# Bulls 86 Dallas 66



## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

It wasn't until the final 5 minutes of the game that I looked to the score board and to my astonishment, saw the Bulls up by 21 points. The game could have easily been won by an even larger margin, had the Bulls pulled together more on offense. They didn't really start running the break until late in the second quarter.

The starting 5:
JC
Hassell
Norm Richardson
Chandler
Curry

(both Mason and Jay were in street clothes on the bench)

Top Performers:
JC, Hassell, Baxter. 

Hassell was clearly the best player on the court showing his range on his J, and a great ability to take the ball to the hole and force the defense to react. He had several fine dishes and drew several charging fouls. His ball handling skills were exciting and effective. He's also bulked up, and looks to be a lock-down defender.

JC ran the break, and did a good job of finding the open man. He didn't push the ball the way some points do (ie Jay), and at times it seemed like he held onto the ball a second too long. His outside shot picked-up where he left off last season, and he got it off with ease. No lay-ups or dunks, when near the basket he threw up floaters which touched nothing but the bottom of the net. He had several nice no-look alley-oops to Curry and Chandler, half of which they failed to put down. On the defensive end JC came far from locking anybody up. On several occasions he got beat off of the first step, and was unable to recover. Hung outside on offensive. Pulled down several impressive defensive boards, after which he started the break, and finished effectively. No headband, and NO KNEE BRACE!!

Baxter impressed me alot. My first impression seeing him during warm-ups was his lack of height, but once the game started it didn't matter. He does a great job of moving the ball through traffic and was all over the boards. He and Hassell were both the most seasoned of all players. Also showed good defensive effort against weak competition. Of all the post players, Baxter was the best at throwing outlet passes and getting the ball up court.

Curry had three alley-oops on three straight possesions at one point in the first half. He took two outside j's and made one. He seemed a bit soft around the rim. His dunks were far from earth shattering, as he never put his weight into it. He also didn't fight for low post position. No blocks. Silky smooth from the line.

Chandler missed an easy alley-oop, but made up for it later with a thunderous dunk. Showed no outside game. Set lots of high screens, and also fed Curry from the post twice for easy finishes. Chan passing out of the post is very difficult to defend. He keeps his hands high and out of reach. If he had a mid-range jumper he could easily have dropped several points over the top of his man. He had 3-4 blocks, all of which were impressive. Curry and Chandler did not run the floor with as much energy as I had hoped for. Both Curry and Chandler were stripped down low on several occasions; need to work on protecting the ball.

Norm Richardson played solid-D and showed a decent offensive game.

Shumpert didn't play much, and had little impact on the game. He did show a decent ability to draw the foul down low.

Bags has some good moves out of the low post, but failed to finish most the time. His feet seemed to be weighed down by lead.

Both Jerry Krause and BillC were in attendance. Krause was all smiles at the end of the game.

Triangle: I'm not an expert so I'm not even sure when they're actually running it, but I figure it must have been during a stretch at the end of the first half when they seemed to be playing blindfolded. Spacing was terrible, passes were easily anticipated and the whole thing fell apart before it could begin to come together. 

Opposition: No one noteworthy on the court, except for maybe Lynn Greer out of Temple. He didn't do much. Not enough height.

Biggest dissapointment was seeing both Mason and Jay on the bench. They sat next to one another with Jay sitting next to the coaches. Both seemed to have struck a close bond, similar to Curry and Chandler at last year's rookie games. Jay was a vocal cheerleader on the sidelines. Chandler pinned a shot on the back-board infront of the Bulls bench and Graves (white boy guard out of Notre Dame) took off down court, only person who saw him was Jay who jumped up, and for a second, I thought he was going to run onto the floor and take the ball down court in his street clothes. Hopefully he'll be in the game on Sunday.

I'm going to bed now, but you can post your questions and I'll answer them to the best of my ability tomorrow morning.

On the whole, lots to be excited about from our Baby Bulls. I must say that Hassell is awesome. Really exciting to watch. Crawford as well, although you'll never find him under the basket or in the paint on the offensive end. I would think that if he's going to play 2 he'll need to get better at running the baseline and through traffic. Still seems too light to pull it off though.

Baxter is a keeper. A very good second round pick in my opinion.


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## ABull (Jun 15, 2002)

Well you're making the most of your little moment of glory  

A great recap. Keep it up. Thank you very much.


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## Salvaged Ship (Jul 10, 2002)

Excellent game recap.

How many minutes did the main guys play?

Is there any players on Dallas who will be on the team this season?


