinking you are better than you are because of his abilities might be to a fan.

I agree with what you say. I turned over to the local broadcast last night in the 2nd half, figuring it might be my last chance to listen to the best local broadcast team is sports - Stacey and Neil. Right after the game was over Stacey started saying something needed to be done about the minutes, because contrary to what you said he was saying they looked absolutely gassed the entire series. 50/50 balls that were going 60/40 the Bulls way all season were going 40/60 etc... Jeesh how many tap backs were there when the game was on the line? Boozer not boxing out on some I know, but I saw Noah getting his ass thrown around a couple of times too.

[thrill]

I didn't mean to say Thibs was a curse, but being lured into thinking you are better than you are because of his abilities might be to a fan.

Fans can thing what they want. We just don't want the front office to be fooled, which I don't think they are, so I'm not worried. Joe Blow in Palatine can get excited for what he thinks is a championship caliber team, but I haven't thought they were a championship caliber team since 1998.

Right after the game was over Stacey started saying something needed to be done about the minutes, because contrary to what you said he was saying they looked absolutely gassed the entire series.

They were gassed. I don't mean to say I like them playing this many minutes. I hate it. I'm just saying that the talent hasn't been good enough for Thibs to rest his go-to guys. He coaches to win every game and that can lead to burn out, but I guess what I'm saying is that the GarPax should get him better players so that he doesn't do that. Help him help himself kind of thing. With D Rose taking up a third of their salary cap for the foreseeable future, that's going to be hard and that's why I, and most people, think they're stuck in non-contender land unless something drastic happens. None of that is Thibs fault, though.

I saw Noah getting his ass thrown around a couple of times too.

Noah has always gotten thrown around by strength. He's a great team defender and smart too, but guys like Nene, Gortat, Cousins, Howard etc have always treated him like a rag doll. He's not a good individual matchup vs strength. Never really has been.