Hinrich family doubly blessed with twins

Kirk Hinrich has much more going on than adjusting to a few new teammates.

His wife, Jill, gave birth to twins - a boy and a girl on Sept. 12 - so these are hectic times in the Hinrich household. They now have four kids, three girls and a boy.

"I'm really enjoying it," Hinrich said. "I feel truly blessed to have twins. To have one is an amazing feeling, but to have two at the same time is great. I'm on top of the world right now, feel like I can't lose."

As a dad, the 33-year-old Hinrich should be in his prime. As an NBA guard, he's getting up there in years. On Thursday, Hinrich said he's feeling healthy and hopes retirement is in the distant future.

"I think my main thing (this season) is I want to be able to work my minutes to the point where I'm not conserving, where I can go all out in the time I'm out there," he said. "I think that's best for me and the team."

Thibs assesses practice:

Media members are not allowed to watch Bulls practices, but coach Tom Thibodeau did provide an assessment of how some guys played this week.

"Pau (Gasol) was very good today, offensively," Thibodeau said. "Jimmy (Butler) was very, very, very good, so that was encouraging. Aaron Brooks has played well, and Kirk (Hinrich) has played well. They've played well together.

"Taj (Gibson) came to life today, which was a good sign. We know how important Taj is going to be to our team. He played very well on both sides of the ball. And today was the first day he played with the starters, too, so I think that was good for him.''

Thibodeau said he subbed Gibson for both Joakim Noah and Gasol at times during Thursday's practice.

"I'm not saying he was playing poorly (on the first two days of camp), but it wasn't that he was standing out. He stood out today. You knew he came in and had a great mindset today."

Butler light and lean:

After mentioning that Jimmy Butler did well in practice, Tom Thibodeau talked about a change Butler made since last season.

"The one thing is he's gotten lighter, and I think that's important. Light and lean for him is better," Thibodeau said. "The thing that gets lost is he missed a lot in training camp last year (with an injury), and so I never felt that he got into a rhythm because of that. He looks good. He's putting the extra work in. Hopefully, he'll be good."

Hits keep coming:

When the preseason games start next week, everyone will be waiting to see if Derrick Rose shoots the ball better than he did in Spain at the FIBA World Cup. Tom Thibodeau explained why it might take time.

"I'm sure you guys watched him shoot last year before games, and he's going to make a lot of shots," Thibodeau said. "You have to remember now, you're talking about world class athletes, and it's physical. When you're away from that for a long time, that doesn't come back over night. So he's getting used to being hit again."