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## ABull (Jun 15, 2002)

There was a lot of crap on the dallas roster. The only name player was Jaren Jackson and he doesn't even play for the mavs. On the other subject there is a copy of the acrobat reader stats sheet. or if you want to download it there is a link on the other boards.


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## HAWK23 (Jul 1, 2002)

EXCELLANT POST, It's good to hear about a fan's opinion on what happened.. thanks for the info because I know you'll be truthful and we wont have to listen to the garbage that the coaches WANT us to hear


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## p (Jul 17, 2002)

and WHO is on the Dallas summer team?

c'mon, that's like Chicago's regular starters (minus Rose)


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

Yeah, the opposition hardly amounted to anything, and the fact that we didn't win by more, surprised me. We made it look like a game in the first half, and there was no reason why it should have been. With the line-up as it was, there didn't seem to be an urgency to go at the other team. I don't think anyone out there displayed a killer instinct like we see from Rose or in the past from Jordan. That's what I was hoping to see from Jay, but like I said he was in street clothes. He clearly wanted to be in the game however. During pre-game warm-ups he stood on the baseline with Mason and threw some bullet passes out to people taking shots on the perimeter. That's as much as I saw of his game. 

ABULL - yeah, I"m lovin this! Last year I went to the RMR but hadn't discovered the joy of message boards, and thus, had no one to share my enthusiasm with.

A few other things I noticed:
JC tried to direct traffic on offense, but it seemed to go largely unheard. At one point he made a jesture like "forget it." Pete Myers was on the sideline screaming at people for much of the game (esp the first half, and then I think he got tired). I'd say the communication between him and the team on the floor was strained, most likely due to his total lack of coaching experience. I kind of felt bad for the guy. But there was a lot of back-patting between him and the other players through-out the game, so I think the players had a good amount of respect for him, even if they kind of tuned him out during the game. 

I hope Curry and Chan haven't attended the Big Man camp yet, because they still looked really raw. They have a lot to learn in terms of picking up the nuances of the game. It would be nice to see Chandler box out, and I expected him to get on the offensive glass more than he did. On the whole we played a bit too passive for my liking. I think it might have been because everyone was thinking out there. By the start of next season, lets hope that they've practiced enough together such that they don't have to think as much.


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## johnston797 (May 29, 2002)

Well, GSW went 2-4 in summer league with 5 of their top 7 players. At least we did not lose.

Hassel and Baxter sound great. It will be hard to earn minutes on the Bulls by the end of the year (except for Center).


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## MikeDC (Jul 16, 2002)

Great report, SettinUp!


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## ztect (Jun 12, 2002)

settingUp Shop-

first thanks...

Aside from hassel, did EC and TC look like they bulked up at all?


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## Wynn (Jun 3, 2002)

Thanks, *SettinUp!*, Hassell rocks!


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

> Originally posted by *ztect *
> settingUp Shop-
> 
> first thanks...
> ...


Yes, both have bulked up a bit. Curry doesn't have much fat on him, from what I could tell. And his legs are solid. TC's legs are still pretty skinny, but I suppose that has to do with his height. 

I could see why Pete Myers was complaining about their conditioning last week. I expected a lot more energy out of both of them.

On a side note, JWill has a barrel of a chest. I didn't realize he was so thick.

JC looks a bit bigger too, but not to the extent of Hassell.

Also, neither Curry nor Chandler had many fouls, but that's not to say that their defensive woes from last year are over. There was no post pressence from the Dallas team to test them.


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## Sicky Dimpkins (May 28, 2002)

settinUpShop: Awesome reporting!

Bags gives new meaning to the phrase "lead foot"! :laugh:

I thought I read Hassell was working on his ball handling(I have no documentation)
and this report is very encouraging. It's going to be very hard to reduce his minutes from last year(Matt Harpring).

Baxter: The best outlet passer?!  This is a lost art(Rodman did it) and a crucial skill IF the Bull are serious about running. Its a fairly basic idea TC & EC & Marcus & Bags: get the rebound and feed a guard! I hope these guys are shamed into action by this example setting late second round rookie!

ERob: Does anyone know if this guy is going to try to stay skinny at ~206 or is there any chance he could add some weight/muscle and be that big 3 some here want?


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

> Originally posted by *Sicky Dimpkins *
> settinUpShop: Awesome reporting!
> 
> Bags gives new meaning to the phrase "lead foot"! :laugh:
> ...



