So How Bout That Luol Deng!?!?!?

[mlewinth]

In all of our arguing about wheather or not Ben Gordon would of helped us the last 2 games, we lost sight of one very pleasent surprise this season....Luol Deng! Deng so far this season has been awesome on the court. Cutting like he used to, hitting jumpers, playing quality defense. I am definantly liking what I am seeing so far. I figured that Dengs shot would be off starting the season and it was in preseason. So far this season however, he is averaging 15+ pts on 50% shooting. Keep in mind, he played only 20 min against Boston and took only 8 shots. Beyond that he had 17 pts on 61% shooting vs San Antonio and 26 pts on 53% shooting against Miami. He has also been bitchin on the glass, avg 8.5 rebs in those 2 games.

Let me as you all this......is Luol Deng back!?

 

[houheffna]

Not ready to go there just yet, but that is one of the keys to the Bulls being successful this year...and letting BG go...

 

[mlewinth]

houheffna wrote:

Not ready to go there just yet, but that is one of the keys to the Bulls being successful this year...and letting BG go...

Did you need to go there!?!?!?!

 

[pinkizdead]

what i saw of his baskets against miami was that he scored a lot of points by rebounding and putting it back in. he shot quite a few open jumpers. he didnt really get too many off plays called for him etc. He was scoring a lot of hustle points and cuts to the basket.

 

[Diddy1122]

houheffna wrote:

Not ready to go there just yet, but that is one of the keys to the Bulls being successful this year...and letting BG go...

God here we go again. I really want you to just come out and admit that you never liked BG. Just say it already!

 

[Diddy1122]

Deng has impressed me thus far. He is hustling his butt off on every possession & the added weight has helped him bang around in the post to get more offensive boards & put backs. His shot looks to be back & he's been our best player thru 3 games. Now we just need Rose to get healthy, & Salmons to not be the mirage player that many of us believed him to be starting this season. 28% from the field, god that's awful. I wonder how our former SG is doing.... Hou help me out on this one.

 

[houheffna]

Wait, hold up, it was a tactical decision!

Give me a break!

All I said was they felt that they had the scoring on the team so that they could let their top scorer walk away. Deng was one of those components. That was all I said. I am over it, you all are not. That is what they were thinking...so far its working, but its too early to call.

God here we go again. I really want you to just come out and admit that you never liked BG. Just say it already!

Go to your room with that b.s. man...I disliked Rodman, Isiah, John Starks, Reggie Miller...dude is not on that list...

 

[??? ??????]

Luol Deng really hasn't played great offensively. He's still only averaging 15.7 points on a mere 52.1 TS% (lower than his 07-08 efficiency) through three games.

Even yesterday, he scored 26 points per 23 possessions I believe. 26 points is good, but he took a lot of shots to get it. Although it's hard to knock Deng, he had one game on a terrible efficiency (4 points), one on a pretty good efficiency (26 points), and one on an elite efficiency (17 points). So if he has 1 bad game for ever 2 good games he has, I guess that will make him valuable to the team offensively, even if his season stats suck (like they do now).

He definitely is moving around better, and his jumpshot looks better. But that's the flaw of Luol Deng as a player, is that he doesn't have as much upside as say Ben Gordon, to score a ton of points on a ridiculous efficiency. I think that is part of the problem with having both Rose/Deng on the same team, as you have two players who don't extend the game beyond the three point line, when you want generally all three perimeter players to be able to do that, and at worse, 2 out of 3.

I think it must be said that Luol Deng has been outstanding defensively this year. Not only his man defense, but his help defense has been great, and is a big reason for our defense looking so good in 2 out of the 3 games so far this year. He is coming in with the help defense, stopping dribble drives. Last year, the dribble drive would be continued into the bigs, and our bigs would be slow to react or would foul. Deng is stopping the dribble drive before it even gets to our bigs, which has been huge.

 

[??? ??????]

houheffna wrote:

Wait, hold up, it was a tactical decision!

Give me a break!

All I said was they felt that they had the scoring on the team so that they could let their top scorer walk away. Deng was one of those components. That was all I said. I am over it, you all are not. That is what they were thinking...so far its working, but its too early to call.

God here we go again. I really want you to just come out and admit that you never liked BG. Just say it already!

Go to your room with that b.s. man...I disliked Rodman, Isiah, John Starks, Reggie Miller...dude is not on that list...

What's working? The Bulls offense? The Bulls offense is the third worst in the league through three games. The Bucks, who are coached by the offensively inept Scott Skiles, and the Charlotte Bobcats, who may be one of the worst teams in NBA history, have worse offenses, and the Bucks aren't far behind us.

 

[houheffna]

Luol Deng is working...that was the whole inquiry. The question was about Luol Deng. I just said that Luol is so far doing what the front office expected him to do when healthy. Though it is too early to hang your hat on that...all the other stuff you are talking about...including calling Skiles inept offensively (???????) is not answering the question at all.

