Some coach told me that "there's ice cream among the s---." That's what you're looking for with the lineups. If the players are bad, there's probably a couple of combinations that work.
The amazing thing is, teams play lineups that don't work.
Like the Bulls. The five lineups they played the most last year were all bad. I mean, how dumb can you be? 82games.com has some of this data. How you can not look at how your lineups perform is beyond me. It really is.
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Bulls head to London -
Derrick Rose’s dream of playing for the United States in the Olympics hosted by his hometown of Chicago will have to wait.
On Friday, Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 games was dealt a shocking blow when the city was eliminated in the first round of International Olympic Committee voting. It was later announced the 2016 Games are going to Rio de Janeiro, which beat out Madrid and will become the first South American city to host.
But life in the Chicago sports world goes on, and for Rose, an Olympic bid could still be in his future. And, as fate would have it, it might just be in the city hosting the Bulls’ next game — London, England.
Bulls' training camp invites -
RU's look at players invited to training camp - in baseball they'd be called non-roster invitees - rolls on. Now that the camps have actually started and teams have started cutting players it will be a little tougher to talk about these guys as if they have a shot to make a roster, but I'll do my best. Milwaukee, for example, has already waived all four of the players they brought in. Heck, Detroit didn't even bother to invite anyone. Our run through the Central Division should be quick, since there are only three teams who still have some players on their roster that we're interested in. First up, Chicago.
Derrick Byars - Byars got a full-length profile earlier this offseason, so I'll just touch on a few highlights: he was a very smart and skilled college player, but since then has mostly spent time in Europe and the D-League in addition to getting a few preseason NBA looks.
Defense of Taj -
It's going to look like I'm just saying this because of one game. In tonight's preseason opener, Taj Gibson put up 19 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists, hustling on the offensive glass, finishing around the rim, and hitting jumpshots from 10, 13 and 18 feet. Since this was our first taste of Bulls basketball in several months, and we're starved enough to eat our own faces (not faeces), we're going to be prone to overreaction at the slightest little thing.
But I'm really not basing it on just one game. I was going to write this about a month ago, actually, before being distracted by some shiny metal objects. After tonight's performance, though, what I was going to say holds doubly true; Taj Gibson can play.
I didn't want the Bulls to draft Taj Gibson. I don't think many people did, either. Drafting a 24 year old with a solid but unspectacular college career in the first round is rarely a good idea, especially when the most obvious candidate that fits our needs (DeJuan Blair) has flukishly slipped down the draft after reports of the state of his knees began to surface. I wanted Blair. Quite badly, in fact. I would also have been happy with Sam Young (great forehead and pump-fake combo), Wayne Ellington (the next Voshon Lenard) or Danny Green (the next kind of poor Shane Battier). But not Taj.
Rose misses practice -
Derrick Rose celebrated his 21st birthday Sunday, but he also sat out Bulls practice after hurting his right ankle and Achilles in Friday's game in Indiana. Rose said he isn't sure whether he'd play Tuesday against Utah at this city's O2 Arena.
"The pain is back on my heel," Rose said. "I can't even run on it. I can walk on it, but I can't run. I really want to play so I'm just going to get treatment and hope for the best."
The Bulls also are without John Salmons, who is back in the U.S. because his wife is close to giving birth to their second child.
The Bulls have finished their 90-minute practice, which was basically a glorified shootaround or walkthrough.
D-Rose will improve D -
Derrick Rose already had done the math and he felt good about the Bulls' flight to London, which departed Saturday afternoon.
"This (flight) is nine hours. I went to China this past summer and it took 12 hours," he said. "Nine hours is less than 12, so I'm good to go anywhere."
One highlight of the Bulls' 104-95 victory at Indiana in Friday's preseason opener was the starting backcourt. Rose scored 17 points, John Salmons added 15 and between them, the two guards shot 14-for-21 from the field in limited minutes.
The offense is off to a good start, and coach Vinny Del Negro expects Rose to make vast improvements defensively during his second NBA season.
"Derrick has made better strides with his concentration, getting down in a defensive position and using his great athletic ability and strength," Del Negro said. "So that's been a big plus for us, pressure on the basketball."
Learning to defend NBA opponents isn't easy to accomplish during the summer. But Rose said he spent plenty of time chasing his personal trainer up and down the court to get his footwork down.
TT practicing after concussion -
Tyrus Thomas is practicing with no lingering effects from the mild concussion he suffered in Friday's preseason opener against Indiana.
The Bulls landed about 6:30 a.m. local time and took the practice floor four hours later. They are practicing at the sparkling O2 Arena, right on the Thames River and across the way from the David Beckham Soccer Academy.
Players looked sleepy as they gathered in the hotel lobby to bus to practice. Some said they haven't slept since waking early Saturday morning.
Just in case you missed Kmart's post of the new D-Rose / Kobe commercial.
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