Since 2011, Joakim Noah has started 323 of the 325 games he has played in. The Chicago Bulls lifer has been a staple at center, manning the position tirelessly as a member of the starting five. Until this season, that is, as new head coach Fred Hoiberg is prepared to bring him off the bench this year.
The Bulls’ complicated frontcourt puzzle has no clear solution
Chicago has four starter quality players vying for two frontcourt spots. Is Nikola Mirotic and Pau Gasol the correct combination?
Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic are going to be the starters, at least to begin the season. In Tuesday's preseason win against the Pacers, the Bulls underwent a dress rehearsal of sorts, with the new frontcourt duo leading the way. Gasol played 33 minutes and Mirotic 27, while Noah came off the bench for 15 minutes and Taj Gibson played 21.
That's the 96 minutes that Hoiberg has available to him at power forward and center -- and rookie Bobby Portis, a power forward who's had a great preseason, wasn't even playing. There's a clear traffic jam involving those four, but starting Mirotic is how Hoiberg has decided to resolve the situation for now.
Noah, being the ultimate professional that he is, voiced no concerns about his new role or even playing fewer minutes this coming season as Hoiberg manipulates and tweaks the lineup to figure out who works best together.
“I’m down with whatever coach says is best for the team,” Noah said. “I’m a worker, never going to stop working. I’m excited for this team. We have a lot of talent and we just got to keep grinding and keep getting better. I’ve always been about the team and it’s not going to change now. I played well with Taj (Gibson) in the past. It’s not about me or Taj. It’s about what we can do to make this team better.”
But what pairings do make the team better is the question that still needs an answer.
Starting Mirotic gives Chicago a deadly offense
The primary benefit to putting Mirotic at power forward next to Gasol is obvious: Mirotic can shoot three-pointers and open up driving lanes for Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler.
Everybody knows this is the direction the NBA is headed in as the game evolves. With more three-point shooters on the floor, additional defenders are pulled out from the paint. With the paint open, it’s easier to attack the rim and earn layups or free throws. Three-pointers and shots at the rim are consistently the two most efficient shots in basketball. Mirotic’s presence on the floor only emphasizes that.
Last season, Mirotic and Gasol played 653 minutes together, posting an offensive rating of 103.7 -- about a point and a half higher than the 102.2 offensive rating they finished the season with. One of Chicago's best five-man units involved those two, Tony Snell, Mike Dunleavy and Aaron Brooks: in 67 minutes, they outscored opponents by 20 points per 100 possessions with a deadly 58.8 true shooting percentage.
Snell is expected to start in place of an injured Dunleavy while Butler and Rose round out the Bulls' starting five. Although Chicago won't duplicate the crazy success of that lineup above (albeit in a small sample), it's clear the offense will benefit from Mirotic dragging an extra defender to the three-point line. Add in Gasol's ability to space the floor out to 20 feet or so, and Rose should have more space to operate in the lane than he has in years. While the injuries have clearly changed who he is as a player, Rose is still an explosive rim attacker who should reap the benefits of playing more minutes with Mirotic.
Can the defense survive with Noah off the bench?
It’s not like there’s a total boycott of defense using this starting five -- Butler and Snell next to each other is an incredibly disruptive wing duo. But big men can often make or break a quality defense and neither Gasol nor Mirotic are known for their defensive abilities. (Gasol, to his credit, still blocks shots, but he’s lost a lot of his lateral mobility and is a huge liability when pulled out on a pick-and-roll.)
Throughout Tom Thibodeau’s tenure, Chicago clearly tilted its focus towards defense over offense. Hoiberg’s presence will reverse that trend, and seeing a defensive drop-off can be acceptable if the offense is able to vault into the top five. Mirotic and Gasol together allowed two fewer points per 100 possessions than the Bulls did for the season, but that number may be skewed since they mostly faced second units.
The new bench unit -- Noah, Gibson, Doug McDermott, Aaron Brooks and others -- has a good mix of offense and defense. Hoiberg has also talked about the flexibility he has with his closing lineups. That likely means that Noah and Gibson won't completely turn into supersubs, and will still get chances to help Chicago win in the final minutes of close games depending on the circumstances.
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This is Hoiberg’s team now and this is the way he wants to play. There’s no easy solution, either. As if the frontcourt wasn’t crowded enough, the Bulls’ first-round pick Bobby Portis is a power forward who had a strong preseason. As the roster is currently constructed, there’s simply no minutes for him.
The solution may be a midseason trade of Gibson, but until then, Hoiberg’s responsibility will be to juggle the different two-somes he can roll out at power forward and center. Mirotic and Gasol makes sense for the offense on paper. It worked last year. Until proven otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with rolling those two out to start games this year, as long as he’s quick to adjust if it’s not working.
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