[Thanks to bullshooter for today's game preview. -Matt]

Playing out the String

Oh yeah, there is a game tonight.  That's been the prevailing feeling for the last few weeks now that Bulls have gone into unequivocal tanking mode.  Not coincidentally, most of you should feel lucky that you didn't witness ignominious defeats to Washington and more deplorably Miami.  

But that's in the past and soon this season will be thankfully as well.  As bad as this season has been, I still think the future is bright and tonight should bring more vivid glimpses of that future in the form of more minutes for Thabo (please God, let them bench Hughes), TT (stay out of foul trouble) and JoNo, regardless of whatever the official Boylan statements may be.

Tonight's opponent, the LeBron's come into town one pinched sciatic nerve from being in much worse shape than even our Bulls.  And I am not talking about Ben Wallace, who's played most of the season as if his lower vertebrae were fused in the offseason.  No, LBJ is wearing down and the Bulls have been able to overcome his hot starts and that fact that Loul can't seem to get in his way.  Earlier season victories featured a well-timed collision with Hinrich and later a double-team by Thabo and JoNo.  In fact, Boylan tried putting TT on Dwight Howard for stretches, why not try him on LBJ in the first half tonight.  Deng should be able to handle Wallace, I hope.

As an added bonus, tonight's game is on tWWL.  And doubly bonusly, the game starts at 6pm CDST (this time I am really sure), so you have time to watch the game and still go out and enjoy yourself.  So sit back and cheer on the Bulls in their quest for the 8th-most ping pong balls (they're currently tied in the win column).  And if you haven't figured out yet how to keep this Bulls team from screwing up your evening...

Blogging with the enemy:

Cavalier Attitude

Brian Windhorst

[Thanks to bullshooter for tonight's game preview, even though he's a pain in my ass in the comments section :) -Matt]

Top 10 Reasons to watch tonight's game:

• 
  
• The youngsters. Noah, Sefolosha, and Blogabull favorite son Tyrus Thomas have seen their minutes go up as the Bulls have fallen farther out of the playoff race.  The future is upon us.
• 
  
• Ben Wallace.  It always feels good to get the better end of a deal.  As long as Larry Hughes is sitting on the bench, it's not even close.
• 
  
• Be a Witness.  Hey, LeBron is pretty good even if none of his teammates are...
• 
  
• The end of an era.  Small ball as interpreted and implemented by Skiles/Boylan is coming to an end.  You may never get to see BG, Duhon and Hinrich on the court at the same time ever again (at least in the same uniform).
• 
  
• An old school central division matchup.  How many times do you think they will show Jordan over Ehlo?  Can you ever get enough?
• 
  
• EJ, Kenny and Charles.  Maybe Chuckles will come up with something new about the Bulls other than "They're too small."  He'll most likely say something mildy controversial and definitely politically incorrect.
• 
  
• The game's on TNT.  For those of you who are Bulls diehards and don't pirate game feeds, this is your one game per fortnight, and it's on at 6pm CDST [have no fear, it's at 7. -ed.], so you can catch the game and still do something else tonight.  And how many times can you really watch Law & Order?
• 
  
• The NBA: Where Mascot Mayhem happens.  That guy should have walked up behind Posey and ...
• 
  
• Did I mention the youngsters?  You might even get a little Aaron Gray, if you can get just a little Aaron Gray...
• 
  
• Who am I kidding, there haven't been 10 reasons to watch this team since late January.  But if you are true Bulls fan like me, you'll start missing them as soon as the playoffs start.   So even if they are playing for ping pong balls, sit back, have a beer and enjoy it while it's on...

Blogging with the enemy:
Cavalier Attitude
Brian Windhorst

[Thanks to Bullshooter for today's game preview. -Matt]

Game previews usually include a bunch of links to stats, recaps of recent games, and commentary about the current state of the team.  I don't think anybody who's going to read this needs a refresher about what's going on with the Bulls right now.  I also don't think records and stats have much bearing on tonight's game.  Dwayne Wade doesn't have to be reminded who swept him and the Heat out of the first round of the playoffs last year.  Those playoffs and several heated regular season games are still fresh in his mind. And Shaq has obviously circled this date in advance as the perfect night to make his return from injury.  

