The Chicago Bulls Have a Bench

Photo Credit:  Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

The Chicago Bulls have a bench...but will they use it?

This is Tom Thibodeau’s fifth season as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls after coming over from the Boston Celtics.  Over the previous four seasons, the Bulls have had a tremendous amount of success, in general.   They’ve had either the number 1 or 2 team in defensive rating each of those seasons except 2012-13 when they were a lowly 6th.  

Over that time period though, they have struggled with injuries (Rose obviously, but Noah, Deng, Butler have all struggled with injuries over that time).  One of the biggest criticism’s many have had of coach Thibs, who has obviously done an amazing job otherwise, is that he rides his players a bit much. That was highlighted last season with the success the Spurs had by limiting minutes (and games played) for players throughout their roster.

Luol Deng has been the poster boy for this, averaging 39 minutes per game in his first three seasons under Thibs and was averaging 37 minutes a game last season before he was traded.  During last year, Deng, Butler, and Noah all averaged over 35 minutes and Dunleavy and Augustin both averaged over 30.  

Gus Forman made it a point this Off-Season to build the depth on this roster.  Maybe he didn’t want to give Thibodeau any excuses, because the Spurs set the standard last season in how to rest your players and it will be replicated to some degree throughout the league moving forward.  So after Boozer was amnestied, the Bulls went out and got Pau Gasol, spent the money to bring over highly regarded international prospect Nikola Mirotic, and drafted Doug McRoberts (a college senior as opposed to more of a project).  With Rose coming back, Aaron Brooks brought in to replace Augustine and the hope of a developing Tony Snell, the Bulls have constructed a bench unit that would rival many lottery teams’ starting five.

Last night, in the Bulls nationally televised 104-80 ass-kicking of the New York Knickerbockers, it was the Bulls bench that did much of the damage.  Keeping it simple, the Bulls bench outscored the Knicks bench 55-37 and Taj Gibson had 22 points on 10-12 shooting.  But that can be misleading due to garbage time (this game obviously had some) and basing the term ‘bench’ only on who started.  A ‘bench unit’ could theoretically contain a starter (like say Pau Gasol) and a closing five could include a bench player (like say Taj Gibson).  Also, bench units are fluid.  Most NBA coaches aren't running A line and B line here.  You could argue that any lineup that doesn't contain Rose and/or Noah (their substitution pattern was almost identical last night) could be considered a 'bench unit'.

So how can you get a handle on the effectiveness of a ‘bench unit’?  If you’ve never seen Popcornmachine.net’s GameFlow charts, I recommend them.  By examining the GameFlow chart for this Bulls-Knicks match-up, it’s easy to see how much of an impact the bench unit had:

Screenshot from Popcornmachine.net

• It was the five-man unit of Gasol, Dunleavy, Brooks, Gibson, and McDermott that netted a +9 from the 8:45 mark to the end of the quarter.  Three bench players, Dunleavy and Gasol.  This included an 8-0 run in 1:12 of game time.
• The second quarter opened with five bench guys (Snell, Gibson, Brooks, McDermott, and Mirotic).  Over roughly a five minute period that lineup was +7 basically due to a 11-4 run led by Taj Gibson.  When the starters came back in, Gibson stayed out there and Gasol on the bench until about 2 minutes left in the half.
• Opening the third quarter (7 minutes) was the best stretch of the night for the starting five, however, it was led by 10 points from Hinrich (starting because of the injury to Jimmy Butler) and Gasol (Gibson and Gasol are really both part of the ‘bench units’ at times).  
• Brooks and Gibson came in for Rose and Noah (the only two no-question starters) and continued a 14-3 run that had just begun.  The lineup of Brooks, Gibson, Gasol, Dunleavy, and Hinrich was +7 over roughly a 3 minute stretch.
• The bench also had a +8 in the fourth.  Part of that was the end of a 14-0 run that put the game out of reach.  The other part was garbage time.  It's hard to draw the line here.

Rose and Noah didn’t have to do much in this game.  I’m sure that’s fine with them.  It’s only one game obviously, but the more nights that the Bulls can get 20+ point wins when Butler doesn’t play, and Rose and Noah play less than 22 minutes, the fresher this team will be come playoff time.  The Bulls have built themselves a solid bench for this season, it’s going to be up to Thibodeau to continue to use it.