The Chicago Bulls poor roster construction was on display in collapse against the Toronto Raptors after Robin Lopez was ejected
Jimmy Butler had just swished a three-point bucket to give the Chicago Bulls an 88-72 lead on the road against the Toronto Raptors when Serge Ibaka and Robin Lopez got tangled up under the basket. Punches were thrown, both players were ejected, and hilarious comments were made by Robin’s brother Brook.
Essentially, both teams lost an important two-way big man. But the Raptors still had Jonas Valanciunas and Patrick Patterson, who came up with extremely clutch blocks and a put back in the final minutes of regulation and overtime.
After Lopez and his three blocks and offensive rebounds was ejected, the Bulls stopped getting easy stops and second chance points….which is to be expected. They built a team last summer around a ball-hogging point guard, and two shooting guards who can’t shoot threes.
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Chicago’s collective decision to go small was exacerbated by trading Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott – whose replacements Cameron Payne, Anthony Morrow and Joffrey Lauvergne totaled six minutes of action in Toronto.
Essentially, with Lopez out of the game, Chicago lost its offensive and defensive mojo, because their next “big men” – not even centers, just passable modern “big men” – are the increasingly disappointing Nikola Mirotic and the inexperienced Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio.
Perhaps one of these guys would be a formidable back up big man on a small ball team with physical and defensive-minded wing players – like Toronto, or Golden State – but they don’t do the job for Chicago, which now sits two games out of the playoff race, with 11 games remaining.
As the second worst three-point shooting team in the NBA, Chicago relies on its league-best offensive rebounding to make up for its offensive shortcomings. Lopez is Chicago’s only player averaging more than two offensive rebounds per game (3.2 offensive rebounds per game). He is also their only player averaging more than 0.8 blocks per game (1.5 blocks per game).
Kudos to Chicago’s management for recognizing that Lopez – who is under contract through 2019 at a very fair $14 million per year – was a huge upgrade over Joakim Noah, and trading Derrick Rose’s expiring contract to get him. That being said, he is Chicago’s only good big man, and on a team that bricks threes and has Rajon Rondo’s characteristic chemistry issues, one good rebounder and shot blocker probably isn’t enough.
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Except for Butler, Chicago’s wing players bring no physicality to the game, and almost none of the other skills that help small ball teams succeed. One good center can partially mask those problems. But with Lopez’s suspension (even if it is only for one game), he can no longer mask the fact that this team is unbalanced and bound to miss the playoffs. Again.