2022-2023 Bulls IGT Megathread

[Enasic]

I’m at the point where I’ll probably tune in the middle of the 3rd quarter to see how they’re doing and determine if the game is even worth watching. They’re just so unfathomably bad considering their talent level (which is adequate, not great). They just look like a JV team that doesn’t belong on the court most nights. If they ever put together a 10-15 game stretch of winning basketball I might commit again but for now, absolutely not worth watching.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Since Billy doesn't know how to make adjustments, I'll just leave them here so maybe if he scours the internet he'll find it

1) Use Vuc in the post. We have an elite post scorer that we basically never use. We also barely use him as a roll man which hinders what little offensive rebounding we have. Notice the difference when Drummond is in and there's no pick and pop option.

2) Iso ball doesn't work. There is value to running some isos now and then given we have one of the best iso players in the league in Demar, but it can't be our entire offense. Teams have adjusted, do something else. The other players need to move. When they win, it's because they've gotten 25+ assists and many guys are involved

3) Stop leaving shooters open. I haven't quite figured out how they are perpetually leaving someone in the corner wide open, but there's clearly some type of scheme that does not work. Maybe someone is over rotating and someone else has to make up for it, change the scheme a little bit so you don't have to worry about that so often. Change a matchup, maybe hedge instead of drop on screens, ice it, do something else.

4) Attack the basket more. We are a very good free throw shooting team (mostly because of Demar, but other guys are high percentage). Similar to point 1, better things happen when we play inside out. Our 3pt shooters aren't really hitting, but maybe if we can get them more wide open looks because the defense collapses they'll hit a couple more.

 

[knoxville7]

Since Billy doesn't know how to make adjustments, I'll just leave them here so maybe if he scours the internet he'll find it

1) Use Vuc in the post. We have an elite post scorer that we basically never use. We also barely use him as a roll man which hinders what little offensive rebounding we have. Notice the difference when Drummond is in and there's no pick and pop option.

2) Iso ball doesn't work. There is value to running some isos now and then given we have one of the best iso players in the league in Demar, but it can't be our entire offense. Teams have adjusted, do something else. The other players need to move. When they win, it's because they've gotten 25+ assists and many guys are involved

3) Stop leaving shooters open. I haven't quite figured out how they are perpetually leaving someone in the corner wide open, but there's clearly some type of scheme that does not work. Maybe someone is over rotating and someone else has to make up for it, change the scheme a little bit so you don't have to worry about that so often. Change a matchup, maybe hedge instead of drop on screens, ice it, do something else.

4) Attack the basket more. We are a very good free throw shooting team (mostly because of Demar, but other guys are high percentage). Similar to point 1, better things happen when we play inside out. Our 3pt shooters aren't really hitting, but maybe if we can get them more wide open looks because the defense collapses they'll hit a couple more.

#3 happens constantly because the bulls have some of the worst team defense rotations I’ve ever seen. And it’s more personnel than scheme IMO. Not sure how they can fix it really mid season, unless guys just become better at it which ain’t happening

 

[clonetrooper264]

#3 happens constantly because the bulls have some of the worst team defense rotations I’ve ever seen. And it’s more personnel than scheme IMO. Not sure how they can fix it really mid season, unless guys just become better at it which ain’t happening

I argue it's actually the scheme. I'll show an example later

 

[knoxville7]

I argue it's actually the scheme. I'll show an example later

I look forward to it. Reason I say personnel is the problem is because no matter what defensive scheme you run, you’ll always have to rotate to open shooters and the bulls are just simply bad at it

 

[clonetrooper264]

One example of how BD could've potentially adjusted his coverages

Taking the play at around the 17:55 mark of here

You see a high screen and roll with Valanciunas and McCollum. Everyone is matched up initially, as you'd expect, no issues yet. McCollum goes around the screen, Ayo goes over as best he can, Valanciunas sets a pretty good screen there and quickly rolls. Vuc is at the 3pt line ready to stop a pull up 3, but CJ splits between him and Valanciunas forcing Zach to rotate as the low man off of Murphy in the corner. CJ gets to the paint and kicks out to Murphy while Pat rotates from help side position on Ingram to the corner to contest (too late at that point).

