Good Hope

Well, Sam reports:

Obviously, people are going to have to step up with Derrick out. The last time Deng said he would, he couldn't. Is he wise enough and developed enough to be able to do so this year? Maybe he's the most logical candidate, more so than Boozer or Hamilton. And Kirk's presence will probably reinforce Deng's position as the leader of the team while Derrick is out.

Interesting to see.

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"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb. 11:1

There are better things to hope in than the Bulls, but its fun to try, anyway.

mvP to the Wee

Let's see it in a real game first.

jnrjr79

Yeah, I'm going to reserve judgment. I didn't love what I saw in the Olympics from him, and I have real concerns over his pain levels in that wrist once he's involved in the day-to-day grind of the league. If true? Great.

Da Grinch

if deng gets the bulls 16 and 7 with good defense thats fine.

after 8 years there are going to be no major changes , just fine tuning.

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Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

Good Hope

Well, somebody's going to have to pick up the scoring slack. Deng can do it. But he expends so much energy on defense, he gets tired and can't come through at the end, typically. We'll see what the year brings.

But I agree, we can't expect major changes in his game at this point.

__________________
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb. 11:1

There are better things to hope in than the Bulls, but its fun to try, anyway.

Da Grinch

somebody has to but realistically deng isn't much of a scorer , he's not efficient , nor can he really create for himself or others.

i would rather he double down on defense and space the floor for rip and boozer and probably nate if thibs can get through to him .

i'm not terribly concerned with winning games in a lost season anyway , if the season ended and deng were a better 3 point shooter and nothing else changed i would be fine with that because of its usefulness in future seasons.

the bulls aren't going to be winning many games with their offense this season and i'm thinking this about the best we can expect from deng in the rebounding and defensive departments which he is plenty good with right now.

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Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

garnett

At this stage of his career Deng is what he is. I'm not going to be sucked in by another 'player x is having an amazing offseason' article.

Good Hope

Everything you say is reasonable, but I take issue with Deng's not being a scorer. There was a time when he put up more than 20 a game against Miami in the playoffs. Riley said he couldn't believe Deng could score so much without plays being called for him. I can hope for a bump in his scoring because of Kirk's return, and the possibility of restoring that kind of game while Derrick is out. He's clearly not the option Derrick was, but, beggars can't be choosers.

__________________
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb. 11:1

There are better things to hope in than the Bulls, but its fun to try, anyway.

Da Grinch

deng is competent for an nba starting small forward scoring the ball.(not especially good nor bad)

he is versatile , he can score in alot of different ways .

he plays hard , he'll get hustle points and hurt a defense for ignoring him.

i'm not saying he cant score .

i am saying you face the law of diminshing returns the more you put on him to score .

not only do you risk increasing his chance of injury and he can be brittle, lowering the effort he can realistically put forth on defense , he's not really all that efficient as it is now something that will in all likelihood go down without rose to take attention away from a guy like deng who is best off the ball.

with increased focus on him , plus all that is expected of him outside of scoring the ball, its just not wise, if he gets more fine , but i certainly wouldn't game plan it that way and with the new point guards not exactly known game management and making players better , it seems to me Thibs would be better off letting Luol be Luol and worry about getting points from other sources.

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Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

Good Hope

From Nazr Mohammad?

Deng's going to have to pick up some of the slack. I don't see any way around it, barring some amazing restoration of Noah's jumper + sky hook.

But I agree with you, he hasn't held up under the pressure in prior years. Especially because the rest of our shooting looks iffy at best.

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"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb. 11:1

There are better things to hope in than the Bulls, but its fun to try, anyway.

Dornado

Honestly, for better or worse, some of the scoring is going to come from Hinrich. Offensive efficiency might be an issue

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Good Hope

:-) Way to step out on a limb there! :-)

I don't think Kirk'll be our leading scorer. I'm guessing Deng might, but I hope it won't be at 16ppg.

And yeah, efficiency would be nice....

__________________
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb. 11:1

There are better things to hope in than the Bulls, but its fun to try, anyway.

Dornado

I'm just saying, from the looks of it, Hinrich is going to be asked to do a lot.... I wouldn't be surprised if he was back to taking 13-14 shots a game like it was 2004-2007.

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Bogg

I doubt that Chicago management goes for a big shake-up, but if Deng is having a good statistical year and the Bulls are floundering, moving him for cap flexibility and/or a high-upside young player or two may be the best long-term strategy. I don't think Deng's ever going to be good enough to be Rose's sidekick, and if you can either get that guy or clear some space to make amnestying Boozer make sense, it'd be something you have to look long and hard at with Rose not 100% until sometime in the 13-14 season.

I continue to believe that Chiacgo made a mistake in not trying to build a package for Dwight Howard around Deng and Noah.

Good Hope

Dornado,

agreed. But I still don't think the expectation is that Kirk will be the leading scorer. Carlos just doesn't look up to it, for whatever reason. Deng might.

I think Bogg is on to something. Let Deng "lead" to an above average record, then trade him for some significant talent more suited to Derrick. Though, to be honest, Deng is really pretty good, and it's hard to see who we might get who might provide what Deng gives...

__________________
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Heb. 11:1

There are better things to hope in than the Bulls, but its fun to try, anyway.