 

[TheStig]

Now that he looks good defensively and is getting some stats we NEED TO TRADE HIM FOR AN EXPIRING!!!!!!!!!!! Deng for an expiring 2/3 with Salmons opting out will mean we can sign two max contracts.

 

[Hendu0520]

To me Luol is looking good, his defense and rebounding are obviously improved.

However, he still hasn't put range on his shot and still can't go one on one unless its Quentin Richardson and even then it was a struggle unless he was posting up. If VDN runs that stupid play where DRose gives the ball to Deng on the wing and everyone clears out with Rose in the far corner, furthest from the ball I will puke!

Deng is doing fine, I just wish the Bulls brass would stop trying to make him Kobe Bryant and realize he is a "Junkyard Dog" type player and that ok. It seems to me like they are trying to justify his contract. We need to keep the ball in Rose's hand and let Deng concentrate on shooting, rebounding and defense.

So far so good, but I am still worried he will get injured.

 

[Hendu0520]

TheStig wrote:

Now that he looks good defensively and is getting some stats we NEED TO TRADE HIM FOR AN EXPIRING!!!!!!!!!!! Deng for an expiring 2/3 with Salmons opting out will mean we can sign two max contracts.

I love that idea Stig, that would be a dream come true.

 

[RC_Skinny22]

??? ?????? wrote:

houheffna wrote:

Wait, hold up, it was a tactical decision!

Give me a break!

All I said was they felt that they had the scoring on the team so that they could let their top scorer walk away. Deng was one of those components. That was all I said. I am over it, you all are not. That is what they were thinking...so far its working, but its too early to call.

God here we go again. I really want you to just come out and admit that you never liked BG. Just say it already!

Go to your room with that b.s. man...I disliked Rodman, Isiah, John Starks, Reggie Miller...dude is not on that list...

What's working? The Bulls offense? The Bulls offense is the third worst in the league through three games. The Bucks, who are coached by the offensively inept Scott Skiles, and the Charlotte Bobcats, who may be one of the worst teams in NBA history, have worse offenses, and the Bucks aren't far behind us.

Don´t forget whom we played against. We played against two contenders and the Heat are also settled higher than the Bulls. I´m fine with going 1-2 out of these three games.

I mean out of the 30 teams the Bulls should be about the 12th best team in the league. We only played against teams better than us which are not as many as which are worse. So let´s wait a little!

Tonight we´re playing against the Bucks. This is a game the Bulls have to win.

 

[fola]

Deng has been pretty good. Although i'm still disappointed how incremental some of his improvements have been. The fact that he still can't (and probably never will learn to) really dribble bothers me to no end, not to speak of the whole 3pt situation. As someone rightfully said, he's a 'junkyard' player. Feeding off of cuts, put backs, and open shots. A 3rd option on a contending team (if not worse) that's making 2nd option money. All that said, he looks to be more accurate with his moving jump shots (fading to the sides or back) which is good to see. Still very early in the season but so far so good.

 

[jsain360]

pinkizdead wrote:

what i saw of his baskets against miami was that he scored a lot of points by rebounding and putting it back in. he shot quite a few open jumpers. he didnt really get too many off plays called for him etc. He was scoring a lot of hustle points and cuts to the basket.

Shawon Marion has gone to multiple All-Star games based off that formula

 

[pinkizdead]

i have no problems with him doing it. when deng gets offensive rebounds, this team loox really good. It doesn't matter that our shots aren't falling, we have guys there to help us get the ball back. I love deng playing near the basket. he has the skills set that we want in a pf. Sadly his body might not be able to handle the position.

 

[ramblingrose33]

Deng has definitely been good so far. I'd like to see him get more vocal on the court though.

 

[clonetrooper264]

houheffna wrote:

Not ready to go there just yet, but that is one of the keys to the Bulls being successful this year...and letting BG go...

You fool what have you done?!? JK you're not a fool, but seriously? Bringing up BG in a Luol Deng thread? I must say, if you're attacked, you started it. How so? You've implied that letting BG go makes the team better, which most of us believe is not the case. You can believe what you want, I won't hold that against you, but I digress...

Luol Deng has been pretty good these first few games. Hopefully he can keep it up for the whole season and stay healthy while doing so. If he does, we're in good shape if Salmons also stops sucking it up on offense. Keep it up Luol!

 

[houheffna]

I have implied that this is how the Bulls front office is thinking...that is all that matters. I have heard many say that the Bulls, if certain players play as they should, will be fine...I agree with that. And have said it over and over again. They felt that if they let their leading scorer go, others can step up. So far, so good with Luol Deng, though I have stated its too early.

And why don't anybody notice how proBG fans like to bring him up when ever they want to with no repercussions? Why is that? It happens all the time...nobody says anything, except a few who are indifferent or think the team is better off without BG, its all relative.