Even if Pat had recovered well enough to deter Murphy, Ingram is now wide open on the wing as Zach would then have to rotate from being the low man helping to the wing and that's too much space to cover (you can see that's what he does but half heartedly as the 3 from Murphy is basically in the basket). More infuriatingly, Valanciunas manages to get inside position on Vucevic for a potential rebound, mostly because Vuc tries very hard not to foul CJ on the drive while Valanciunas rolls to the rim.

Now it might be easy to blame Vuc for his defense or Zach for rotating off Murphy, a known shooter who was hot that night, but I contend this is a coaching issue, not a player's defensive issue. Here's why.

This is a pretty standard rotation for a defense. From a rotation perspective, Zach did nothing wrong, but it's of course super easy to blame Zach for leaving Murphy open. Zach is just doing what he's told here. It is the wrong rotation in the first place.

Instead of rotating off of Murphy, I contend that a couple things could have happened to have it be a more difficult shot attempt for NO.

Option A - hedge + non traditional rotation
1) Optionally, Vuc could have fully hedged the screen, in other words, come all the way up past the 3pt line to deter CJ's initial drive or shot attempt. This is a slight scheme change. You are now basically forcing CJ to drive by design instead of being in position to contest a 3. Let's say CJ still penetrates to the paint either way.

2) Instead of Zach rotating as the weak side low man to help on the drive, Demar should've been that person instead. The aim here is to force CJ to pass to Herb Jones in the strong side corner, a much worse shooter than Murphy. Ayo, having been beat already in this scenario, would be able to close that gap to Jones much faster and also Vuc is potentially there to deflect the pass, but probably he's trying to get a body on Valanciunas. If you're going to give up an open 3, I'd rather it be Jones than Murphy.

This is scheme change because typical rotations off of this spacing would say stay on the strong side corner shooter and rotate off the weak side guy. This would be a scheme where you say if someone like Murphy or Ingram (or any good shooter) is in the corner, don't leave him no matter what. Leave the weakest shooter open instead. Jones is shooting 26% from 3 on the year, take your chances.

Option B - drop coverage
1) It's kind of a weird choice in this scenario given CJ is a good shooter himself, but here you contend that giving up a moving 3 off the dribble is better than a wide open spot up 3 in the corner for Murphy/Ingram/whoever. Vucevic doesn't come all the way up to the 3pt line here, he stays lower by the free throw line extended. This negates the Valanciunas roll and a CJ drive as a threat, while leaving the pull up 3 as the most viable immediate option.

2) Ayo could really play into the give up the pull up 3 idea by going under the Valanciunas screen. This is not really ideal, but you can argue that he can get under the screen faster and still be in position to contest the pull up.

3) Ayo goes over the screen like he does in reality and is in position for a trail contest on CJ's potential pull up 3, or to potentially recover if CJ does something else.

Option C - ice the screen
1) The Thibs special, before CJ even has a chance to go over the screen, Ayo is basically trying to force him to deny it and drive left by almost jumping the screen. In other words, make it it harder to use the screen than not use it.

2) Vucevic plays drop coverage. Since it should be easier for CJ to drive left than to use the screen the goal is to guide CJ into a pseudo double team with Vuc and Ayo. Vuc still tries to prevent any roll action from Valanciunas, basically forcing a lob pass as the only option to Valanciunas. It would be pretty awkward for Valanciunas to go all the way around to the left side of the court since he has to go back middle, where CJ is, so a regular roll or a pop is actually the better read for him on that play.

3) If necessary, Demar rotates off Jones to try to contest the Valanciunas roll if CJ manages to get the pass off to him. Again leave the weakest shooter open. There's no point in having Zach rotate over from the weak side as the action is still happening strong side, so Demar is the clear choice to rotate.

4) If Valanciunas pops, again Demar rotates off Jones to contest.

5) If Jones cuts from the corner, Vuc should already be in position to contest from his previous drop coverage position.


Now I'm not a coach and have never played organized basketball to that level so I am probably missing some things there, but these are ideas I know exist out there in real NBA coaching playbooks. All these are based on the overall idea of "maybe let's not leave good shooters wide open in the corner" and "let's leave the worst shooter open" which I don't care how bad of a defender you are, you can follow such an idea. NBA players can understand so much more than that, so let's at least give them that much credit.

