I mean how many NBA teams have ever employed Thibs' "shooting guard by committee" strategy? What other extremely successful NBA team has had 3 players at one position where you could make an argument that any of the 3 is #1?
None that I can think of and I've been watching NBA basketball since the mid-60s.
Keith Bogans is the starter (and just about every Bulls' fan hates this). The starter at a position is #1, right?
Ronnie Brewer plays the most minutes of any Bulls shooting guard (22.8mpg vs Bogans' 17.5mpg). Back in the day when Ben Gordon came off the bench, but got the lion's share of the shooting guard minutes, we considered Gordon as our #1 shooting guard, didn't we?
Kyle Korver plays 20.4mpg, but nearly 2/3 of those are at SF (as determined by who you are defending...when Korver and Brewer are in the game together, Thibs almost always has Korver defending the opposing SF to minimize the quickness mismatch). So Korver only plays about 7mpg at shooting guard. How can he be #1? By the age-old dictum that "it doesn't matter who starts the game, it matters who finishes." At the end of games, more often than not, it's Rose, Korver, Deng, Boozer and Noah (or Thomas when Noah was injured). Korver is the Bulls' shooting guard "closer."
I've never heard anyone interview Thibodeau about his "3-headed monster" shooting guard madness so we can only speculate about what might be going on inside that semi-bald head of his. So let's speculate...I'll go first.
We all know that Korver is both the best shooter and worst athlete of the 3, and it's not close on either score. Though Korver is a weak defender due to his athletic limitations, he plays defense with good energy. A tired Korver is a looming defensive disaster. If you want him to be something close to adequate on the defensive end, you can't use him as a starter and a finisher. In addition to this, the Bulls second unit absolutely must have Korver in there as an offensive threat when Deng comes out.
Brewer is an absolute defensive force of nature. However, he's a poor choice to start games since he does his best work along the baseline, a place he can't hang out with the starting unit because the shooting guard needs to be the defensive safety. Also, Brewer's by far the weakest 3-point shooter of the three Bulls shooting guards and that's pretty much all the starting unit needs from the position.
Bogans is a solid and physical defender and a competent 3-point shooter. If this doesn't sound like high praise, it's not meant to be. Bogans isn't a lockdown defender, but he makes opposing shooting guards work hard for their offense. On offense, he has 2 jobs - hit open 3-pointers and play defensive safety so DRose can feel free to penetrate. That's it...and he does at least OK on both counts.
In the offseason, the Bulls may try to acquire a shooting guard who can effectively play Bogans' 16-18 starting minutes, Korver's 7 finishing minutes and 8 or so of the combined minutes of Korver/Brewer in the middle. Until then, Thibodeau will need to continue to play the creative genius/madman.
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