Hinrich looks for positives

When training camp began, the story lines involving Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich mentioned how he felt better rested after taking leave from Team USA this summer, how he packed on a few pounds of muscle, how he became a more vocal leader, and how he avoided paparazzi attention by scheduling his July 7 wedding on the same day as the Tony Parker-Eva Longoria nuptials.

That last item is a joke, but fully accurate. Go ahead and try to find a Hinrich wedding photo in the tabloids.

Then the NBA regular season began and the positive angles ended.

None of the Bulls have played well during their 1-5 start, but Hinrich is near the bottom of the pile, averaging 9.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and shooting 31.8 percent.

All of those numbers would be career lows, but there obviously is plenty of time -- 76 games to be exact -- to step on the gas.

"Yeah, I'm disappointed," he said. "But at the same time, I'm very confident it's going to turn around for our team and myself. Hopefully by the end of the season, we'll be laughing about this."

The Bulls didn't practice Wednesday before flying to Phoenix for the start of the annual circus road trip. This year's journey features four games out west, then games in New York and Toronto after Thanksgiving.

Following the Bulls' most recent game, an embarrassing 30-point home loss to the Raptors, coach Scott Skiles mentioned that the team's point-guard play has not been good. He benched Hinrich midway through the first quarter in favor of Chris Duhon, though the change didn't help.

Now that Hinrich is beginning his fifth NBA season, it's worth wondering if his point-guard skills will improve. Hinrich's career high of 6.8 assists came during his rookie season.

"I've said it many times, Kirk is an in-between guard anyway," Skiles said. "He's not the prototypical point guard. But we always look at that as a strength for him.

"When he's on, he's playing great defense. He's making his shots. He's pushing the ball up. He's passing it to Lu (Deng) and Ben (Gordon) and they're making their moves, and he's doing a good enough job running the team and all that. I think missing shots has had an effect on him just as it's had an effect on all our guys."

People often assume that Hinrich is a natural point guard, but during four years at Kansas he played the point full time only as a sophomore. During his junior and senior years, when the Jayhawks made visits to the Final Four, Aaron Miles was the point guard while Hinrich was a distant second on the team in assists.

Hinrich isn't sure if he even wants to be in control of the offense, since the Bulls have a number of players who can handle the ball.

"I don't want to be a point guard who pounds the ball and tries to control the whole game," Hinrich said. "We've got guys who kind of like to freelance a lot and do their own thing. So it's kind of a fine line you have to walk, knowing when to control a game and when to let our guys make plays."

There are a couple of strong examples of combo guards who slowly grew into a point-guard role. Phoenix's Steve Nash, whom Hinrich will face tonight, averaged 7.3 assists in his fifth season as a pro and eventually increased that to 11.6. Detroit's Chauncey Billups averaged 5.5 assists in his fifth season, then peaked a few years later at 8.6.

Gordon and Deng both are good spot-up shooters, while power forward Tyrus Thomas is one of the league's most athletic players. Obviously, getting the ball to the right players at the right time can make a huge difference in team success.

"I feel like I've come a long way in that regard," Hinrich said. "But at the same time, I'm still trying to learn every day and still trying to improve.

"I just try to make smart plays. But it's a fine line; I want to make smart plays, but I want to also play off my instincts. Because I feel like I'm an instinctive player and I feel like I need to do that to be myself as a player."

Even though Hinrich is slumping early this season, he's still the Bulls' best individual defender and doesn't figure to leave the starting lineup if Skiles makes changes tonight as expected.

"I feel like he's in that boat of he's just one breakout game from putting it all behind him and being fine again," Skiles said. "We just hope those games start happening sooner than later."

Tonight's tipoff

Bulls vs. Phoenix Suns at the U.S. Airways Center, 9:30 p.m.

TV: TNT

Radio: WMVP 1000-AM

Update: Last season, the Bulls snapped an eight-game losing streak in Phoenix with a 116-103 win as the Suns played without point guard Steve Nash. Suns shooting guard Raja Bell has missed the last two games with a sprained ankle and is questionable for tonight. Bulls guard Ben Gordon averaged 34 points in the two games against the Suns last year.

Player to watch: Nash (20.6 ppg) produced back-to-back 30-point games for the first time in his career last week against Atlanta and Miami.

Next: Los Angeles Clippers at the Staples Center, 9:30 p.m. Saturday

-- Mike McGraw