The Weekside: Bulls and Clippers both mired in mediocrity with recurring fatal flaws

The Bulls were widely projected to finish with the second best record in the Eastern Conference. If any team in the East could challenge the Cavaliers, it was supposed to be Chicago. Well, if the playoffs started today, rookie coach Fred Hoiberg’s team would get that chance — in round one.

At 12-8 in a now-competitive Eastern Conference, the Bulls are in 8th place. They are just 5-5 over their past 10 games, and are one of only two teams in a playoff position (along with Miami) averaging less than 100 points per game. The Tom Thibodeau mark still has them playing high-level defense — third best in the NBA, allowing 97.4 points per 100, via NBA.com — but only the Nets and Sixers score at a lower rate.

The four marquee franchises in the NBA, due to sheer size and history, are the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, and Bulls. When was the last time that Chicago had the worst offense of those four? They were 10th in the league last season and have fallen all the way to 28th.

Chicago, which hosted the one-time afterthought but now premier team from the nation’s second city, Clippers on Thursday night, isn’t alone in their mediocrity.

Doc Rivers’ team, is trying to prove something right now.

At 13-10 in a still-rough Western Conference, their record isn’t upsetting, particularly since Chris Paul has missed time. But they still don’t have a signature road win on the season and have dropped four of their last eight overall, falling to all the good-or-better teams they’ve faced (Pacers, Jazz, Raptors, and Blazers in Portland) and only managing to beat the teams that a squad as talent-packed as theirs always should (Nuggets, Pelicans, Wolves, and Blazers in L.A.).

Blake Griffin, as usual, is playing out of him mind while continuing to be overlooked by many in terms of being listed with the league’s elite players. Heading into Thursday’s game he was averaging a wacky stat line of 24.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game, while making 52% of his shots.

DeAndre Jordan doesn’t put up the same gaudy numbers, but he has been his expected self, more or less, since the offseason drama in Dallas ended with him returning to the only NBA franchise he has ever known. He definitely has his moments — like the 20-point, 12-board, 4-block outing he notched in a win over the Wolves — while blocking more shots than he ever has (2.6 per game), leading the league in shooting for the fourth straight season (68.8%), and coming in second in rebounding (13.4 per night).

Then, of course, there was this dunk, which Dan Devine of Yahoo Sports summed up aptly: “Here’s the thing, guys: You should think really, really hard about whether you want to take a charge on DeAndre Jordan.”

Unfortunately, with CP3 and J.J. Redick both missing games, the team’s ever-thin bench has been all the more exposed and continues to let the team down.

Jamal Crawford can’t hit shots (a gross 36.9% from the floor), Lance Stephenson can’t put the ball in the hoop (5.0 ppg in 18 minutes a night), and I keep forgetting Josh Smith is even on the team. Rivers reportedly has looked into trading both Stephenson and Smith, who were both brought in to add firepower to a reserve unit that has been the team’s main failing for seasons upon seasons now.

The Bulls might wish they had a seemingly fixable, or at least lesser, problem like this.

Outside of Jimmy Butler, their roster isn’t setting any worlds on fire.

Watching former MVP Derrick Rose play can be downright sad at times as he continues to shoot below 36% for the year and Joakim Noah looks like a shell of the one-time game changer he used to be. Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic are doing their part, but it simply hasn’t been enough to make up for the overall team shortcomings.

Unless Rose gets to an at-least-respectable level of efficiency, this team probably cannot reach the potential it was considered to have in the preseason. Likewise with the Clippers and their latest unsuccessful offseason attempt to bolster a bench.

These were two teams that were Conference Finals favorites before the year started. But few can look at what we’ve seen so far and expect those results now.

Because the Bulls can’t score and the Clippers can’t do anything when CP3, Blake, and DeAndre need to rest.

It’s de ja vu all over again.

Around the Association

Atlanta Hawks

The Hawks are rounding into form, winning four of their last seven games, with one of those losses coming at San Antonio. Jeff Teague was particularly potent down the stretch in a recent win over the Thunder, scoring 25 points in the game overall, and while he struggled shooting-wise in a win over the Mavs, there are many encouraging signs across the roster.

Charlotte Hornets

Don’t look now but Michael Jordan’s third favorite thing, after golf and re-selling the same shoes he sold you 20 years ago, is one of the hottest teams in the NBA. Your Charlotte Hornets are in 2nd place in the East after running off eight wins in their last 10 games. Feel the buzz.