Given all the recent history, tonight's game will at the very least be interesting.  The Bulls should be ready to get smacked in the mouth and how they respond will tell a lot about where this team is and where they are going.  Were the first few games under Boylan merely a 'honeymoon', or is this team destined for the lottery?  Was the Philly comeback a blip or a sign that this team does have some life and a chance to get back on track?

I'd feel a lot more positive about the outcome if Nocioni and Hinrich weren't game time decisions.  But maybe that's for the best.  We all know Noc's is never going to backdown from anybody, so maybe this gives us a chance to see what other guys will do.  Hopefully, the youngsters, Thabo, Noah, Gray, and maybe even Tyrus will get a chance to show what they are made of.  Hopefully, they will get the opportunity and rise to the occasion.  Maybe a Shaq elbow to the head will knock some sense into Wallace and get him to play hard for more than 5 minutes at a time.  Who knows...  

Game on at 7pm EST on ESPN 2.

Blogging with the Enemy:

Crazy from the Heat
Ira Winderman

[Thanks to bullshooter for tonight's game preview, even though he still believes in this Ben Gordon benching thing, and hates Tyrus Thomas. -Matt]

A Tale of Two Franchises

or Two Draft Picks, or Two Forwards... Tonight brings the Portland Trailblazers to town.  If the Bulls are copying Detriot's blueprint for building a champion out of many good players, but no dominant ones, then the Trailblazers are copying the Bulls blueprint for drafting winners from strong college programs, at least according to GM Kevin Pritchard.  The Bulls' and Trailblazers' fate was also intertwined by a 2006 draft day trade.  In that trade, the Bulls swapped the rights to LaMarcus Aldridge taken with the second pick and a conditional second round pick for the rights to Tyrus Thomas taken with the fourth pick and young forward and Blogabull favorite Viktor Khyrapa.  Aldridge and fellow 2006 draftee Brandon Roy form the nucleus of a young Trailblazers team that has finally suceeded in putting the Jailblazers teams of the recent past behind them.

On draft day in 2006 scouts were questioning whether or not Aldridge could fill out or have enough toughness, while Thomas was seen as having the most upside.  However, Aldridge has emerged to start and average 18.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game this year, while Thomas's future remains cloudy.  Thomas started 11 games at the beginning of this year, but has logged only 16 minutes in three games since the Bulls fired head coach Scott Skiles five games ago.  The reasons for this benching are a continuous and inflamatory source of debate here on blogabull.  Thomas's inconsistent minutes beg the question: could the Bulls have gotten Aldridge and Roy instead of Thomas and Sefolosha, another young Bull seeing very limited minutes so far this year?  Also, you have to feel kind of sorry for Khryapa who's played about 10 minutes since that trade after starting for most of the previous year for Portland.

Aside from that idle speculation, the Trailblazers come into the UC on a hot streak having won 14 of their last 15 games, even without injured number one overall pick Greg Oden.  The Bulls have won 3 of 4 under new coach Jim Boylan and scored over 100 points in each game, making the move to bring Ben Gordon off of the bench look like the greatest idea since sliced cheese.  Interestingly, Accuscore gives a decided edge to the Bulls tonight.  The game is on TNT at 8pm EST, so need to hunt down bootleg LP feeds.

Blogging with the Enemy:

Blazers Edge

[Thanks again to bullshooter. Like a Noc defensive rotation, better late than never, right? -Matt]

Unless Matt is working feverishly elsewhere, here's a game thread.  Curry has been benched and David Lee is the starter.  Jamal Crawford is out with a finger.  I look for BG to continue to emerge from early season doldrums and the Bulls to take advantage of the Knicks general dysfunction.  Also, it'd be nice if the Bulls could get a lead in the second half so that some of the guys could get a more extended look.

[Thanks to bullshooter for today's game preview. -Matt]

The first day of the rest of their lives

The Milwaukee Bucks come to town for the first game of the Jim Boylan era.   Boylan's official announcement as the permanent interim coach, at least for the rest of the season, marks the end of a clash in philosophies between GM John Paxson and previous head coach Scott Skiles.  Over  the last several season Paxson has been remaking the team through the drafting of above-average, but not necessarily great players and a few key free agent signings.  With a roster than now includes at least 11 players with significant talent or potential and Skiles steadfastly refusing to play several of them consistently, a change was inevitable.  This was especially true when the Bulls failed to recover from their usual slow start (2-10 record, currently 9-16).  Paxson has mentioned his goal may be to try and package several of his stockpiled "good" players for one truly great "star" from a failing team looking to rebuild.  Only time will tell, and in order to maximize that chance, Paxson needs his players to play and demonstrate their talents, not languish on the bench behind more proven but under-performing veterans.

