Bulls on an 05/06 like run

[dougthonus]

The Bulls closed out 12-2 in their final 14 games to finish out 05/06 season at 41-41. With 4 games left to play, the Bulls are 9-3 in their past 12 games. If the Bulls go 3-1 in the next 4 games, then they'll finish 41-41 again after closing the season 12-4. Not quite as impressive, but still something nice to build on.

In 06-07, the Bulls followed that ending season by having a 49 win season. I expect the Bulls to catapult forward again next season coming close to the 50 win mark (or achieving it) next season. Ben Wallace and Joe Smith joined us that summer, this summer look for Chris Bosh.

 

[cool007]

dougthonus wrote:

The Bulls closed out 12-2 in their final 14 games to finish out 05/06 season at 41-41. With 4 games left to play, the Bulls are 9-3 in their past 12 games. If the Bulls go 3-1 in the next 4 games, then they'll finish 41-41 again after closing the season 12-4. Not quite as impressive, but still something nice to build on.

In 06-07, the Bulls followed that ending season by having a 49 win season. I expect the Bulls to catapult forward again next season coming close to the 50 win mark (or achieving it) next season. Ben Wallace and Joe Smith joined us that summer, this summer look for Chris Bosh.

I already said that on that prediction thread that this season reminds me a lot about 05-06 season where we were below 50% for the most of the season but finally when we had a chance to make the playoffs, Players gutted it out and we went on a big run (loved NOCIONI that year and BG ofcourse). I think they really took the charge that year.

Nocioni was like Bulls MVP that year.

This year is very very similar.

Let's hope that we give the first round opponent as much trouble as we did that year (against Heat).

 

[dougthonus]

cool007 wrote:

dougthonus wrote:

The Bulls closed out 12-2 in their final 14 games to finish out 05/06 season at 41-41. With 4 games left to play, the Bulls are 9-3 in their past 12 games. If the Bulls go 3-1 in the next 4 games, then they'll finish 41-41 again after closing the season 12-4. Not quite as impressive, but still something nice to build on.

In 06-07, the Bulls followed that ending season by having a 49 win season. I expect the Bulls to catapult forward again next season coming close to the 50 win mark (or achieving it) next season. Ben Wallace and Joe Smith joined us that summer, this summer look for Chris Bosh.

I already said that on that prediction thread that this season reminds me a lot about 05-06 season where we were below 50% for the most of the season but finally when we had a chance to make the playoffs, Players gutted it out and we went on a big run (loved NOCIONI that year and BG ofcourse). I think they really took the charge that year.

Nocioni was like Bulls MVP that year.

This year is very very similar.

Let's hope that we give the first round opponent as much trouble as we did that year (against Heat).

Interesting in that Nocioni got his big pay day that summer, and now Salmons has come in and given us a Nocioni like performance and many Bulls fans are talking extension..

 

[collisrost]

If we get Chris Bosh then your 50 win prediction is quite realistically possible. If we go ahead with the same guys minus Gordon (or if we somehow re-sign him and trade Kirk for capspace or something) then I'm looking for incremental improvement.

It's nice to look back on those good times. There were a lot of parallels between the two teams. A bunch of young guys playing key roles, inconsistent play early, then a nice spurt at the end. Oh, and ironically Tim Thomas was acquired via trade in both cases.

The key thing that the 05/06 team had was good coaching by Skiles, whereas the key this year has been the outstanding play of a rookie pointguard who many expected to struggle a bit. If we get decent coaching next year as well, look out!

 

[dougthonus]

collisrost wrote:

If we get Bhris Bosh then your 5o0 win prediction is quite realistically possible. If we go ahead with the same guys minus Gordon (or if we somehow re-sign him and trade Kirk for capspace or something) then I'm looking for incremental improvement.

It's nice to look back on those good times. There were a lot of parallels between the two teams. A bunch of young guys playing key roles, inconsistent play early, then a nice spurt at the end. Oh, and ironically Tim Thomas was acquired via trade in both cases.

