April 20, 2009

Vinny venerates veterans

That hurts.

Tonight's Bulls-Celtics game was ripe for the stealing. Instead the Bulls, as they have done so often on the road this season, came up a little short and fell 118-115.

Much was made of today being the anniversary of Michael Jordan's 63 point game against the Celtics, and just like in that one, the Bulls were unable to capitalize on a sublime offensive explosion. For this game anyway, Ben Gordon was God, but even He wasn't enough to carry the Bulls to victory. Because, once again, coach Vinny Del Negro made some highly dubious decisions.

The first was giving Brad Miller extensive crunch-time minutes while leaving Tyrus Thomas glued to the bench. The dirty little secret of the critically-acclaimed midseason trade with Sacramento has been Del Negro's insistence on playing Miller the bulk of most fourth quarters to the detriment of a more productive player. While fellow acquisition John Salmons has been a revelation, Miller's impact has been highly overestimated and his play overrated. While he certainly hasn't been bad, Miller's rarely been anything more than serviceable, and is at his best when used in moderation. But Del Negro consistently trots him out there for major minutes in the fourth, sometimes at Joakim Noah's expense, but more often at Thomas'. I find this to be baffling.

In the stretch before the Sacramento trade, Thomas was beginning to show signs of being a player who was at his best in crunch time. Thomas was consistently coming up with big blocks or a three-point play when the Bulls needed a spark late, and his freakish athleticism often seemed to energize the entire team (though I will admit this effect is greater at home). Miller, meanwhile, often becomes a ref-disputing turnover machine in the fourth, and his demeanor is overwhelmingly negative. Yes, Miller is the more polished offensive player, but that doesn't necessarily make him more effective than Thomas. And on a night when Gordon provided all the offense the team needed in the closing moments, it would've been nice to have the Bulls' defensive game-changer on the floor down the stretch.

You know, the guy who had six blocked shots in his 20 minutes of play? Yeah him. Why on Earth would you have him glued to your bench in the fourth quarter? Especially coming off a game where Thomas scored six of the team's eight points in overtime, to keep him off the floor for so long is absurd.

To make it worse, this is how the fourth quarter began:
12:00 Boston, 88-87
11:45 Brad Miller lost ball (Eddie House steals)
11:33 Tyrus Thomas blocks Paul Pierce's layup
11:32 Eddie House offensive rebound
11:21 Glen Davis misses jumper
11:18 Eddie House offensive rebound
11:06 Kendrick Perkins makes 5-foot two point shot; Boston, 90-87
10:48 Ben Gordon misses 25-foot three point jumper
10:47 Glen Davis defensive rebound
10:27 Paul Pierce makes 14-foot two point shot; Boston 92-87
10:07 Kirk Hinrich lost ball (Rajon Rondo steals)
10:03 Rajon Rondo bad pass
09:51 Tyrus Thomas makes 19-foot jumper (Kirk Hinrich assists); Boston 92-89
09:32 Kendrick Perkins lost ball (Kirk Hinrich steals)
09:26 John Salmons makes driving layup; Boston 92-91
09:08 Paul Pierce misses layup
09:07 Tyrus Thomas defensive rebound
09:03 John Salmons misses 26-foot three point jumper
09:03 Chicago offensive rebound
09:03 Eddie House personal foul (Brad Miller draws the foul)
09:03 Joakim Noah enters the game for Tyrus Thomas
Courtesy of ESPN.com
By my count, that sequence contained six positive plays for the Bulls. Thomas made half of them: the block, hitting the jumper, and grabbing a defensive rebound (just for kicks, the other three were Hinrich steal, Salmon layup, and Miller drawing foul). There were four negative plays: Miller turnover, Gordon missed 3, Hinrich turnover, and Salmons missed 3. That's one by every Bulls player on the court except for Thomas. So half the positive plays, none of the negative. I can see why he'd be the one Vinny would yank and ultimately leave on the bench until just 12 seconds remained.

Which wouldn't have been quite so bad if Miller had, you know, actually done something with his PT. Here is every play in the fourth quarter that contains Brad Miller's name:
11:45 Brad Miller lost ball (Eddie House steals)
09:03 Eddie House personal foul (Brad Miller draws the foul)
07:52 Brad Miller misses 1-foot two point shot
06:56 Kirk Hinrich makes 22-foot three point jumper (Brad Miller assists)
04:18 Brad Miller misses 8-foot jumper
03:18 Brad Miller defensive rebound
02:55 Brad Miller defensive rebound
01:58 Brad Miller lost ball (Paul Pierce steals)
00:12 Kirk Hinrich enters the game for Brad Miller
Final 4th quarter line: 12 minutes, 0 points, 0-2 FG, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 0 blocks, 0 steals, 2 turnovers.