Golden State Warriors

Frank Vogel aptly defining the “Watching Steph Curry Play Basketball Paradox.”

Indiana Pacers

The Pacers had the best defense for two straight seasons and took on an offensive style that coach Frank Vogel called “Smash Mouth Basketball” that would be better described by onlookers as plodding, ugly, and ineffective. A funny thing happened this summer, though, when they tried to change up their philosophy. A lot of teams say they want to score more but few actually make it happen — at least in one offseason.

But the Pacers have done just that. Their offense still isn’t world-beating but it’s faster and much higher scoring. In fact, the Pacers now lead the Eastern Conference in points per game, putting up more than 104 per night. This is largely due to superb shooting, with the team hitting an uncanny 40.2% of its 3s on the year so far. That is second in the league, behind only the Warriors’ ungodly 43.8%, but way in front of the third-place Suns at 38.4%. Paul George (44.8%), C.J. Miles (43.6%), and George Hill (43.6%)are all absolutely scorching nets.

Los Angeles Lakers

Kobe took a bit of a backseat in the team’s recent overtime loss to the Wolves, but we are still in the “Mambas say the darnedest things” phase of the season. And I don’t expect us to ever leave it this year.

Memphis Grizzlies

Half-Man, Half-a-Jerkstore.

Miami Heat

“Netflix — no chill,” sounds more like a 2015 Lil’ Wayne line than something an NBA rookie would say to the press, but here we are. A few days later, Justise Winslow also noted that he liked the city of Miami since “it isn’t like you’re in Detroit or something.” This was reminiscent of Joakim Noah’s Hall of Fame-caliber Cleveland dig a few years back, and it goes to show that Justise has as much press conference potential as he does to become one of the league’s best defenders.

Minnesota Timberwolves

I cannot believe this happened, but I am glad it did and I am even more happy to see what it would look like if 2000 KG had gotten to see 2015 KG dunk like this.

New York Knicks

I look forward to the day when the Knicks rookie star has evolved into a new type of mold-breaking, Hall of Fame, foreign big man and we can stop comparing him to Dirk, instead start referring to tall, goofy-looking international prospects as a “poor man’s Porzingis.” 2026 is going to be a choice year for puns.

Oklahoma City Thunder

I’m running out of ways to try to explain to people who ask me just how great the Warriors are. But here’s one more try: Kevin Durant scored 32 points on 14 shots, to go with 10 boards and 6 assists,  in just 31 minutes as his team blew out the Grizzlies this week. And we barely even noticed because Golden State has broken statistics. The video game numbers they put up make things like this seem plausible when in actuality: 32 POINTS ON 14 SHOTS.

Philadelphia 76ers

Keep the Trust.

Phoenix Suns

The Suns, a team that has struggled late in games all year, went to Chicago and won like this at the buzzer.

Sacramento Kings

We need to talk about Rajon Rondo. I still haven’t wrapped my mind around when he is doing — much like Trey Burke couldn’t wrap his brain around this wrap-around dribble — but is he really doing these all things? In 2015? For this sad-sack franchise? It’s one of the best stories of the year for the once-beloved but since-Dallas-written-off point guard that we all love to love and never understand.

San Antonio Spurs

Gregg Popovich is already knee deep in that holiday spirit.

Washington Wizards

#GotEm

The Mecca of Basketball

Donald Trump is a joke and let’s not pretend he is a viable presidential candidate. But in his ongoing tirade of bigotry, he did take some time out of his racism aimed at society in general to take a potshot into our world of spots.

“Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes,” tweeted King Dumbass himself. “What sport is he talking about, and who?”

For one, Muhammad Ali is the greatest athlete in United States history, so there is that. And there are undoubtedly many others in sports all across the competitive spectrum. But this is an NBA column, so rather than caring about the words of one more windbag on Twitter, instead let’s just use this as a moment to highlight just a few of the many Muslim players who have made my basketball-watching life special.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Who’s better than Cap? No, serious question. Which players in NBA history are actually better than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? He had the most unstoppable shot we’ve ever seen in the skyhook, he won six MVP awards, he was the centerpiece (or thereabouts) on six championship teams, he made 19 All-Star games, and he is the all-time leading scorer.