Yeah, I don't know if it was the competition that made him so aggresive or what, but he definitely showed a new confidence in his handle. So did Norm Richardson surprisingly enough, but again I wasn't sure if that was by virtue of the weak opponent. I think it's safe to say that Hassell will continue to surprise us next season. He's very mature, very intuitive and suave on the coart. He's really gravitating to watch. He simply gets into all kinds of plays, in all kinds of ways. I'd like to see his career follow the path of Hersey Hawkins. As you can see, I have high expectations for the young man.





> Baxter: The best outlet passer?!  This is a lost art(Rodman did it) and a crucial skill IF the Bull are serious about running. Its a fairly basic idea TC & EC & Marcus & Bags: get the rebound and feed a guard! I hope these guys are shamed into action by this example setting late second round rookie!


Yes, I agree. It's something I remember being said about Ming, and so I payed a bit more attention to it with our guys. THe whole first half, I was like, why the hell aren't we running. We can run all over these guys. Their center, must have been 340 pounds!! Curry should have made him bust his *** up and down the court like crazy. And this fat guy played nearly the whole game!! And chandler should have run more as well. And EVEN though I say this, we still ran all over them. It simply was in a very unorganized fashion, and I think that is representative of the youth at our 4 and 5 positions. They don't know how to fill the lanes and run the floor yet. But they'll learn. I couldn't believe how many missed alley-oops I witnessed. It was apaling, but then again, not many teams can run three straight possesions and throw three straight alley-oops to curry. When's the last time you EVER saw that?! That's something of High School dominance lore, and that's what Curry did last game (qualify this fact by the meek talent this team went against (oh, and he did flush all three, it was several other alley-oops during the game that he missed that got me erked)). A great game to watch would be the Jazz vs the BUlls this Summer League. That'd actually get me excited because they have some good players on that team. But I don't want to get off on a tangent. So to get back. Yes, Baxter is going to teach these guys a lot. And when you think about it, that's not so surprising. After all, he and Dixon both basically taught the rest of the Maryland team how to play. I think he'll be able to contribute through example. And he'll show them how to play with heart, and how to play with coy cunning. Another lost art which Rodman was a master of. Of course I could be blowing things way out of preportions. But Baxter's numbers were good. That's all I got to say.


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

oops  mistake post


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## Showtyme (Jun 24, 2002)

If you don't remember, I have touted Hassell as the better SG than Crawford, although Crawford may still have more potential. I hope that all three C's have incredible learning curves... 

Hassell is the next Hersey Hawkins. Strong defender, jack crazy threes. It's good to know he put on some muscle too...

Maybe we'll see some more fire in the Phoenix game...


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.../cs-020720bulls.story?coll=cs-bulls-headlines

a good article on this game. It quotes Myers as being positive about Jamal's defensive effort. that's interesting. i think he's being a bit flakey here. no way did JC shut anyone down, and he was playing some straight out scrubs. he got beat by his man on several occasions, to the point of embarrasment, he was constantly looking over his shoulder for an incoming screen, and trying to jump infront of it. He set his feet wide apart in a crouched position, and from this position he didn't seem to be able to recover from the opposing players first step. I think jay would abuse him, and it would be interesting to see if he did in practice (if the two ever faced off - wouldn't that be a sight!). i think these were words of encouragement for effort over production, and at this stage that is entirely appropriate. No need to beat the guy down. But it was clear that he was far from the defender Hassell is, and that's going to bite us hard in the azz if JC's playing other 2's in the league. All the same, I like the idea of JC talking to players on defense,and I'm sure his coaches do to. The Glove is his mentor away from the court, I'd like to see JC pick-up some of the GLove's tanacity and mouth. It would be a good thing for JC, but ofcourse he has to back it up. I'll be watching closely in today's game for further defensive developments on the JC front.


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## Agent911 (Jul 11, 2002)

> Originally posted by *settinUpShop *
> All the same, I like the idea of JC talking to players on defense,and I'm sure his coaches do to. The Glove is his mentor away from the court, I'd like to see JC pick-up some of the GLove's tanacity and mouth. It would be a good thing for JC, but ofcourse he has to back it up.


I'm not sure Pete meant that Crawford was talking smack to his opponents. He may have been talking to his teammates - calling out screens and switches. Maybe you'll be able to see which it is in today's game.

Thanks for your reports!


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## SMOOTH1 (Jul 16, 2002)

from what i saw in papers curry was the best performer,stats show hassell didnt shoot good, but remember its only summer games, and worrying they didnt win by more? c'mon they dont have rose(22pts) jwill,erob,fizer they had richardson,graves,bagaric. there is a big diff in lineup, your making way to much out of them winning and wondering why they didnt win by more!!!