The key thing that the 05/06 team had was good coaching by Skiles, whereas the key this year has been the outstanding play of a rookie pointguard who many expected to struggle a bit. If we get decent coaching next year as well, look out!

I think we'll win at least 45 games next year even without Bosh and even if Gordon leaves. Though that's assuming no major injuries and that Deng comes back healthy.

 

[cool007]

dougthonus wrote:

collisrost wrote:

If we get Bhris Bosh then your 5o0 win prediction is quite realistically possible. If we go ahead with the same guys minus Gordon (or if we somehow re-sign him and trade Kirk for capspace or something) then I'm looking for incremental improvement.

It's nice to look back on those good times. There were a lot of parallels between the two teams. A bunch of young guys playing key roles, inconsistent play early, then a nice spurt at the end. Oh, and ironically Tim Thomas was acquired via trade in both cases.

The key thing that the 05/06 team had was good coaching by Skiles, whereas the key this year has been the outstanding play of a rookie pointguard who many expected to struggle a bit. If we get decent coaching next year as well, look out!

I think we'll win at least 45 games next year even without Bosh and even if Gordon leaves. Though that's assuming no major injuries and that Deng comes back healthy.

I don't see that. I am losing hope on Deng and the only way we win 45 is if Rose takes that big step forward - sorta how LeBron/Wade did in their sophmore year in the NBA.

 

[collisrost]

With Vinnie as coach? OK well if he can do that then I have no issues with him at all. I'm fine with 45 wins while developing a bunch of youngsters.

 

[collisrost]

With Vinnie as coach? OK well if he can do that then I have no issues with him at all. I'm fine with 45 wins while developing a bunch of youngsters. Sign me up!

 

[dougthonus]

collisrost wrote:

With Vinnie as coach? OK well if he can do that then I have no issues with him at all. I'm fine with 45 wins while developing a bunch of youngsters. Sign me up!

If we finish this season 3-1 to go 41-41 then the Bulls will have played at a 50 win pace post all star break. Sure, Ben Gordon leaving would hurt some, but getting Deng back and watching Rose/Tyrus/Noah improve and getting some fresh bodies in the draft who will upgrade our deep bench options seems like it would keep us near that level.

Granted, if we have a major injury or some other issue then this may not happen, but I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect 45 wins. We might hit 41 wins this year after an atrocious start marred by injuries and poor roster fit.

 

[sephcast]

Sure, these wins and this run is great, but I don't feel that the success is as sustainable as the 05/06 success. To make the jump to 50-ish wins again, we've got to improve a huge amount of things. Our half-court offense is putrid, our defense is spotty, and VDN makes tons of coaching mistakes. At least in 05-06, we had something to hang our hat on, rock solid defense.

 

[collisrost]

Are you saying that Vinny isn't as bad as he's painted to be or are the players simply overachieving in spite of him? I agree that 45 wins is reasonable considering our talent level, I'm just not sure we should be so hard on Vinny if he's doing that good of a job.

I've defended Vinny several times before, much like you defend Noah. I think some people look at how he was in the beginning of the season and ignore the fact that he's actually been decent of late and learned his way in the league. Sure he still screws up, he's a rookie. I still don't think he's a particularly good coach, but if he is getting the guys to a .500 record we should be satisfied. And if he ghets to 45 next year I'm cool with that. After that Reinsdorf will be willing to go out and get the best coach he can and we'll be on our way.

 

[collisrost]

Edit Double post

 

[dougthonus]

collisrost wrote:

Are you saying that Vinny isn't as bad as he's painted to be or are the players simply overachieving in spite of him? I agree that 45 wins is reasonable, I'm just not sure we should be so hard on Vinny if he's doing that good of a job.

