Going into next season, the Chicago Bulls shouldn’t really worry about who starts. The team that makes or breaks it for Fred Hoiberg will be the “Bench Mob”.
At the start of the season last year, the Bulls second unit was branded as the “Rifle Squad” because there were up to eight players on the roster scoring in double figures at times, until Jimmy Butler (and Pau Gasol) had fits about the pace of Hoiball.
Coach Fred Hoiberg might have forgotten that the keel that kept the Bulls steady over the last eight years or so was the so-called “Bench Mob”; a defense oriented unit that could provide the spark to wear down opposing shooters and keep the lead or break an impasse and help make the game easier for the starters by whittling down leads to manageable levels.
The original Bench Mob for the Bulls consisted of Taj Gibson, Kyle Korver and C.J. Watson in 2011, followed by Nate Robinson, Omer Asik, Marco Belinelli in 2013. Starters on most NBA teams tend to cancel out each other’s production. The bench may be the most important element for Hoiberg, particularly because he needs fresh bodies for keeping the pace quick.
It is also necessary to control player minutes of everyone inside an 82-game schedule because the grind has already proven costly to the Bulls. Playing tired players can destroy even the healthiest athletes (see Butler and his stupid bet with his gym trainer, while playing consecutive 40-plus minute games of hero-ball, getting hurt badly and about to lose his career as a Bulls starter as a result).
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During this past season, one consistent group of players who might be assigned as next year’s Bench Mob: Justin Holiday, Bobby Portis, Cristiano Felicio and Doug McDermott as the Korver/Belinelli scorer.
Those four, plus any number of role-playing free agent veterans or new draft picks that GarPax and Hoiberg can put together. I’m really expecting Nikola Mirotic to start again.
I personally think that taking advantages of mismatches is the selling point of Hoiball with all of the weaves, traps and side-to-side ball movement. The Bulls’ Bench Mob should always be an intact, hustling group of players who don’t let up on either offense or defense.
McDermott is there for run-outs like Kyle Korver before him. Remember, McDermott is a “scorer” (as in future Bulls scoring champ–in the mold of Larry Bird), not “shooter” (which implies that he can only shoot threes and nothing else, aka Aaron Brooks).
Both Holiday and Felicio were undrafted players and the kind of player choice that was heavily criticized by irate armchair Bulls fans and some notable sports media analysts, but both players played their way into the rotation in the span of a few games and proved without a doubt that they deserve to play together as part of a core defensive unit. Hoiberg has mentioned that Portis was crucial to the Bulls team. Felicio and Portis often combined to become the most potent offensive and defensive rebounding combination for the Bulls the past season.
The last few games of the Bulls towards the end of the season showed us a glimpse of how the Bulls’ Bench Mob can play that kind of pace-and-swarm game. The Bulls can shut down an opponent’s offense (Cleveland) or climb out of big leads and come back overwhelming opponents on offense (Philadelphia).
Even when opponents are scorching the hoops from long range, always remember that shooting percentages even out over the course of the game. When Bulls shooters take care of possessions and knock down shots on every attack, the Bulls stay in the game no matter what scoring spurts come in the first three quarters from the opponent. What doesn’t work is having Gasol and Butler field empty stats, instead of the Bulls shooters getting touches and open looks to stay hot. Gasol and Butler finishing the game with bricks and allowing layup after layup or giving opponents second-chance points nullifies the efforts of any Bench Mob. Hoiball is tuned for keeping knockdown shooters and rim attacks going all game long over having a high-percentage, yet slower, low-post or ISO game as the primary offense.
All U Can Heat
In the Cleveland game, the fourth quarter assignments were Justin Holiday picking up Kyrie Irving and Bobby Portis and Cris Felicio swarming the pick-and-roll.
That perfect sequence of turnover-after-turnover off Irving and Matthew Dellavedova killed the Cavaliers. They only recovered when defensive assignments were changed with Derrick Rose on Irving and Gasol back in for Felicio, but by then, the lead had ballooned to a manageable point where even Butler’s bricks couldn’t lose the Bulls the game.
Portis can play the best help defense for the Bench Mob as a blitz-trapping big or just staying in front of his man until Holiday or Felicio double teams.
Instead of bulking up too much, which would slow him down, you want him running out after stops, not hobbling upcourt and pounding his knees with the extra weight. He plays better as a running greyhound than as a big bus. Teaching him to gamble on passing lanes might be better than assigning him to defend post-ups. It will slow down opposing teams’ half-court sets and driving the lane, forcing them to take long twos instead.
It would be a joy to watch them replicate this half-court, blitz-trapping defense (like Iman Shumpert and Tristan Thompson excel at) against the rest of the league next year as a solid and dedicated Bench Mob unit with McDermott on board to snipe from three-point range. Being part of the Bench Mob will also help McDermott’s efforts on help defense and boxing out, while feeding him easy three-point shot opportunities.
With another big as rotation player guarding the paint aside from Joakim Noah (who starts), the Bench Mob becomes a real pain in the ass to opposing teams. GarPax might fill this gaping need with either some underrated veteran big they can nab from free agency or a young athletic big in the draft who can spell Noah and Felicio as defensive rebounder and shot blocker.
There are holes to fill everywhere in the Bulls roster, especially at backup point guard and wing defender, aside from another big.
GarPax had already been assigned by Jerry Reinsdorf to “make aggressive moves” to change the team into a more cohesive unit that can work under Hoiberg’s system. The first aggressive move should really be about filling up the Bench Mob unit to be eight players deep. This might also be the last time the team will see Butler, Taj Gibson, Tony Snell, Aaron Brooks, Cameron Bairstow, Mike Dunleavy and even Rose if Reinsdorf’s idea for ‘aggressive moves’ means rebuilding the team.
We pray they keep Rose and Tony Snell if GarPax and Hoiberg can help it.
The Bulls Bench Mob is the real heart of the Bulls identity as a scrappy and hard-nosed team, both on offense and on defense. The Bench Mob either makes or breaks the Bulls. A solid second unit keeps the starters from playing extended minutes and getting fatigued.
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A beastly, eight-player-deep Bench Mob will keep an opposing team guessing if they match up with the Bulls starters or with the Bench Mob and lose sync with their gameplan.