Crank

We are not asking him to produce anymore weve asked him to submit and he has . Last year we asked him to be instant offense and to come in the game ultra aggressive and now weve asked him to come in and to setup Josh Powell for shots or Marvin and to overall give up shots to weaker offensive players . As I said hes down to 7 shots per game from last years 14 shots per game now over the past month so of course his production is gonna be down . Last year Woody used jamal to perfection in terms of that he made sure he got jamal going when the starters were off the floor even if it meant Mo or Zaza got one or two fewer touches because he knew that jamal as good for nice 10+ point run in the second and end of 3rd quarters . One example I can recall recently is the Nuggets game . In the 2nd quarter Jamal scored 7 straight points and we opened up a 12 point lead with the starters on the bench . He then didnt touch the ball for the next 4 possessions and they cut the lead back down to 5 and Drew called a timeout and called a set play for jamal out of the time out but he missed . The Nuggets would continue that run taking the lead a couple of minutes later AND WE NEVER REGAINED THE LEAD . Now against the Bucks Joe got hot in the second and we milked Joe the entire quarter and it wasnt just isolations we moved the ball and got him shots from all over the court . Thats what we did last year thats missing which is what Joe hinted at which is recognize where the ball should be going and then working as a unit to get it there consistently

Ive said this before when Josh decides he is gonna be our Dennis Rodman he is a all star player and potential all Nba caliber player its when he decides hes Scottie Pippen that hurts the team . I think at this point the jealousy he has for Al and JJ are simply too great for him to overcome and commit to being Rodman on this team.

He plays both positions just as he always has and his minutes havent been increased

Eastern Conference finals should be the expectations for this team .

I just have one question as well. Why do you think jamal is taking Teagues minutes ? Jamal is playing the same 31 minutes hes played since got here . JJ played 40 + minutes Kirk 30+ minutes Marvin 30+ minutes

well obviously you simply dont understand simply basketball concepts . First people are complaining that jamal shouldnt be playing PG he should be playing sg well tell me how many plays have you seen us run for jamal ? Who is creating shots for him when the ball is not in his hands ? If you are watching the games its quite obvious so talking about quality shots within our current offensive structure is hilarious the got better shots under Woody considering the majority of his shots these days are basically spot up 3 pt shots or desperation heaves at the buzzer I dont see what you are talking about . We need defense in every game and we dont have a backcourt players strong enough on defense to makeup for the lack of offense that we are already suffering . As I said before if our big three was bringing every game then the claim would be valid but they are not so you have t go with players who can impact games and pick up some of the slack of your big three. People ask why the Bulls can play so many guys and why they play so well but the answer is quite simple . Its because Rose,Deng,Noah,Boozer plays at such a consistent level that you can play role players and never have them leave there comfort zones . If those guys struggled every game like our big three well then the pressure on Korvers and Brewers to maybe create his own shot or the Taj Gibsons to give more post offense etc increases and they struggle because they cant do things at that level consistently .

Dude jamal is taking 9 shots a game in march which is well below what he took last year . The last 5 games hes taking an average 7 shots per game and thats in 30 minutes . Jamals been deferring basically for the past two months and most of this season dont know where you got your facts from .

Sorry Diesel but I think one or two of Al,Josh,Joe will be gone . There seems to be some infighting going on right now as to everyones role and I dont think you will be able to get someone to submit to a lessor role even if its better for the team while the other two are still here .

It still baffles me how you have fans who are still so blind that even with everything thats going on the blame the teams problems on jamal playing 3-4 minutes at PG....or better yet the coach when he gave the majority of you exactly what you asked for and now you are trying to distance yourself from the mess youve helped create

As I said the other day Joe and Jamal were told they had to give up shots because there were too many iso's and Al and Josh needed more shots from the post . Well theyve given up touches and Al and josh have gotten more touches but all theyve done is take more jumpshots and now is to the point where Al and Josh wont even play unless they are getting a ton of touches . I think everyone went into this season believing Al and Josh could carry this team offensively and it has been a total disaster. I think that the team wouldve been better of choosing either Al or Josh trading the one we didnt want and then getting that ONE GUY more touches within the offense while pairing him with a bigman who would be out there to do the dirty work . Instead we tried to do that with TWO and now neither of them wants to do the dirty work . Right now Josh thinks hes option #1 and Al doesnt play anymore unless the offense runs through him. They shouldve never made the drastic changes that we did offensively for marginal offensive bigs. I wouldve simply expanded the playbook and kept the iso's but I wouldve also started teague from day one and became more of a running team.