 

[clonetrooper264]

I'll toss out there that while yes Lonzo wouldn't be enough to make this team do a full 180 and contend with the best, his defensive versatility opens up a lot more things scheme wise which we saw last year, albeit vs mostly bad teams. I feel like switching was a more viable option with him on the floor and his instincts on help side defense cause just a little bit more chaos. It's little things, but if nothing else they make the team more fun to watch.

 

[knoxville7]

One example of how BD could've potentially adjusted his coverages

Taking the play at around the 17:55 mark of here

You see a high screen and roll with Valanciunas and McCollum. Everyone is matched up initially, as you'd expect, no issues yet. McCollum goes around the screen, Ayo goes over as best he can, Valanciunas sets a pretty good screen there and quickly rolls. Vuc is at the 3pt line ready to stop a pull up 3, but CJ splits between him and Valanciunas forcing Zach to rotate as the low man off of Murphy in the corner. CJ gets to the paint and kicks out to Murphy while Pat rotates from help side position on Ingram to the corner to contest (too late at that point).

Even if Pat had recovered well enough to deter Murphy, Ingram is now wide open on the wing as Zach would then have to rotate from being the low man helping to the wing and that's too much space to cover (you can see that's what he does but half heartedly as the 3 from Murphy is basically in the basket). More infuriatingly, Valanciunas manages to get inside position on Vucevic for a potential rebound, mostly because Vuc tries very hard not to foul CJ on the drive while Valanciunas rolls to the rim.

Now it might be easy to blame Vuc for his defense or Zach for rotating off Murphy, a known shooter who was hot that night, but I contend this is a coaching issue, not a player's defensive issue. Here's why.

This is a pretty standard rotation for a defense. From a rotation perspective, Zach did nothing wrong, but it's of course super easy to blame Zach for leaving Murphy open. Zach is just doing what he's told here. It is the wrong rotation in the first place.

Instead of rotating off of Murphy, I contend that a couple things could have happened to have it be a more difficult shot attempt for NO.

Option A - hedge + non traditional rotation
1) Optionally, Vuc could have fully hedged the screen, in other words, come all the way up past the 3pt line to deter CJ's initial drive or shot attempt. This is a slight scheme change. You are now basically forcing CJ to drive by design instead of being in position to contest a 3. Let's say CJ still penetrates to the paint either way.

2) Instead of Zach rotating as the weak side low man to help on the drive, Demar should've been that person instead. The aim here is to force CJ to pass to Herb Jones in the strong side corner, a much worse shooter than Murphy. Ayo, having been beat already in this scenario, would be able to close that gap to Jones much faster and also Vuc is potentially there to deflect the pass, but probably he's trying to get a body on Valanciunas. If you're going to give up an open 3, I'd rather it be Jones than Murphy.

This is scheme change because typical rotations off of this spacing would say stay on the strong side corner shooter and rotate off the weak side guy. This would be a scheme where you say if someone like Murphy or Ingram (or any good shooter) is in the corner, don't leave him no matter what. Leave the weakest shooter open instead. Jones is shooting 26% from 3 on the year, take your chances.

Option B - drop coverage
1) It's kind of a weird choice in this scenario given CJ is a good shooter himself, but here you contend that giving up a moving 3 off the dribble is better than a wide open spot up 3 in the corner for Murphy/Ingram/whoever. Vucevic doesn't come all the way up to the 3pt line here, he stays lower by the free throw line extended. This negates the Valanciunas roll and a CJ drive as a threat, while leaving the pull up 3 as the most viable immediate option.

2) Ayo could really play into the give up the pull up 3 idea by going under the Valanciunas screen. This is not really ideal, but you can argue that he can get under the screen faster and still be in position to contest the pull up.

3) Ayo goes over the screen like he does in reality and is in position for a trail contest on CJ's potential pull up 3, or to potentially recover if CJ does something else.

Option C - ice the screen
1) The Thibs special, before CJ even has a chance to go over the screen, Ayo is basically trying to force him to deny it and drive left by almost jumping the screen. In other words, make it it harder to use the screen than not use it.

2) Vucevic plays drop coverage. Since it should be easier for CJ to drive left than to use the screen the goal is to guide CJ into a pseudo double team with Vuc and Ayo. Vuc still tries to prevent any roll action from Valanciunas, basically forcing a lob pass as the only option to Valanciunas. It would be pretty awkward for Valanciunas to go all the way around to the left side of the court since he has to go back middle, where CJ is, so a regular roll or a pop is actually the better read for him on that play.

