Da Bench: Duhon, Nocioni, Thomas, Sefolosha

For a 2nd round pick, Chris Duhon’s a pretty good player. He hustles, plays with smarts and composure, and plays good, quick defense, and that fits in with the team’s ‘defense first’ mentality. In short, Chris Duhon is the quintessential Scott Skiles Scrapper™.

But I don’t care how much he endears himself to the coach, there’s no excuse for a player of Duhon’s caliber to be starting on a team that has designs on an NBA championship, as he was at the start of the season. In fact, I’ll take it a step further—it’s a bad sign when Duhon is a 6th or even 7th man. Despite the guts and defense he brings, he’s a horrible fit for this Bulls team.

As it is, the Bulls are very short. Hinrich’s fine for a PG as 6’3’’, but Gordon’s quite short for an SG at the same height; Ben Wallace is a 6’9’’ center, and Andres Nocioni is a 6’7’’ forward who usually plays the 4. Even Luol Deng, a 6’9’’ SF who was the only Bulls regular tall for his position (besides Thabo Sefolosha, and whether or not he was a regular is debatable) found himself physically overmatched at power forward quite often. So it’s not a good thing when the team gets both smaller on defense and less skilled on offense when Duhon comes in. With Duhon and Nocioni in the game, the Bulls would find themselves giving up three inches or so at every position on defense against teams like the Pistons or the elite Western teams.

Fortunately, Nocioni brings a lot more to the table. He’s got the scoring skills of a 2-guard and the athleticism and defensive tenacity to shut down all but the tallest power forwards and do sufficient work on the glass. I’ve always been a huge fan; he’s one of those guys who everyone just hates to play against. Unfortunately, his timely offense and undersized toughness aren’t really needed on this Bulls team right now; but put him on a team like the Mavericks or Rockets and he’d have a huge impact. And despite battling plantar fasciitis all year (and during the playoffs, where he was noticeably not himself), he was the Bulls fourth-most efficient player (in PER), after Deng, Gordon, and Hinrich.

I don’t think Paxson should let Nocioni go (he’s a restricted free agent), but changes must be made if he is to stay on the team and be effective. Nocioni’s obviously got no problem overcoming his size, and he’s one of those Charles Barkley-type players who is more comfortable playing undersized, but if he’s surrounded by an entire team of dwarves, it just doesn’t work. A Nocioni-Wallace front line is completely ineffective in the low post.

Unfortunately, Tyrus Thomas doesn’t fix that problem; he doesn’t have much of a post game, either. But he does bring a lot more to the table with his jaw-dropping athleticism. He’s still an offensive threat because he can jump out of the gym (he averaged 15 points every 40 minutes), and while he doesn’t have the strength to play the biggest guys like Wallace can, he’s a very effective defender on PFs as long as he knows what he’s doing (which was a problem at times). And, obviously, he’s dynamite on the glass. Thomas put up lots of numbers in short periods of time, although that did include turnovers and fouls.

Apparently Chad Ford has said that he would still have Thomas ranked 3rd in this new crop of draft prospects, right below Oden and Durant, so that’s reassuring, at least for me. Thomas showed minimal offensive skill, and it’s going to take a lot of work for him to become a polished offensive player and realize his potential. But he’s only 19, and he’s already our 5th most efficient player (right behind Nocioni and ahead of Wallace) based on PER. I just hope he’s treated with patience, because if so, the Bulls “Big 3” will become the “Big 4.”

Thabo Sefolosha quickly became one of my favorite players this season after bringing some size and athleticism to the backcourt along with some great fast breaks. He got a lot of playing time around the New Year, but found himself mostly riding the pine by the end.

That’s a shame, mostly for reasons I’ve mentioned above with Duhon. Sefolosha isn’t much of an offensive presence, but neither was the person taking most of his minutes, and Thabo’s 5 or 6 inches taller than Duhon on a team desperately needing height. But poor shooting and turnovers seemed to be Sefolosha’s undoing (he shot 51% on free throws, so his shot definitely needs some work), and hopefully he can cut those down and firmly entrench himself in that 3rd guard spot next season. Again, patience is the key.