What is Wrong With the Bulls??

There has been a significant amount of criticism thrown Derrick Rose’s way in this playoffs. Rose has defined “volume shooter.” And beyond occasional moments of offensive brilliance from Kyle Korver and Luol Deng, Rose has had no help offensively. The issue with Rose, however, is not the number of shots he has taken, but rather the quality of the shots.

Derrick Rose is Lebron James in a smaller package. The freak athleticism, the unnatural ability to finish at the rim in spite of contact. But Rose has the same offensive limitations as Lebron. He isn’t a great three point shooter. Like Lebron, he can become a volume three point shooter. The Hawks have goaded Rose into taking a total of 25 three through four games (he has made 8). I get it. The three is an important part of Rose’s arsenal. The threat of the three forces defenders to go over screens rather than under them. But when you are shooting 33% from three, you should not be taking over 6 of them per game.

Good things happen when Rose attacks the basket. He draws absurd amounts of help meaning that the Bulls bigs have opportunities for easy baskets off the dish or on weakside putbacks. Ultimately, the reason the Bulls and Hawks are tied at 2 right now is that Boozer and Kyle Korver are struggling. They are the two most important offensive players other than Rose on the roster because they are the only other players the Bulls can run offense through. Boozer was effective in Game 3. His effectiveness, however, was 12-18 feet from the basket. Boozer needs to be able to score on the block. Additionally, the only player besides Rose that the Bulls love to run offense through is Korver. The Bulls run Korver off screens constantly for open jump shots or for him to find a big slipping the screen for an easy basket at the rim. Korver’s problems against Atlanta are two fold: (1) he is just 9-30 this series. Korver needs to be a threat offensively for him to have any value whatsoever. (2) The Bulls cannot hide him defensively. Korver cannot guard Jamal Crawford or Joe Johnson. Jeff Teague has been extremely effective against Korver as well. The Bulls like to use Korver late in close games but he has to be able to score to be a net positive for the Bulls under that scenario (note that they will be able to hide Korver against Miami. Korver can “guard” Mike Bibby just fine).

At the end of the day, if Rose attacks the basket tonight, the Chicago home crowd will lift the Bulls to a Game 5 win and we will all feel a lot better about the Bulls chances of moving on to the Conference Finals.