At the end of each day, I am just going to put a recap thread up where you can find all of the day’s posts to make it a bit easier.
Here is what we looked at for the upcoming Bulls-Pacers series:
Check in tomorrow when we are going to be finishing off the Eastern Conference, looking at both the Celtics-Knicks series and the Heat-Sixers series.
For the purposes of this post, this is going to be the one player from each team that you may not think of that can play a big part in the series and help win it for their team.
Chicago Bulls – Luol Deng
Why Is He Important?
Luol Deng is probably the Bulls’ third best option on the offensive end, but if Chicago is able to get him going, their offense is really tough to stop. This is because you now have Rose penetrating to the hole, Boozer on the block, and Deng spotting up/cutting without the basketball. Also, when Deng is hitting his jumpers, he makes it much harder for the defense to help on Rose’s drives or double on Boozer’s post moves.
How Can The Bulls Get The Most Out Of Him?
By using him correctly. This means keeping him away from Isolation opportunities. Deng gets isolated in just about 20% of his possessions, and in my opinion that is just way too much, considering how ineffective he is. Deng is in the bottom quarter of the league in terms of PPP and he is shooting just 34%. This is due in large part to his slow dribble-drives to the rim:
Here, Deng gets McRoberts switched on him, yet he is able to get by him and get a clean look at the rim. Deng’s drive is slowed in large part due to his high dribble, and you can really see how it hampers him in this clip.
Chicago Bulls – The Numbers*
Chicago Bulls – Strengths
Pick And Roll Defense
The Chicago Bulls are one of the best teams in the league when it comes to stopping the pick and roll, both the ball handler coming off of screens and the roll man. According to Synergy, the Bulls are top 5 in both pick and roll defensive categories. What it all comes down to is the Bulls ability to “swarm” the basketball and force misses/turnovers (the following was pulled from my Bulls’ PNR defense post over at SBNation):
Here, you have Jerryd Bayless coming off of a screen set, taking the basketball to the middle of the court. Taj Gibson steps up and meets Bayless as Derrick Rose goes over the screen.
Chicago Bulls – The Numbers*
Chicago Bulls – Strengths
Ball Handlers Coming Off Of Screens
When Bulls’ ball handlers come off screens looking to score, they put up a PPP of 0.845 (good for 8th in the NBA) on 41.5% shooting. Obviously, a large part of these possessions go to Derrick Rose, who has gotten 71.1% of the Bulls’ 2149 pick and roll ball handler possessions.
Part of the reason why Rose has been so successful this offseason in the pick and roll is his new and more effective jump shot off the dribble. This has forced defense to go under ballscreens set for Rose less this season (Last season, defenses went under these screens 26.9%. This season, that number has dropped to 17.8%). Defenses are now forced to go over screens more and that creates lanes for Rose. This is because if they go under the screen, Rose has the confidence to pull up and knock down a jumper:
