Bulls' bench comes up big again
One of the subplots to the upcoming Bulls season was on display at the United Center on Tuesday.
Is the Bulls' big-man depth a good problem to have or simply a problem?
During a 103-94 preseason win over the Indiana Pacers, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg stuck with his trend of playing Spanish national team teammates Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic together, which means Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson appear ticketed for reserve roles.
"I think it's going to be fine," Gibson said. "I've been playing with Jo for a couple years, especially when we played late fourth quarter for Thibs (former coach Tom Thibodeau), so I'm no stranger to that."
It's tough to tell how this is going to work out in the long run. The Bulls were pretty bad with the starters on the floor in the first quarter, falling behind 34-24.
The subs came in and quickly turned the game around. Everyone on the second team looked good, especially guard Aaron Brooks, who scored a team-high 22 points. It would be easy to say the Bulls are starting the wrong guys, but with this roster, the second string should dominate the opposition on most nights.
Eventually, the Bulls will have Derrick Rose back in the starting lineup, instead of a Kirk Hinrich and E'Twaun Moore rotation. There's only one preseason game left, on Friday against Dallas in Lincoln, Neb., so Hoiberg may continue to experiment once the games start counting.
"That first stretch, we dug ourselves a hole (in the first quarter)," Hoiberg said. "Was some of that due to the back-to-back? Maybe. Our bench, I thought, turned it around for us. They got the momentum going on our side and then our starters, I thought, did a good job once they got back in there.
"Tony (Snell) was really good. We started him on (Indiana's) George Hill, the point guard. I thought that got him locked in. Kirk gets us into an offense and a defense. He's really good at that. I thought we were out there battling, maybe our best effort of the preseason."
Hoiberg finished the game with the starting lineup on the floor, after giving Gibson an extended run. After having surgery on his left ankle in June, Gibson has been brought along slowly in preseason. This was his third outing and he played 20 minutes, finishing with 9 points and 5 rebounds.
After the game, Gibson said he's feeling no discomfort in the ankle, he just needs to get back into game shape.
"Energy and effort is always going to succeed in the NBA," Gibson said. "I'm just being patient. I'm not rushing to the ball. I can play off the ball well. In this offense, you have to learn to play off the ball, read coverages, read what the opposite big is doing. We've got a lot of different bigs who can do a lot of different things."
A casualty of the regular season-style rotation was rookie forward Bobby Portis, who didn't play at all despite averaging 12.2 points and a team-best 10.0 rebounds in preseason.
"That's just the way we decided to go," Hoiberg said.
The Bulls finished with six players in double figures. Mirotic added 15 points, Moore had 13 and Jimmy Butler 12. The Bulls hit 12 of 26 shots from 3-point range, which helped make the offense look good.
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