Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Bulls' "Gestalt" Vibe

Early in this strike-shortened NBA season, the Chicago Bulls currently own the league's best record at 12-2.  That's an 86% winning percentage which is really kinda crazy...the best regular season record of all time is owned by the 1995-96 Bulls who went 72-10 (87.8%).  They've outscored opponents by 10.3 points per game...3 points more than when they posted the best regular season record last season at 62-10.

How are the Bulls doing it?  The "usual suspects" of reasons for an extraordinarily quick start to a season just don't fly.

The home court advantage is huge in the NBA.  Lots of home games?  Well no, in fact the Bulls have played 9 of their 14 games on the road...no team has had to play more games away from home.

Easy schedule?  Not hardly.  The Bulls spoiled the home openers for the LA Lakers and the LA Clippers who are a combined 15-8 and have beaten the Memphis Grizzlies, Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics...all projected playoff teams.

An absence of injuries to key players?  Nope.  The team's key offseason acquisition, shooting guard Richard "Rip" Hamilton and backup point guard C.J. Watson have each missed 9 games and counting.  The team's lone superstar Derrick Rose also missed a game due to a toe injury.

So it must be that most of their players are having fast starts.  Sorry, but statistically that doesn't work at all.  When measured by Player Efficiency Rating (PER), the best available statistic to measure individual performance, this Bulls team is having a decidedly off season.  Point Guard Derrick Rose is putting up similar numbers that helped win him the league MVP award last season, but all of the other starters are down:

  • Rip Hamilton is down from 15.8 PER last season to 13.1 this season.
  • Luol Deng is down from 15.5 PER to last season to 14.0 this season.
  • Carlos Boozer is down from 18.8 PER last season to 17.9 this season.
  • Joakim Noah is down from 18.8 PER last season to 13.9 this season.
The Gestalt (and Defense) Factor

Even if you didn't study psychology, you probably remember this much about gestalt...sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  This is truly the only reasonable way to explain the Bulls' early season success.  Despite a greatly-compressed training camp and preseason, the Bulls have meshed quickly and hit the ground running...as a team.


A lot of credit should go to last season's Coach-of-the-Year, Tom Thibodeau.  "Thibs" installed his defensive system last season and with a season under their belts, the team is executing it to near perfection.  The Bulls have given up only 83.8 points per game this season...the best in the league by more than 3 1/2 points.  Bulls' opponents have a shooting percentage of 41.3% versus a league average of 44.2%.

Rebounding is another reason for the Bulls early season dominance.  Their 46.6 rebounds per game is far and away the league's best.

To this point in the season, the Bulls are clearly the best team in the NBA.  As many expected, the second best team is the Oklahoma City Thunder at 11-2 (7 home games).  The next best are both "surprise teams"...the Philadelphia 76ers and the Indiana Pacers, both 9-3, both thought by the experts to be "bubble teams" come playoff time.The "superteam" Miami Heat is 8-4.  The defending champion Dallas Mavericks, after a slow start, are 8-5. 

Despite the fact that the Bulls had the league's best regular season record last season, only Derrick Rose was selected for the All Star Game.  This figures to be the case again this season.  Other than Rose, no one on the Bulls has put up any "All Star worthy" (read: scoring) numbers.  In fact, it's not even close.  This is because defense doesn't matter much when it comes to All Star selection.  I mean, the Bulls second leading scorer (behind Rose) is Deng at a completely pedestrian 14.9 points per game.  Who cares that Deng is possibly the best small forward defender in the league?

Other than Rose, the Bulls completely lack "star power."  I guess they'll just have to settle for being the best damn team in the NBA.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Angelo's Failure is Right Up Front

Bears President and CEO Ted Phillips informed Jerry Angelo this morning that he (Angelo) will not return as the team’s general manager for the 2012 season. Angelo had run the Bears' front office since 2001.


By all accounts, Jerry Angelo is a good man who worked hard and consistently kept his focus on the organization's goal of winning Super Bowl championships.  Unfortunately for Angelo, effort, focus and good intentions aren't enough.  Angelo's record is decidedly mediocre.


I'm a firm believer that NFL football is won by having your big uglies beat up on your opponent's big uglies, that is, "in the trenches."  I also believe that the secret to sustaining excellence in the NFL is by successfully drafting impact players with your early (rounds 1-4) picks.  In his time with the Bears, Angelo has had 45 of these picks, but has only drafted one, count 'em, one Pro Bowl caliber lineman on either side of the ball (Tommie Harris in 2004). 


His failed lineman picks from the first 4 rounds is enough to make any Bears' fan cringe: Marc Columbo, Terrance Metcalf, Michael Haynes, Ian Scott, Tank Johnson, Dusty Dvoracek, Dan Bazuin, Josh Beekman, Chris Williams, Marcus Harrison and Jaron Gilbert.  In fairness, I didn't include anyone taken in the past two years (guys like Henry Melton, Corey Wooten, Stephen Paea and Gabe Carimi may still turn out to be players) and should give Angelo credit for his second-best lineman pick, DE Alex Brown (4th round 2002) who was a good, but never great pro.

These failures came home to roost with the sorry excuse for an offensive line the Bears have put in front of franchise QB Jay Cutler the past couple years.  On the other side of the ball, of the top 6 defensive linemen on the team, only Melton was drafted by the Bears.

Angelo's record in acquiring linemen via free agency has certainly been better than his drafting, but in the NFL, free agency needs to supplement your draft.  With Angelo, it was the other way around.  Still, though extremely pricey, Julius Peppers was a terrific signing and Israel Idonije has developed into a very solid running mate for Peppers.

For most of Angelo's Bears' tenure, the "faces of the franchise" have been Brian Urlacher and Olin Kreutz, both players Angelo inherited.  This said, Angelo deserves credit for the gutsy trade for Cutler and drafting Matt Forte and Devin Hester, who are likely candidates for future face of the franchise distinction. 

Looking back over the Angelo decade, his most important contribution may have been the hiring of head coach Lovie Smith.  Though many fans and media members aren't high on Smith, I've gained an appreciation for the man.  His teams have consistently played above their perceived talent level.  Until this season's 5-game losing streak, Smith-coached teams were known for following up bad losses with solid efforts.  They've never quit on Lovie.  I think that by consistently getting the most out of the limited talent he was given, Smith was sort of the Lysol to the musty odor of Angelo's failures.  I'm glad Lovie will be back next season.

As for Angelo, I wish him well, but it was time for him to go.