However, another overarching Paxson tenet for this Bulls organization has been accountability.  So it would seem to be somewhat hypocritical for Paxson to force the next coach to play the promising youngsters who haven't necessarily shown they can consistently produce at the expense of more consistent veterans if the stated goal of making the playoffs is truly the focus of this team.  And that sentiment was in evidence last game against the spurs when even in a blowout youngsters Noah, Thomas and Sefolosha didn't get any significant minutes.  The next several games under Boylan, of whom Paxson is confident "Jim [Boylan] is his own person." should demonstrate whether the most important goal is changing the rotation, or winning.  Perhaps it can be both.  

Boylan's benching of Ben Gordon for Chris Duhon is the first of perhaps several moves.  While in a contract year, Duhon is playing somewhat better early this season compared to last.  However, the Duhon/Hinrich backcourt has been shown to be inferior to the Hinrich/Gordon version.  Is this an attempt to insprire BG to return to his former levels?  Are the Bulls attempting to showcase Duhon?  Have the Bulls soured on Gordon to the point they are already trying to deal him quickly?  BG provided no hints today and  Hinrich is clearly not the answer at the off guard and this move only stunts and delays his development at the point.  Perhaps this move was made with the later move of putting Sefolosha into the rotation and starting lineup in the near future.  Who knows, but it certainly doesn't look like a stable situation.

Overall, expectations should be for a gradual change in minutes for various players.  Ben Wallace, another candidate for benching based on his inconsistent play early this season, would figure to be a much harder sell for coming off of the bench.  In fact, expect an early hook, ala Shaq as opposed to an actual benching.  Both Joakim Noah and Aaron Gray have shown glimpses this year and should start to eat into Wallace's minutes.  Likewise, the enigmatic Tyrus Thomas should start to see more of Joe Smith's minutes, even with Smith proving to be a solid and capable 4.

Tonights opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, come into town just ahead of the Bulls in the Central Divison standings.  The Bucks have lost seven straight on the road this season and 10 and of their last 12 at the United Center.  They were blownout in Denver 125-105 Wednesday night and are 4-12 over their last 16.  In their previous matchup this season, the Bulls lost 78-72.  The Bucks come armed with several talented big men in Andrew Bogut, the latest Chinese sensation Yi Jianlian, and Charlie Villaneuva, not to mention all-star sharpshooter Michael Redd.  The Bucks will provide an excellent test for Bulls and the Bucks' big men should provide many excellent opportunities to play all of the Bulls bigs.  The Bucks might also be just what BG needs to get back on track based on his 48 point shootout with Michael Redd last year.

Blogging with the Enemy:

Bango's Bunch

The Bratwurst

Brew Hoop

[Thanks to Bullshooter for today's game preview. Early start: 6pmCST -Matt]

Tonight's game features a battle between the 25th and 26th place teams in the Hollinger Rankings.  While neither team should be proud of that mark, it does represent a five place improvement for the bulls from two weeks ago when they were dead last.

The bulls are coming off of a 103-98 loss to Dallas Monday night that wasn't close until the fourth quarter when the bulls finally woke up.  Notable from that game was the 2nd half benching of Kirk Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas.  Skiles decided to play a backcourt of Chris Duhon paired with BG to start and when that didn't have the desired effect, brought Hinrich back.  The benching seemed to make Hinrich more aggressive offensively as he scored 14 second half points, all in the fourth as the bulls made a late run at respectability.  The pairing didn't benefit BG at all, as he only hit one late three pointer.

The bulls and bobcats squared off just this last Saturday in what might have been the bulls best performance so far in this disappointing season.  BG had what blogabullers everywhere hoped would be a breakout game with 34 points and after a customary shaky second quarter the bulls controlled the game, much like they were expected to and won 111-95.

