A new season with a new coach and mostly a new team. However, at least for the first two games, we have pretty much the same Bulls. Rose is still our main offensive weapon. He's still great at scooting towards the rim, out-racing his defenders. And he's still not that great with his defense or jump shot. Noah is still our hustle play rebounder. Taj is still our power forward and tries very hard. Deng is still a total wuss.
None of the new guys have been at all impressive. Brewer looks crippled. Korver looks slow, but better than Brewer. Bogans looks decidedly average and he's our starter. Thomas plays far less than I was expecting. And C. J. Watson is looking way to much like Pargo -- a few streaky shots and then turnover city.
It's actually the guys I had the least amount of hope in who have done better than expected. Scalabrine is, amazingly, part of the rotation, and he's not terrible when he's in there. Asik gets minutes as well and he's shown that he can take a charge and scrap for rebounds. And Johnson may just claw his way back from the dead. He's obviously lighter and faster than last year and plays with much more intensity. He still makes dumb mistakes, but now he also makes some good plays to go along with them!
In the opener, the Bulls ran up and down with the Thunder and finally wound up playing less defense in the end. Rose went to his erratic jumper too often. In the home opener, it looked like it was going to be Ben Gordon revenge night as he was lighting up Rose early. The Bulls were getting blown out but made a typical Bull charge in the fourth quarter and came away with a win.
Very telling to me is that Thibs sat Deng on the bench for that entire fourth quarter charge. And many of those minutes were going to Asik and Johnson! That's how worthless Deng has become for this team. I've called for him to be traded over and over but now it absolutely has to happen. There are rumors now about swapping Deng for Iguodala, and even though I know Iguodala is kind of a head case himself and I'm not crazy about his game, I can't believe the 76's would be stupid enough to make that swap. Every year we hear about how Deng has improved his game over the summer and how great he looks in pre-season, and every year we find out that when he gets into a real game he rolls over on his belly and whimpers.
Of course if the Bulls ever do trade him I won't have any easy targets to vent my frustrations on when the Bulls lose. I'll practice with some Boozer bashing, before he even steps foot on the floor. How does a guy break his frickin hand tripping over a bag in his house while going to answer his doorbell? I'm sorry, but I just don't buy his story. And even if he isn't lying, he's proven to be an idiot either way. He better bring a lot of game with him when he gets back on the court because I'm already eying him as my Deng blog-bashing replacement.
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