Essentials
- Teams: Detroit Pistons (2-4) at Chicago Bulls (5-2)
- Date: November 10
- Time: 8:00 p.m.
- Television: FSD
Get in the Game
After a losing to the Utah Jazz last night, the Detroit Pistons will try to regroup and take on a familiar opponent that has changed its makeup a bit.
Detroit and Chicago see each other fairly frequently every year by virtue of sharing a division, but the Pistons haven’t seen this version of the Bulls.
Since the arrival of head coach Tom Thibodeau in Chicago (2010 offseason), the Bulls have had the most ferocious and stifling defense in the league. One could argue that no team has displayed a greater defensive attention to detail than the Bulls during Thinodeau’s reign.
And yet, it looks as though all of it is gone.
The pieces are still there, but the nasty side of these Bulls appears to have fled the premises. Chicago rates as a middle-of-the-pack defense so far this season. When looking at them play, the sense of urgency simply isn’t there when compared to previous campaigns.
Keep in mind, Kirk Hinrich, Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson are core pieces that have helped Chicago suffocate opponents, but they haven’t exactly done that this season. Players are getting open looks in basic pick-and-rolls sets, and jump-shooting big men are barely being covered in the pick-and-pop.
As a result, the opposition is getting clean looks at the basket. What’s more, big men with range can get all the way from the elbows to the basket without the typical resistance the Bulls have shown prior to the 2014-15 campaign.
Thus, Chicago is in the league’s bottom-half defensive clubs when it comes to protecting the paint, per Team Rankings. In addition, because the Bulls haven’t kept people out of the basket area, teams have simply feasted on the glass.
Indeed, Thibodeau’s crew is dead last in opponent offensive rebounding this season, which seems preposterous given the edge this team usually plays with on defense and on the boards.
So what ailment has led to the demise of a once great defense?
It’s called offense.
Chicago has loosened up things a bit and now boasts a top-four offense. Interestingly enough, the Bulls are still playing at the exact same pace as in previous seasons, but they’re far quicker on offense, if that makes sense.
The decisions are done faster, which allows players to quickly get into whatever set they want. For instance, if they want to run a post-up for Butler, they’ll run him through a screen and drop the ball in his lap.
The same is true for Pau Gasol, who gets a healthy dose of post-ups and pick-and-pops. This is the best scoring unit Chicago has had since Thibs’ second season coaching the team (2011-12 truncated campaign). That year, the Bulls had Derrick Rose for 39 of the 66 regular-season games.
It appears as though Thibodeau has made the decision to step away from being a one-sided team solely focused on defense, an observation that starting center Joakim Noah made as well.
“We’re scoring in a lot of different ways,” Noah said, per ESPN Chicago’s Nick Friedell. “We were just talking about that with Taj . I remember when the score was like, 81-76 just to get a basket. just scoring a hundred every night so far. We just got to keep building, keep getting better; we feel like we can still get better, too.”
It’s probably safe to say Thibodeau is looking for a bit more balance, where he can have the perfect blend of offense and defense.
He’s a step behind defensively, but the coaching staff should solve this issue fairly shortly given that it’s been part of the team’s identity for a couple of years.
Until that happens, the Pistons should get opportunities to put points on the board, which is kind of a big deal considering they have not evolved to the point where they can allow their defense to carry them.
It will be interesting to see if Josh Smith falls in love with the open elbow looks Chicago gives him, or whether he’s forceful and attacks the paint. That might very well decide the contest.
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