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

> Originally posted by *SMOOTH1 *
> from what i saw in papers *curry was the best performer,stats show hassell didnt shoot good,* but remember its only summer games, and worrying they didnt win by more? c'mon they dont have rose(22pts) jwill,erob,fizer they had richardson,graves,bagaric. there is a big diff in lineup, your making way to much out of them winning and wondering why they didnt win by more!!!


Smooth, my expectations for this team as a summer team are high, and with good reason. 4/5ths of our starting rotation was represented by the starting 5 on Friday. And we played a totally crap team. We should have won by much more trust me. When you watch a game with 4-5 missed alley-oops, you know you should have won by more.

Curry was one of the best performers in ONE category. Scoring, and he should have put up AT LEAST 30 points against Thomas Hamilton. That guy is like 400 pounds. He sucks. Lets look at Curry's other stats. Oh, 3 rebounds. Hmm, last time I check Curry was a 6'11" center with wheels. Remind me again why he pulled down a paltry 3! rebounds? These guys need to be more hungry. Esp. Chandler and Curry. They should be going into this summer league with a chip on their shoulder, because they were embarrased last year in this league. Curry needs to start abusing scrubs like Hamilton on the boards, there's no excuse. I'm not too worried by the fact that he didn't get any blocks. No one was posting him up. Also the fact that he got only one PF is NOT an indication that his defense has grown more refined. That's simply a reflection of the fact that they didn't go at him at all.


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## Cyanobacteria (Jun 25, 2002)

*SUS at RMR, FAN-tastic*

All of my questions answered, great work!

I requested to hear about the fast-break fundamentals, especially outlets. Baxter being good at it isn't surprising. I wanted to hear about this as its something our high school kids might not have worked on enough if usually being the offensive focal point of their past teams. Charges by Norm trying to force the issue and get noticed aren't surprising either. From the games I've watched on espn, the key to getting noticed in summer league? FGAs, and lots of them (unless you're Andrei Kirilenko).


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

crap, i was trying to edit one of my posts and hit the quote button. sorry

Well I might as well make another observation while I'm at it. Salt Lake City is at about 3000 ft above sea level. I'm not sure what Chicago is, but I"m sure it's much less. That might explain why Curry and Chandler seemed winded. Everyone adjusts to the altitude differently. It took me a couple of weeks, but then again, I'm not an NBA stud.


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## settinUpShop (Jun 8, 2002)

*Play-by-play analysis*

well since people liked the play-by-play i gave for the Sun's game, I've decided to do the same for the Dallas game, although this account isn't as thorough. Here it is...

starting 5:
JC
Hassell
Norm Rich
Chan
Curry

1st quarter
- curry missed power jam on 1st possession
- Hassell hits mid-range j
- no transition ball
- 2 3's hit over JC 
- gread dish by Norm to Curry, and then drew a charge on the other end
- full-court press without traps
- d-fense intensity low
- 3 straight alley-oops to curry. 1st on break, 2nd on feed from Chandler in high post, 3rd from JC on slow developing break
- Time out Chicago
- Curry & Norm out, Bags and Graves in
- Chandler looks winded
- Chan, JC out - baxter, shumpert in

2nd quarter
craw/baxter/bags/shupert/graves
- craw no headband
- baxter crashing boards strong around the hole
- starting five come in
- curry weak around basket, fouled, swishes 2 free-throws
- no transition game
- mass confusion on offensive end; poor spacing; poor screens, weak ball movement
- curry nice stroke from free-throw line
- missed alley-oop
- Ty 2 missed free-throws

HalfTime

Impressions: no outside game from Chan or Curry yet, both stripped down low. curry's play has me begging for a more power game. Hassel joy to watch. JC takes 4-6 sec to get into offense, dribbing at top of key. Norm and Hassell good hustle dfense. JC defensive presence not felt.

2nd half:
- JC burned by #7
- Hassell looks bigger, best player on court
- JC all outside, floaters as he nears rim
- Tyson nice block, pinned shot on back board, everyone looking around for ball, Jay up in arms on sideline pointing to Graves who broke down court early, went unnoticed, Dallas team recovers on D
- chandler good pass out of post, unguardable
- hassell great handle
- baxter, good on both ends
- jc on break, stutter step in lane, no look floater alley-oop to Ty chandler, everyone on their feet, ball goes off the rim... :no:

final 86-66 Bulls win


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## Songcycle (May 29, 2002)

Thanks settinUpShop. Much appreciated.


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