The Bulls looked like two different teams in their first two games of the season. In the home opener they came out unselfishly and took down a title contender in impressive fashion. The next night they went into Boston and each player tried to be the hero...except the guy who should be the hero. In 23 minutes Derrick Rose only took 8 shots and 3 free throws. That's flat out unacceptable, he's their best player and scorer and should be taking anywhere from 10-15 shots a game. If he did then he would probably be scoring around 25 PPG.
None of this is his fault.
The Bulls still run the same offense which they ran for Gordon except now they run it for Salmons. I hated it then because it cut Rose out of the play too much but Gordon was good enough to justify it, Salmons isn't.
Rose can score on anyone in this league in an isolation and that's what Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro should run. How come everyone in the United States knows that Rose is borderline unstoppable when isolated other than his coach?
I understand that Rose has a bad right ankle and that it's greatly hindering his quickness, but he worked on his jumper all summer for a reason. In tonight's blow out loss to the Celtics, Rose should have been taking as many good jumpers as he could get up. As Salmons missed shot after shot they kept running the same predictable play. Salmons comes off a double screen at the top of the key and spots up for a three. They ran it so much in the playoffs last year that the Celtics just kept jumping the play because they knew that it was run to the same spot every time. Coach Del Negro should have recognized that and let Rose create for himself and others. Maybe things would have changed if Rose played more minutes, he's playing limited minutes because the Bulls' entire future depends upon his health and they're being annoyingly careful with his right ankle.
On Sunday the Bulls make the trip down to Miami where Rose will face off against fellow Chicago native Dwyane Wade. Hopefully Rose will be playing his regular 38 minutes. The biggest thing is that for the Bulls to be successful long term he has to be part of the offense more. After he passes it to Salmons he goes in the corner and doesn't see the ball again that possession. As the team's best scorer that just can't happen.
I'm not saying that Vinny is a bad coach by any means, he's actually a very good coach and I agree with almost everything he does, except this.
The entire offensive game plan needs to be changed very soon. Some nights Salmons and Hinrich are going to shoot well and it will look effective. But most nights its going to have to be Rose that carries the scoring load, especially now with Ben Gordon in Detroit. In games where Rose takes 10 shots or more he averaged 18.8 PPG last year including the playoffs.
With a year's experience under his belt and a better jumpshot that number will rise to the 23-25 range. I cannot think of one legitimate reason not to change the offense to better fit Rose other than the fact that the season already started and it will be harder to do on the fly.
If the Bulls want to be any kind of legitimate threat in the east they're going to have to adapt their offense to Rose's strengths which are attacking the basket and opening things up on the perimeter, as well as going one on one with someone and scoring on either a dunk, floater, or jumper.
If coach Del Negro refuses to do this then it's going to be a very disappointing year in Chicago. The Bulls will still make the playoffs but they will probably lose 5-10 games that they could and should have won. Those 5-10 games is the difference between the 4th seed and the 8th.
It's odd that games this early in the season have such major playoff implications. There's a chance that the Bulls and Heat will end up tied at the end of the season for the fourth seed. In that event whoever won the head to head games during the season gets the playoff spot. Therefore the Bulls' next game is big. Let's see which Bulls team shows up.
