Nocioni's success creates another dilemma for Bulls

When something positive finally happens for the Bulls this season, it figures that it ends up creating more issues.

The Bulls are nearly a quarter of the way through the NBA season, and Andres Nocioni has been their best player by a wide margin.

He's averaging 15.6 points while playing far fewer minutes than Ben Gordon, Luol Deng or Kirk Hinrich and was the leading scorer in three of four games last week.

Nocioni can get to the basket and finish better than any of his teammates and hasn't yet heated up from 3-point range. Perhaps most importantly, he hasn't let a new five-year, $38-million contract mess with his head.

"He's just one of those rock-solid guys," coach Scott Skiles said Saturday. "What you see in the game, you're going to see the same thing Monday when we practice. He's exactly the same all the time and so he's easy to coach and he's one of those players that guys on other teams don't like to play against and that's a nice guy to have."

Now, the Bulls face a dilemma that was discussed last summer when the Argentinean forward was a restricted free agent: The Bulls need to keep Nocioni on the floor, but they'll never win big with a 6-foot-7 power forward, especially when the center is 6-8.

Playing Nocioni more at small forward makes no sense because Deng has been the team's second-best player. If not for a few no-show games early in the season, Deng would be averaging 20 points and shooting close to 50 percent.

There will be times when a small lineup can pay off for the Bulls. It did in Thursday's win at Detroit because Pistons big men Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess struggle to keep up with quicker players.

But there will be more nights like Saturday when the Bulls were scrambling to catch up against the Celtics. Boston scored at will in the fourth quarter simply by isolating the 6-11 Kevin Garnett against Wallace.

Skiles appears to have two choices: If the Bulls play Deng and Nocioni at the two forward spots, Wallace is going to have to sit more often than not in favor of Joakim Noah, Joe Smith or forgotten man Tyrus Thomas.

Or the Bulls need to get serious about playing Deng at shooting guard more often.

Technically, that just means Deng guarding opponents' shooting guards. Offensively, things wouldn't need to change, because Nocioni's repertoire of jumpers and cuts to the basket fits the two-guard role. But he'll have more success defensively guarding bigger players.

If the Bulls give it a try, the toughest question will be which guard to play with this combination. The choices are cold-shooters Gordon (.373 field-goal percentage) and Hinrich (.350) or the better playmaker Chris Duhon, who came back to Earth a little with a 1-point, 2-assist performance against Boston. In the previous three games, Duhon averaged 12 points and 5.3 assists.

With Gordon in a brutal shooting slump, maybe it's time to start Hinrich or Duhon with Deng, Nocioni, Smith and Wallace, then see if Gordon can find his touch by returning to the instant-offense-off-the-bench role.

This would also create more opportunities to get Thomas back on the floor and try to rediscover the formula that caused the Bulls to go 25-5 last season in games when Thomas played at least 15 minutes.

It doesn't say much for the Bulls' future that they used the No. 2 pick in the 2006 draft on Thomas and Viktor Khryapa and neither player can get on the court for a 6-12 team.

mmcgraw@dailyherald

Associated Press

Andres Nocioni shoots over Dallas' Brandon Bass during his 30-point performance against the Mavericks last week. Nocioni has been the Bulls' most consistent player this season with a 15.6-point average and was the leading scorer in three of the Bulls' last four games.

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