jpx7
Very Flirtatious, but Doubts What Love Is.
I think that's very overblown; there's some frustration for certain longer-tenured players (primarily Noah), because the group defensive-effort hasn't been present every game as it has in years past, but I honestly do perceive a lot of internal team discord. What's off for them has really been health: they haven't had many long stretches where they've had their nine guys (ten if you're forced to count Hinrich) healthy, which is tough since almost half of those guys are new to the team, and Thibodeau's defensive system takes time to pick up.
But they've looked plenty dominant at times—that December through early January stretch featured some of the best regular-season basketball I've seen them play in the Thibodeau era, because they were killing it offensively and seemed able to ratchet up the defensive pressure in the second-half—and I think they can improve even more over their final twenty-five games. Big, encouraging keys for them have emerged over the past two weeks:
- Dunleavy's healthy return, which is huge, as he's vastly underrated, glue to the starting-unit, and a heady player that just doesn't make mistakes;
- the game clicking for Snell, who looks like a legitimate rotation player finally, and who has been playing great defensive on the wing, provides another three-point-shooting threat that they can really use, and finally gives them someone who can spell Butler, mitigating the miles he logs before the playoffs;
- Mirotić seeming to gather a second-wind, after hitting a bit of a Euro-rookie wall, having never played this many games in a professional season.
If everyone can stay healthy—except for Hinrich, who's really pretty useless at this point—I think the Bulls can stay on the up-swing.