The bobcats come into the game with the better record at 6-10 to the bulls disappointing 4-11 (did I mention the bulls have been disappointing?)  Charlotte also lost Monday, getting blown out in Toronto.  The big news in Charlotte is the signing of Anderson Varejo to an offer sheet.  The deal is for three years purportedly for the MLE, with the third year being a player option.  The bobcats lost big man Sean May to a knee before the season started which created the opening for Varejo.  This would mark the second power forward the Cavs have lost under strange circumstances in the last few years with the other being Carlos "Stab the blind man in the back" Boozer. [The Cavs have matched on Varajeao -ed.]

Accuscore predicts a charlotte victory so blogabullers everywhere need to channel their positive thoughts and concentrate extra hard to sway the outcome.  Either that or hope that Hinrich and Gordon can find their lost mojo and redevelop what used to be good chemistry, or that a possible lineup change that would start Joe Smith pays dividends.

Blogging with the enemy:

Bobcat Bonfire
The Charlotte Blogcat
Queen City Hoops
(Shows how crazy North Carolinians are for hoops that there are this many blogs for a miserable bobcat franchise.  Kudos.)

Matt: I'll just piggy-back this diary since it's up and already has the discussion going. Fanhouse has a quality post on this as well.

Denver's real good, but shouldn't be 20+ points better, and there's no doubting this was yet another shit effort by the Bulls, made worse by the fact that one of the players who had been doing decent, Ben Gordon, also turned in an awful performance.

But this Tyrus thing is just getting silly. Again, why root for a team that starts Adrian Griffin? Tyrus had a terrible game (although I thought the first foul was a bad call, so after getting an another one soonafter he was yanked regardless of what he did), but what Skiles doesn't seem to get is that even if Tyrus isn't performing to capabilities by sprinting and focusing all the time (or whatever), he still helps the team win.

Sam Smith calls Tyrus a fan favorite in the sense that we're all rubes who like shiny dunks and blocks. I'd say that fans are more fooled by the flopping and fist-pumpery of Nocioni, who was completely abysmal on defense last night.

Just figure this: The Nuggets had Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin, the Bulls had Adrian Griffin and Andres Nocioni. Pax has claimed wanting to make this team more athletic, maybe it'll take a coaching change to get our athletes on the court.

Diary: Sam Smith has his latest tantalizing glimpse into what Skiles is thinking.  Apparently, Tyrus isn't being athletic enough.  Interesting that the reason he isn't playing is that he isn't running the floor correctly.  Yet another guy settling for jumpshots?  Have a field day with this one, guys.

The Bulls-Piston game headlined the Daily Dime.  Jalen Rose finds ways to highlight the weaknesses in the Bulls' win.  He cites no on-the-floor-leader as one.  He then has a box blasting management for leaking the financial aspects of the deals BG and Luol turned down.  Seems like he is still a little bitter about his Bulls days, and all the trades he was a part of over the years...

Interesting article on how Noc's minutes are getting squeezed.  Noc is a classic sub, his minutes were going to be limited as soon as a PF started playing well enough to warrant the minutes.  Also mentions Duhon coming in before Thabo, also warranted based on the fact that Thabo might not have hit a shot yet this year.  There is a brief mention of Ben Wallace being stuck on the bench for the 4th quarter.  BW doesn't seem to upset yet, which is good since Tyrus and Joe Smith, and even Noah are playing well enough to keep him there, at least until he is 100%.

As reported on ESPN today, LA Lakers owner Jerry Buss said that Kobe is not untouchable and could be traded in the right deal.  On sportscenter, Chad Ford, or whichever reporter is playing the role of Kobe confidant/insider/publicist mentioned Dallas and Chicago as Kobe's first choices for possible destinations.  He also mentioned that Dallas might offer Jason Terry and Josh Howard, and clarified that he was pulling those names out of his arse.  

The most natural trade offered by the Bulls centered on BG might look like this, and pretty much guts the team.  The Bulls are really handcuffed until Noc is unlocked in Dec.  But then he becomes a pretty big salary cap chip, and the Lakers can worry about him taking minutes from Luke Walton and Lamar Odom.  This deal probably doesn't get done if the Bulls are involved until the trade deadline, unless the Bulls include Hinrich or Wallace, which doesn't make as much sense for the Bulls.

My personal opinion is that this becomes a much bigger story next week after Sportscenter finishes their "Where will A-Rod Go" bit and Joe Torre's situation is clarified.