I've defended Vinny several times before, much like you defend Noah. I think some people look at how he was in the beginning of the season and ignore the fact that he's actually been decent of late and learned his way in the league. Sure he still screws up, he's a rookie. I still don't think he's a particularly good coach, but if he is getting the guys to a .500 record we should be satisfied. And if he ghets to 45 next year I'm cool with that. After that Reinsdorf will be willing to go out and get the best coach he can and we'll be on our way.

I think if healthy, this team has 50+ win talent. I don't think VDN has helped us all that much, but I don't know all of the dynamics of the situation. The situations coaches have the most control are the things we're worst at.

 

[chi_hawks_23]

That was a fun 2 year run in 06 and 07'. Then this team completely imploded. Lets hope we can land Bosh and take a step forward (ECF), instead of 47 steps backwards (First pick in the nba draft).

 

[gustavsteim]

I agree with sephcast that the Bulls half court offense and their defense are very weak. I blame Vinny for the simplistic offensive sets. Defense has always struck me as a matter of personal commitment and energy on behalf of the players, and they just haven't brought it under VDN.

The Bulls thrive in transition, which, even though they run drills on transition offense, it's the time players really let their instinct and talent take over. So I think in that sense they're succeeding despite Vinny.

It makes guessing about next year very difficult: I don't expect huge strides from Vinny in his offensive philosophy, but I do expect big strides from Rose and Noah.

 

[sephcast]

I, on the otherhand, do expect decently large strides from VDN in his offensive philosophy. According to news reports, Vinny had to strip down the playbook due to the players not "getting it". However, this training camp, the players will have the basics down, Vinny should be a better teacher with some experience, and players will know their roles better.

Also, when talking about record improvement, I fully expect the Bulls to win 5 more games solely based on Rose getting 2-3 more calls per game.

 

[gustavsteim]

sephcast wrote:

I, on the otherhand, do expect decently large strides from VDN in his offensive philosophy. According to news reports, Vinny had to strip down the playbook due to the players not "getting it". However, this training camp, the players will have the basics down, Vinny should be a better teacher with some experience, and players will know their roles better.

Also, when talking about record improvement, I fully expect the Bulls to win 5 more games solely based on Rose getting 2-3 more calls per game.

Good point, forgot about Vinny saying that early on. Hopefully that's true and he'll be able to lean on his all-star assistants a bit more too. I don't think there's any chance at this point that he won't last through at least all of next season.

I don't have any data to back this up, but I expect ROY winners get more calls their sophomore season.

 

[gustavsteim]

Also, it wouldn't be right to reminisce about 05/06 without a big shout out to the greatest Luke in Bulls history: Luke Schenscher. Just the other day me and a friend were scouring the internet for that photo from one of his college games where a fan dressed up as Ronald McDonald holding a sign reading "Luke, I am your father."

I would pay money for that photo.

 

[Gene]

It definitely is reminiscent of that season. Maybe we will also give this years NBA champions a run for their money in the first round?

I just hope we are able to move the right players in the off-season, re-sign the right players, and acquire the right players. I think we will find out who the "right" players are in this final stretch of the season and playoffs.

 

[Rerisen]

dougthonus wrote:

The Bulls closed out 12-2 in their final 14 games to finish out 05/06 season at 41-41. With 4 games left to play, the Bulls are 9-3 in their past 12 games. If the Bulls go 3-1 in the next 4 games, then they'll finish 41-41 again after closing the season 12-4. Not quite as impressive, but still something nice to build on.

And that closeout in 05/06 greatly impacted Paxson's view of the team and motivation to 'keep the core together' instead of making... well who knows what level of changes.

I wonder how a similar run to finish this season alters Paxson's view of this current team? Does it strengthen his resolve to keep players like Gordon, or Hinrich, or to not trade youngsters like Noah or Tyrus? Or has he learned from 05/06 that a small stretch of games no matter how well played, is really just another small stretch of games, no more important than any other?

The playoffs are likely to tell us far more even in 4 or 5 games than this late season run which has been skewed by a not too difficult schedule and lots of home games.