Posts tagged ‘hinrich’

How obvious has it become that Chris Duhon and Andres Nocioni are the two guys pushing the Bulls forward this December?  Their gutsy, put-the-team-on-their-back performances have added more than just energy to the Bulls — they’ve added wins.  Duhon’s prowess early on this season (3 12-point performances in consecutive games this month, including 9 assists in a win at Charlotte) may look slightly better because of Captain Kirk’s rough going so far in 2007-2008, but prowess is a rare commodity for these Bulls.

And maybe it’s partly due to the word in front of “Kirk” — Skiles has refused to start Duhon instead of one of our team captains, despite benching Hinrich routinely while Duhon and Noc turn games around and help the Bulls build larger leads.  Hinrich seems to be getting back to form but the only given for his play is that it’s sure to vary between “on” one night and “who-knows-where-the-switch-is” off the next.

In the meantime, Skiles has chosen his typical tight-lipped approach…starting the same 5 guys (Deng, Smith, Wallace, Gordon, Hinrich), but showing everyone who he thinks the best 5 are by playing them during key stretches of several 3rd  quarters (Deng, Nocioni, Noah, Gordon/Hinrich, Duhon).

Why not start this group?

• Is it because Ben Wallace makes more money per game than the cost of 18,000 headbands?

• Is it because Noc’s crazy awesomeness increases to a peak level after watching his team get outhustled for the first 6-10 minutes of the game?

• Is it because Skiles loves lists of 3 from bloggers?

The Bulls are starting to right the ship, and beating the Pistons for the 2nd time this season last week was great — but until we see a new starting lineup, we aren’t going to beat the likes of the Celtics.  Don’t even get me started on the Western Conference.