I have to say, that doesn't seem very good to me. And then there's this: the Bulls allowed 6 offensive rebounds in the fourth, and all those second-chance points by Boston were ultimately the reason for their downfall. To recap: Miller 2 defensive rebounds, Boston 6 offensive. Miller's man, Kendrick Perkins had as many offensive rebounds (in the quarter) as Miller had defensive. So did 6-foot-1 (wink, wink) shooting guard Eddie House. House had a total of 11 offensive rebounds for the entire season. Suffice it to say, Miller did not exactly control the boards. But hey, he did assist on that 3-pointer! And the veteran leadership!

The second area where Vinny majorly boned his team was by blowing all his timeouts. There were two seconds left when Ray Allen hit his go-ahead 3. That is plenty of time to get off a decent shot in the NBA... provided you advance the ball to halfcourt. And the only way you can do that is with a timeout, which, incidentally, also gives you the opportunity to call and/or diagram a play, something many teams have found useful. Look, I understand that it was a close game and this is a young team. But Del Negro has to use his timeouts more judiciously. Especially after the exact same thing happened at the end of Game 1.

That's right. The Bulls also ran out of timeouts in the opener, and it very easily could have cost them that game too. Remember, when Pierce missed the potential go-ahead free throw, the Bulls were left to chuck a desperation three-quarters court shot at the end. That would have been the same shot if Pierce's freebie had gone in, because without a timeout they again would've been unable to advance the ball. I find it especially disheartening that the rookie coach did not learn from his mistake. It was bad enough the first time, but to repeat it? Totally inexcusable.

Finally, did anyone else notice that at the end of the third quarter, they waved off a Salmons 3 and instead called a shot clock violation? I had no doubt it should have been good, but no one on the Bulls even argued and so I have no idea WTF happened. The shot was clearly before the horn, so my assumption was that the horn malfunctioned. Only I went back on my DVR and watched the play repeatedly, and the shot appears totally legal. The possession began with 29.2 seconds remaining. Salmons releases the ball with about 5.6 left. The horn was either late or not properly captured by TNT's equipment, because it didn't become audible until under 4 seconds were left. But I don't care about the horn -- the shot clock didn't expire until 5.2, about a half-second after the ball left Salmons' hand. I know the time we see on the broadcast isn't official; still, I have to believe the unofficial clock is capable of accurately running down 24 seconds. And yet no one else seemed to notice or care. Is this but another example of Del Negro's dereliction of duty? Probably. Either that or some innocuous problem with TNT's broadcast. But I prefer the former.

6 comments:

  1. You've got a lot of free time on your hands. I agree that VDN needs to learn how to count his timeouts. But Brad Miller is a great passing big man and the whole point of the fourth quarter was to get the ball to Ben Gordon. If Thomas touches the ball on offense then, the ball would be shot by someone other than BG, namely Thomas who thinks he is a shooting guard. Just wanted you to know that someone is reading this silly blog.

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  2. All that great Miller passing got us one fourth-quarter assist, on a 3-pointer no less, and not even one by Gordon. I know there's plenty of Miller Kool-Aid drinkers, but the longer he plays, the less effective he becomes. He really should be logging 15 minutes a game, instead of the 30+ he's averaging through two.

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  3. I'm just saying it wasn't a bad strategy. Ray Allen only made one shot the game before. You wouldn't say it was bad strategy to leave him in the whole game because it only got the team one basket. My guess is you will see a lot more Thomas in Game three. Hopefully not Tim Thomas.

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  4. I'll ignore the comparing of Brad Miller to Ray Freaking Allen for the moment, and just say this:
    curling and jai alai.

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  5. I haven't watched the Bulls but once this year, so I have little to offer. My first assumption for VDN's rationale was that Miller goes to the line at a better clip and converts. But I just checked and Tyrus is actually vastly improved in that regard--3.9 attempts to Miller's 4.3; 78.3% to Miller's 85.1%. Not insignificant, but hardly a game changer when you look at the whole picture.

    So when do we get a Krause vs. Pax comparative study? I know you've got the time.

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  6. Vinny has done a poor job, Miller should only give the starters a rest or come in for foul trouble and stop shooting! One lucky 3 and thats it.

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