A little praise for Pax and Vinny

One thing I have never believed in is jinxing. That's why I have no second thoughts saying that, with seven games left, it looks like another patented late season surge will put the Bulls back in the playoffs after a one year hiatus. Whether it's the seven seed or the eight seed, it probably doesn't matter much. The Bulls aren't winning a playoff series. Just getting there, and hopefully stealing a game (maybe even two) would be enough for Stompy and I, and most reasonable Bulls fans, I think.

The midseason trade that brought in Brad Miller and John Salmons really re-energized the season. It drew rave reviews nationally when it went down, and thankfully both players have been as good (or better) than advertised.

I think that means we ought to give a little credit to the much malign general manager of our favorite team. Though we'll never really know what went down in past trade negotiations involving guys like Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol, Kobe Bryant, and Amare Stoudemire, it always seemed like Pax entered said negotiations too timid. Maybe he was right to be cautious some of the time: though it seems like forever ago now, Hinrich, Deng, and Gordon were once viewed as one of the best young cores in the league. He was just scared to make a bad deal, and maybe that's ok. But thank God for the Kings. Noc and Gooden for Miller and Salmons is about as low risk-high reward as trades come. So far it has given the Bulls just what they needed.

I also want to be the first Bulls blogger to ever throw a little praise VDN's way. The guy certainly has his flaws, but I think he's done some good things, as well.

Stompy wrote a post a while back saying coaching an NBA team way is a way harder task than some people believe. And he was probably right. The X's and O's of the game are tricky to be sure, and Vinny Del Negro isn't exactly Tex Winter. I'm not sure the Bulls actually run an offense, it's basically just a little pick-and-roll mixed with some iso. But what was so frustrating last season and the first half of this year was the failure to create a concise rotation while developing the young guys. That's the part that appears easy, and I think Del Negro has done an alright job of it in the last couple months. The Bulls before always seemed to be just a mediocre collection of talent; now they've transformed into a mediocre team. That has to count for something.

Vinny has played Rose a ton, and Noah and Tyrus have both taken substantial steps forwards this year, even if they're still both forever away from being championship-caliber big men. Maybe improvement for Noah and Tyrus would have happened anyway in their second and third season respectively, but I at least give Vinny a little credit for sticking with them more than Skiles and Boylan ever did. It probably doesn't hurt to have a player's coach at this point either, as I'm sure Noah and (especially) Tyrus were on the wrong end of some intense Skiles' tirades last season.

More than anything, the thing I like about Del Negro has been his rotation. Again, maybe there's a reason he has figured it out midway through the year (the trades, injuries), but I'd much rather see seven guys playing than 10, and he has done that. The Bulls aren't nearly as deep as they once were, but it has forced Del Negro to rely on a bunch of young guys who should be in good enough shape to play 35 minutes a night. The new rotation has made the Bulls into more of a real team, though the roles probably won't be fully defined until next season when Deng returns and Rose turns into a true superstar.

Now if he'd only make them play a little defense.

I caught nearly all of Sunday's game against the Raps (I only switched over to watch the last ten minutes of MSU-Louisville) which is good because I've been nothing short of a terrible Bulls fan this season. Even though they lost to a team with a horrible record, I was pretty pleased with how the Bulls played. As I'm writing this Blog-a-Bull hasn't weighed in yet, but unlike Matt, I don't always mind when the Bulls go with the three guard lineup. There are times when you may as well get your best players on the floor together, and for all of Kirk Hinrich's flaws, he's still one of the Bulls' best players. Going small helped the Bulls erase a 13-point deficient heading into the fourth quarter. Even though they lost, I don't think it was because of the lineup. 

A few other notes from yesterday's game (though I don't have as many as I thought because gmail didn't save them for some reason. First time it has ever let me down, I think):

- I was extra super happy Gordon made that ridiculous shot to force overtime because of the raucous YMCA singalong the Raptors fans broke into just before. We may as well just call the Air Canada Centre Wrigley North.

- I've been reading all season that Chris Bosh is having a down year, but it doesn't show in his stats and he was pretty awesome yesterday. What was with Toronto having him defend the Bulls' guards late though?

- You know you're going to lose when Linton Johnson enters the game in the first quarter. That's just the way things are.

Finally:

If you didn't think I was going to embed that, you just don't really know me very well.

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Oh and don't think I forgot about Sparty. That'll be covered in another post, or at least in my SlowBreaker column.