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Bulls are 23-25. The Heat just beat us last night. The Pacers beat us the night before.

FUUUUUUUUUU! Smart teams continue to exploit the same weakness: our shitty defense. But let me blow a kiss to our "blow it up" friends: the offense is elite.

TRUST THE SYSTEM

Over the last 10 games:

Lost both primary playmakers:
– Giddey: Out 6 of 10 games (hamstring), limited in the others
– Tre Jones: Out the last 4 games

Result: 121.0 OffRtg (2nd in the league)

  • 60.7 TS% (3rd)
  • 57.9 eFG% (2nd)
  • 72.1 AST% (4th)

No dominant scorer. No single star carrying the load. Just good basketball:

  • Ayo Dosunmu: Steady 15-23 points every single night, never disappears
  • Jalen Smith: Efficient 10-17 points, active on the boards, makes winning plays
  • Coby White: Two huge games (27 pts vs UTA/LAC), otherwise streaky but (+3.2 NetRtg overall)

When the ball moves, guys step up, shots fall – this offense can be a legitimate top-10 unit even without its best playmakers.

So why are we 5-5 in that span? Our defense: 117.7 DefRtg (22nd)

With Giddey. Without Giddey. With Tre. Without Tre. Every. Single. Lineup. 22nd. Why we gotta shit on Taj Gibson's number like this?

Three days ago against the Lakers, we put up 119.2 OffRtg – elite efficiency – and lost by 11. Why? Because we gave up 130.3 DefRtg. :facepalm: The offense works. The system proves it. The defense doesn't. And we know exactly why…

9 comments

  2. This just isn’t a compelling argument not to blow it up. If your offense being good and defense being terrible adds up to being in the play-in year after year after year, who gives a shit about where the offense ranks? 

  3. Time to move Vuc. He’s a defensive liability who’s getting paid BIG money. You can’t build a winning team in the modern NBA where your highest paid guy is a finesse scoring center who doesn’t pass the ball well and doesn’t hold down the paint

  4. The problem is that a lot of the players that make the offense work are the same players that make the defense not work. Not a problem that we can solve one thing at a time.

  5. This isn’t football. You can’t just change the center and expect the defense to all of a sudden become above-average, especially if Giddey continues to be a core guy moving forward.

  6. A think to keep in mind is that this team will never have an elite defense with our elite offensive players. At best we can become league averge at defense and hope it works. That has happened a lot in the NBA, where defense is becoming more optional by the day, but getting a lockdown paint defender isn’t something that just happens.

  7. Nice write up. I don’t think the defense surprises anyone though. It was never going to be a great defensive team with our personnel.

    The offense has been surprising though even when we lose our primary ballhandlers. This is why I joked before the season started that we’ll look cool but lose a bunch of games. And also why I joke that our defense is just trying to score more than the opponent instead of getting stops.

    But defensive issues aren’t really that uncommon for young teams. And with cap flex in the offseason, there really is an opportunity to bring in the correct players to start laying down the defensive foundations, of course this is assuming Vocch won’t be here next season (although we’ll take a hit in offense rating).

  9. Im not into stats.

    Im into games that matters.

    And the last two games against Lakers and Heat. And this upcoming rematch against the Heat. Are the games that matters.

    Coby, Ayo, Giddey and Matas are average ball handlers. Very vulnerable to be poked by defenders. This was evident in the last two games against LAL and Heat.

    Without Tre Jones, Bulls have back to back 15 turnovers vs LAL and Heat respectively.

    Even Bulls make the playoffs because the East is weak. It’s evident that maturity from the players need to improve. Refs are letting the game become physical against the Bulls now. It’s like they are testing this team. And all I see are complaining and whining. Vooch in LAL game. Coby, Ayo and Patrick against Heat.

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