Jimmy Butler diagnoses Bulls' problems: 'We ain't been playing no defense'
During the five-year Tom Thibodeau era, the Chicago Bulls never once allowed 130 points in a non-overtime game. Tuesday night, in the fifth game of Fred Hoiberg's tenure as head coach, they did just that - and to the Charlotte Hornets of all teams, who finished 28th in the NBA in offensive efficiency last season.
The Bulls' defense looked suspect in the preseason, but in four regular-season games before Tuesday's they'd allowed just 91 points per 100 possessions, good for fourth in the league.
According to All-Star shooting guard Jimmy Butler, though, the Bulls' effort has been lacking all year, and it was only a matter of time until they got exposed.
"We ain't been playing no defense," Butler said after the loss to Charlotte, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell. "Other teams have just been missing shots to tell you the truth, to be honest. We score enough points, that's not the problem. But when you don't stop nobody, they put up 130 or whatever they did, we got to nip that in the bud now because that's not winning basketball. It will never be winning basketball here and it never has been winning basketball here. We've always prided ourself on playing hard and not being pretty. Tonight, we were pretty, we were soft. Got our asses whipped."
It would be easy to point a finger at Hoiberg, given that the Bulls deservedly garnered a reputation as a defensive juggernaut under Thibodeau and finished no lower than fifth in defensive rating in his first four seasons at the helm (topping the league twice). But the truth is the Bulls slipped considerably even last season - Thibodeau's fifth and last - when they finished 11th in team defense as their longtime stalwarts showed signs of wearing down.
The Bulls looked either tired or disinterested, or some combination of both, on Tuesday. They got hung up on screens, were slow to rotate, failed to close out on shooters, got outworked on the glass, and didn't force turnovers.
"I think the root comes from everybody that can score on the roster," said Butler, who was named to his second career All-Defensive second team last season. "When you got guys that can put the ball in the basket they want to play basketball and try to outscore teams, instead of trying to get more stops than that other team."
The Bulls' new starting frontcourt pairing of Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic was designed to open up the team's offense, and like everyone else, they struggled at the other end Tuesday. But the reserves were no better. Relegated to the bench for the first time in seven years, center Joakim Noah - who was the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year just 18 months ago - has done little to suggest he should start over either Gasol or Mirotic. The Bulls were outscored by 22 points in the 17 minutes Noah played against the Hornets, and have defended worse with him on the floor so far this season.
All of this can and very likely will change over the next 77 games, but there's no denying the troubling early signs for the Bulls. They can only hope Tuesday's stinker serves as a wakeup call.