Tanking will ruin the bulls

The Bulls bench is loaded with talent.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=280129004

Quote :

...Besides Gordon and Deng, Chicago was missing G Chris Duhon (sprained left knee) and F Joe Smith (flu-like symptoms)...


There are very few teams in the league that could lose 4 of the top 6 players in their rotation and continue to win.

Losing those players has only given players like Thabo, Noah, T2, Gray and even VK a chance to make a contribution.

It's also shown that KirkH can be a scorer when he's pushed into that role, and that if a player with length is put into the starting lineup with Wallace, he can play an effective PF - especially on defense.

So we can basically forget about the lotto, because even if we don't make the playoffs, we'll still be in the running and won't get much advantage from a low lottery pick.

We have much better chances of putting together a package-trade for a better player, but it most probably will happen as part of a sign&trade for either Deng or Gordon.

I'm not sure where this "continue to win" thought comes from. We showed moxie in the win against Indiana, but then had two really sad sack performences in a row before pulling out a win over the worst team in the league despite playing some really uninspired ball.

I still believe that overall, the Bulls are talented and deep, even though the evidence hasn't really been there for much of the season. I base the belief on the fact that they showed themselves in past seasons to be talented and deep and the orster is basically the same

I wouldnt go that far.

The only thing now is we much better defenders playing but now our offense is held up by a single thread. This is why in 2 of the 4 games we only scored 77 pts. Our defense actually has been pretty good but offensively, we are leaning on Kirk to carry us offensively. Positively enough he has came through better than expected. But basically if Kirk is off, we basically dont stand a chance to clear 80 pts.

Talent vs. the top 6 rotation-players points back to our coaching (including Skiles) and is exactly the point that I'm trying to make.

The top 6 players were there because our coaches believed that they gave us the best chances for winning, not because they're the most talented.

But if you follow that logic, it would say that without 4 of the 6, we should have virtually no chance of winning, and should go into an automatic tank.

But somehow, we manage to continue to squeeze out wins, and IMO it's because we've still got tons of talent.

If Basketball was played on bigger court, 11 on 11, they'd dominate the league........if Stern continues to stubbornly keep it at 5 on 5 then they suck.

god, they've been fortunate to be in an overall soft part of the schedule during this injury time.

they showed good effort in a win against the underperforming Pacers, lost to the talent-challenged Bobcats (both Indiana and Charlotte have similarly terrible records as ours) lost, as expected to the Suns and managed a win against the hapless 8-36 Timberwolves.

Even with a lot of their scoring in street clothes, that is not a particularly impressive week in basketball.

But in all fairness TB#1, when you look at it from a standpoint that the Pacers beat us the first time, the Bobcats took it to us every single game and collapsed every game besides this one(they finally got us), we kept it close with the Suns till mid 4th quarter and the TWolves came in on a hot streak(playing their best ball of the season)....

we did pretty good considering half our team was out.

In fact we look no different from the previous games all season. We are still playing .500 ball without em.

I expect to lose tonight, probably win the next game...and so on.

it shows they have more depth than talent
they can stay somewhat competitive with key guys out, but with everyone healthy they still haven't been that a good of a team
that screams consolidation to me

If anything, this is bad news for Gordon and Deng as they seem to be showing that they aren't all that much better with both of them in the lineup.

Right about now, I'm not sure anyone'd object to a Gordon and Deng for Gasol trade, and I didn't think I'd ever say that.

And let's not forget that it may be a coincidence, but the team is 2-1 when Duhon is in street clothes.