3) If necessary, Demar rotates off Jones to try to contest the Valanciunas roll if CJ manages to get the pass off to him. Again leave the weakest shooter open. There's no point in having Zach rotate over from the weak side as the action is still happening strong side, so Demar is the clear choice to rotate.

4) If Valanciunas pops, again Demar rotates off Jones to contest.

5) If Jones cuts from the corner, Vuc should already be in position to contest from his previous drop coverage position.


Now I'm not a coach and have never played organized basketball to that level so I am probably missing some things there, but these are ideas I know exist out there in real NBA coaching playbooks. All these are based on the overall idea of "maybe let's not leave good shooters wide open in the corner" and "let's leave the worst shooter open" which I don't care how bad of a defender you are, you can follow such an idea. NBA players can understand so much more than that, so let's at least give them that much credit.

There are certainly some unknowns that none of us can know. Such as, is the current scheme due to some personnel liabilities that keep the bulls from trying some of the other ideas you mentioned.

I also wonder if the bulls did that on that play because they don’t ask Demar to do it. we would have to look at how the bulls operate outside of when Demar is on the court and have a bigger sample size than one play.

on that specific play, Vuc comes up to the screen flat footed, which allows for CJ and Valanciunas to get by him off the screen and Ayo is trailing behind them all due to going over the screen.

that again is just one play, but does show the liability that Vuc is in pick and roll defense.

I will say, it’d be nice to see BD at least trying some different things instead of continuing to just do what clearly isn’t working. I think we can all agree there

 

[Enasic]

Since Billy doesn't know how to make adjustments, I'll just leave them here so maybe if he scours the internet he'll find it

1) Use Vuc in the post. We have an elite post scorer that we basically never use. We also barely use him as a roll man which hinders what little offensive rebounding we have. Notice the difference when Drummond is in and there's no pick and pop option.

2) Iso ball doesn't work. There is value to running some isos now and then given we have one of the best iso players in the league in Demar, but it can't be our entire offense. Teams have adjusted, do something else. The other players need to move. When they win, it's because they've gotten 25+ assists and many guys are involved

3) Stop leaving shooters open. I haven't quite figured out how they are perpetually leaving someone in the corner wide open, but there's clearly some type of scheme that does not work. Maybe someone is over rotating and someone else has to make up for it, change the scheme a little bit so you don't have to worry about that so often. Change a matchup, maybe hedge instead of drop on screens, ice it, do something else.

4) Attack the basket more. We are a very good free throw shooting team (mostly because of Demar, but other guys are high percentage). Similar to point 1, better things happen when we play inside out. Our 3pt shooters aren't really hitting, but maybe if we can get them more wide open looks because the defense collapses they'll hit a couple more.

To your 4th point, is it just me or does Zach miss more layups at the basket than anyone ever should? Anytime he attacks, if it’s not a dunk, It’s so iffy if he could just convert a routine layup. Can’t figure it out considering his athleticism

 

[knoxville7]

To your 4th point, is it just me or does Zach miss more layups at the basket than anyone ever should? Anytime he attacks, if it’s not a dunk, It’s so iffy if he could just convert a routine layup. Can’t figure it out considering his athleticism

It is odd. I think he doesn’t get foul calls and finds himself trying to find contact on layups far too often and ends up missing the layup and not getting the foul call

 

[clonetrooper264]

To your 4th point, is it just me or does Zach miss more layups at the basket than anyone ever should? Anytime he attacks, if it’s not a dunk, It’s so iffy if he could just convert a routine layup. Can’t figure it out considering his athleticism

Maybe I haven't seen as many instances of this, but my inclination is to agree with Knox on this, he's probably looking for a foul and not focusing on actually making the shot. That's a frustrating thing as both a player and a fan. It's easy to say screw the fouls just make the layup, but there's probably some non calls as well that are impacting him and as a player I can see trying to seek out contact to try to make it worth the effort.

 

[clonetrooper264]

There are certainly some unknowns that none of us can know. Such as, is the current scheme due to some personnel liabilities that keep the bulls from trying some of the other ideas you mentioned.