Jamal was in at PG for about 3-4 minutes . Im so tired of people simply making stuff up . Do you realize that Hinrich didnt sitdown until around the 9 minute mark of the 4th quarter ? I notice you didnt mention AL which to me nullifies this entire thread

They are the core they dont have to care .....

Well see thats the problem you think this team is about Hinrich or Crawford or Bibby when its not . Its about Josh and Al and Joe those are the guys we invested major money in and those are the ones we deemed untouchable and those are the ones who have not come close to delivering the goods . Bibby is was a excuse Crawford is now the excuse Hinrich will become the excuse of course they all clicked before they got paid now what are they playing for because winning has never seemed that important to them and we are seeing it now that the money is off the table and in there hands

exactly the reason we are in this position to begin with hes just as delusional as Hawks management ......

No the bad move was not trading Josh for Amare when he had a chance and not trading Marvin for Deng either . We needed an alpha personality but its too late the window has shut on this team.

Ive said this before but the game simply is not personal to this team especially its best players. If I was playing and I heard those MVP chants well Im taking a flagrant if Rose tried to drive and dunk like he did on Josh well hes going down . I wouldnt try and hurt anyone but he sure would feel it and he would know that he needs to think again about thinking he can just fly in for a uncontested layup ON OUR HOME FLOOR . This is a possible playoff matchup and you have to set the tone but there simply was no fight . I wonder how many of our players went to the Bulls lockerroom trying to get Rose's autograph after the game

The actual trend is that when Crawford checks in we are usually losing already . Just like tonight now Im not defending his play they all stunk it just amazes how people pick one angle and then stick to that angle no matter how the game is going. The Bulls scored in the paint on 7 of the first 8 shots before Crawford even checked in the game . Prior to the game the whining was about how we dont want Crawford guarding Rose which is fine but he didnt guard Rose when he came into the game nor did he guard Deng and those two combined 20 points 5 assists in the first quarter . They had 31 points at the end of the first .

Under Woody we at least got some punches in . So far under LD we do a whole shuck and jive routine and then in the words of Smokey " We get knocked the Out !!!! " There simply is no fight in this team anymore . last year we wouldve went out and fired every bullet we had .....we may have still lost but we wouldve lost playing our game .

yeah absolutely its Crawfords fault Deng was going off lol The excuses some of you cling to are hilarious

Well it all goes back to everyone who wanted Woodson fired . be careful what you ask for .....

We need everyone to bring the energy . Thats the thing with this team if they bring the energy everything else always falls into place .

What games did we get blown out simply because jamal was in at pg ? Considering that jamal has played pg in come capacity in every single one of our games hes played this year and last year this statement falls short . Considering that JJ played 42 mins Kirk 34 mins , Marvin 31 minutes and jamal 30mins so he benched teague to give jamal the minutes he normally wouldve haim anyway ? It seems you are making things up simply because you want teague to play but the facts dont matchup .

There is nothing wrong with Joe other than the fact that he gave the fans what they wanted and is still being blamed . We took something that while it wasnt perfect was pretty damn efficient and worked with good success and instead of some tweaking we blew it up all in the name of getting two offensively challenged bigmen more shots on offense ....and this is the result.

At this point it doesnt even really matter anymore . It will all come down to whichever teams best players bring there best games in the playofffs . There really isnt a team that scares me even without homecourt . Im more afraid we dont show up Id take a magic/Bulls bracket

actually it made total sense considering how well jamals been playing and considering hes the better player . We were actually coming back with a lineup of Zaza,Marvin,Josh,Damien,Jamal even with Josh doing crazy crap it wasnt until he inserted Joe and Al back did it fall apart. At one point they were playing Felton,Affalo Jr Smith Al harrington and Birdman . The problem if anything was that Al and Joe were so lackadaisical out there that it prevented LD from taking out Josh . Our starters made 16 TOTAL fga and our scoring has been horrible . The Hinrich trade only makes a difference if our big three plays up to there potential or at least close to it.... so far they havent