I also wonder if the bulls did that on that play because they don’t ask Demar to do it. we would have to look at how the bulls operate outside of when Demar is on the court and have a bigger sample size than one play.

on that specific play, Vuc comes up to the screen flat footed, which allows for CJ and Valanciunas to get by him off the screen and Ayo is trailing behind them all due to going over the screen.

that again is just one play, but does show the liability that Vuc is in pick and roll defense.

I will say, it’d be nice to see BD at least trying some different things instead of continuing to just do what clearly isn’t working. I think we can all agree there

Of course one play is not a tell all in any direction, but that sort of coverage is akin to what we've been seeing all year against all teams (weak side help rotation) so that's why I wanted to isolate that one.

I know for a fact last year we saw a lot of Vuc in drop coverage. It seems like we're seeing less of that this year for whatever reason. Maybe it's just not having Lonzo, maybe BD is trying to do something different. That's insight we don't really have.

Obviously, Vuc is not a stellar defender, nor is he particularly quick. We've known this the entire time, but on that sort of coverage that puts all his weakness on display time and time again. That's why the first suggestion was to just have him hedge the screen all the way. If you're going to put Vuc all the way out on the perimeter against a guard where he's most likely just gonna get beat off the dribble, just force the drive with the hedge. On the flip side, drop coverage allows more opportunity to hide that slow footedness, that's why I suggested that as well.

Maybe having Demar as the help man in that type of action is just too unconventional no matter who's in his position, but better a layup than a 3 imo. That's just the nature of today's game. If Zach and Demar were switched on that play, I feel like Demar would've made the same rotation as Zach to the same result (open corner 3). Actually the only player I think would not have done exactly that rotation is Caruso. I could see Caruso anticipating the kick out and only doing a show instead of a full rotation and quickly getting back to Murphy to try to run him off the line.

If I had more access to game film perhaps I could break it down more but I don't have those resources available to me. In short, yes Demar is bad, yes Vuc is bad, yes Zach is bad, but you can still have a defense that doesn't hemorrhage 3s every single game just by having them do very simple things like not leaving known shooters open in the corner. That kind of thing you can find at your local park.

 

[clonetrooper264]

I think everyone know s what drop coverage is, but just in case not here's an example from the Bucks and Brook Lopez. Yes Lopez is a much better shot blocker than Vuc, but he's just as slow on the perimeter. Bonus footage of Giannis also in drop coverage

And just to show that this has happened in the past here's a video I had posted in the offseason. Off the initial screen from Terry Taylor (I think that's who that is), Vuc goes into drop coverage while Ayo fights over to recover on Levert. The spacing here is actually really bad for the Pacers which is part of why this sequence looks so great for the Bulls, but the main point is the drop coverage. Also bonus Demar rotating correctly

 

[zack54attack]

Here comes another Wendall Carter Jr. Revenge game..

 

[knoxville7]

Of course one play is not a tell all in any direction, but that sort of coverage is akin to what we've been seeing all year against all teams (weak side help rotation) so that's why I wanted to isolate that one.

I know for a fact last year we saw a lot of Vuc in drop coverage. It seems like we're seeing less of that this year for whatever reason. Maybe it's just not having Lonzo, maybe BD is trying to do something different. That's insight we don't really have.

Obviously, Vuc is not a stellar defender, nor is he particularly quick. We've known this the entire time, but on that sort of coverage that puts all his weakness on display time and time again. That's why the first suggestion was to just have him hedge the screen all the way. If you're going to put Vuc all the way out on the perimeter against a guard where he's most likely just gonna get beat off the dribble, just force the drive with the hedge. On the flip side, drop coverage allows more opportunity to hide that slow footedness, that's why I suggested that as well.

Maybe having Demar as the help man in that type of action is just too unconventional no matter who's in his position, but better a layup than a 3 imo. That's just the nature of today's game. If Zach and Demar were switched on that play, I feel like Demar would've made the same rotation as Zach to the same result (open corner 3). Actually the only player I think would not have done exactly that rotation is Caruso. I could see Caruso anticipating the kick out and only doing a show instead of a full rotation and quickly getting back to Murphy to try to run him off the line.

If I had more access to game film perhaps I could break it down more but I don't have those resources available to me. In short, yes Demar is bad, yes Vuc is bad, yes Zach is bad, but you can still have a defense that doesn't hemorrhage 3s every single game just by having them do very simple things like not leaving known shooters open in the corner. That kind of thing you can find at your local park.

Hard to have any semblance of reliable defense when the 3 players that play the most minutes are all bad. I get what you’re saying about how they should still be able to have a respectable rotation on defense, but at some point it just is what it is unless those 3 are going to get better at it somehow.

I’d like to see them try to ice some of those screens, but again the personnel probably doesn’t allow for it to work right now

 

[clonetrooper264]

Hard to have any semblance of reliable defense when the 3 players that play the most minutes are all bad. I get what you’re saying about how they should still be able to have a respectable rotation on defense, but at some point it just is what it is unless those 3 are going to get better at it somehow.

I’d like to see them try to ice some of those screens, but again the personnel probably doesn’t allow for it to work right now

Icing the screen is also a bit outdated with the prevalence of the pick and pop, but it's something that teams still mix in now and then.

Technically, if the Bulls were to have iced that particular play they would have wanted McCollum to shoot a midrange pull up, something also accomplished in drop defense. In this case, Ayo fights over the screen like he did and tries to force McCollum out of the middle of the floor. Meanwhile Vucevic is down near the free throw line, preventing that split from ever happening. Based on that particular play's spacing that would have McCollum ideally driving towards Jones which is awkward for them.

McCollum can still do that thing where he sort of weaves back towards Valanciunas (basically using him again to screen off Ayo) to his left but the option at that point is either a midrange pull up or swinging the ball to Ingram.

Of course that is all very specific to that play. Ice defense, at least the way Thibs ran it, has a lot more intricacies to it which, sure, you could say the Bulls literally just can't do it because they're too stupid as defenders. But again if the principle is just don't give up wide open 3s, instead make them shoot from midrange (granted the Pels are pretty good at this), even a team of Kyle Korvers could stay on a man in the corner who's a shooter.

I guess the point is that if you know you give up a lot of 3s in the weak side corner, maybe do something that doesn't involve leaving the weak side corner. Even the worst defense in the league could have a scheme that does that.

 

[clonetrooper264]

Here's a decent vid showing icing the screen and no middle defense from the "old days"

Yes the Bulls then had 2 elite defenders in Jimmy and Joakim that made the whole thing work as well as it did and yes the Bulls now don't have that. That's not the point. Look more at guys like Dunleavy, Bellineli, Nate Rob, Augustin, Boozer...none of them are considered good defenders (are our current guys really so much worse than any of them?), but they can at least position themselves properly. Of course there will be times where they are not in the right spot (see the Taj Gibson example), but we're not seeking perfection here, just...competence.

 

[knoxville7]

Here's a decent vid showing icing the screen and no middle defense from the "old days"

Yes the Bulls then had 2 elite defenders in Jimmy and Joakim that made the whole thing work as well as it did and yes the Bulls now don't have that. That's not the point. Look more at guys like Dunleavy, Bellineli, Nate Rob, Augustin, Boozer...none of them are considered good defenders (are our current guys really so much worse than any of them?), but they can at least position themselves properly. Of course there will be times where they are not in the right spot (see the Taj Gibson example), but we're not seeking perfection here, just...competence.

Most of those guys you listed had high basketball IQ’s at least, despite being poor defenders. Boozer, for example, always got picked on for his defense, and rightfully so, but in regards to team defense and rotating, he understood where he needed to be. Same can be said for dunleavy and augustin.

 

[Enasic]

I remember when Rose went down Bulls were still holding down the fort and winning games with Jameson Curry lol. I definitely don’t recall them ever being destroyed by 20 on a regular basis. They were always a tough out even without an MVP

If this Bulls team loses by 10 or less it’s almost a small moral victory. Pretty sad

 

[Enasic]

Most of those guys you listed had high basketball IQ’s at least, despite being poor defenders. Boozer, for example, always got picked on for his defense, and rightfully so, but in regards to team defense and rotating, he understood where he needed to be. Same can be said for dunleavy and augustin.

You’re right but also, Thibs was a legit coach who didn’t accept bullshit and wasn’t afraid to lay into guys or withhold playing time for not doing what was asked. BD’s coaching style seems to be predicated on menacingly chewing gum and watching the game without much coaching going on. I don’t see him animated during the game I find it hard to believe he’s holding guys accountable or laying into them for inexcusable effort. Of course, he might be hesitant to do so because his coaching/strategy sucks and he doesn’t want to further rock the boat knowing he’s part of the problem.