Mahmoud Abdul Rauf

When Mahmoud Adbul Rauf was at Louisiana State University, then known as Chris Jackson, he was a scoring wunderkind who could shot from anywhere. Steph Curry has kind of ruined the mold for deep 3s, but Mahmoud used to let em fly from all over — and no coach would ever instruct him to play any other way since he was such an unstoppable arsenal of scoring tactics. As a freshman, he had games of 48, 53, and 55 points while once hitting 10 triples in a game. His NBA days weren’t quite that explosive but he was so much fun to watch on those early 1990s teams. The dude was all the way the truth.

Hedo Turkoglu

From “Ball” to his love of pizza to his out-of-nowhere point-forwarding skills that helped create one of my favorite offenses of modern times in Orlando, Hedo Turkoglu was an NBA treasure.

Shareff Abdur-Rahim

I can never decide if ‘Reef was overrated or underrated while he played, but now that he is out of the league, it’s a shame more people don’t remember his skills. Since his prime was wasted in Vancouver (they had not just weed stores but a real, actual professional basketball team once) and Atlanta, we really didn’t get to see him enough on the main stage. He played in six playoffs games total in his career, and that didn’t even happen until he was 29 years old. But he was a near-double-double every night at his best, and had a polished post game with a midrange potency that the blog kids would rave about now that we understand that midrange shots are hard to make.

Hakeem Olajuwon

I don’t have a favorite player ever I don’t think, and if I do then it changes by the day between a rotation of three or four guys. If there is one guy that I want to be my favorite though, it’s Dream, and every single time I watch his old highlights — or merely look at one of his insane box scores — I immediately move him back to the number-one slot. Hakeem had it all and could do everything on a basketball court. Steve Nash recently said that he thinks Steph Curry is the most skilled player of all time. That could be true, but Dream is definitely one of his closes competitors for that claim — and he was 7-feet tall.

Words With Friends

This week’s five must-read articles about the NBA. Excerpts here — click through to read the full piece.

1. Steve Clifford Out-Coaches Everyone, Regardless Of Style
by Mika Honkasalo, The Cauldron

Coaching is one of the most difficult skills to gauge in the NBA. Because NBA head coaches are given so much control, the evaluation process often ignores the things they have no control over — talent level, personnel decisions, injuries, etc. There is a long list of Coach of the Year recipients, including Avery Johnson and George Karl, who were fired within two years of winning the award. In Charlotte, the first two seasons of Steve Clifford’s head coaching career underscored how quickly everyone is to overreact and judge coaches’ performances; and how poor they are at it.

2. The NBA at the first-quarter buzzer
by Zach Lowe, ESPN

It might be time for a change in Memphis. Opponents have outscored the Grizz starting five by 20 points per 100 possessions, effectively turning them into the Sixers until Dave Joerger yanks someone. That someone has usually been Tony Allen, and it might be time to transition the Grindfather into a role as matchup specialist — someone you bust out if Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, or James Harden is drowning you in points. Nobody guards Allen, and that torpedoes what would be easy scoring chances for a normal team.

3. LeBron James signs lifetime contract with Nike
by Tom Withers, Associated Press

As for his business association with Nike once he’s done playing, James said he has had ”a conversation” about branching off into his own brand – like Michael Jordan – under the company’s umbrella. ”We’ll see when we get to that point,” said James, who has signed three contracts with Nike. ”If it makes sense for both parties, then we’ll do it. If not, then we won’t. We’ve done a great job of building my brand to this point. We want to just continue it. If it makes sense for us to have a ‘Team LeBron,’ or whatever the name will be, we’ll take a look at it and we’ll go from there. It’s a partnership between us. It’s not an endorsement deal. It’s a partnership where we always come together and figure out the best way possible for both brands to be successful.”

4. Former players say Kobe Bryant must work on transition gam
by  Los Angeles Times

Former players agreed…that exiting a game they’ve loved since childhood isn’t easy, and for those who can’t come to grips immediately with not playing basketball anymore, it can cause some mental anguish. “Depression is real in the NBA for retired players,” said Grant Hill, a seven-time All-Star who played 19 years in the pros. “It’s the one thing that validates you, and now you don’t have that. The game, this make-believe-world we have been in, consumes you and as a result of that, you don’t necessarily have time to develop other skills for the real world. For me, I’m going to stay busy.”

5. Stephen Curry is pooping luxuriously and playing better because of it
by James Dator, SB Nation

A good bowel movement is a lot like good ball movement. It requires relaxation, an innate understanding of your surroundings and being comfortable when the moment calls you. Steph Curry knows how to take his game from the porcelain to the hardwood and that is key … A new toilet is an adjustment. Overall this has been a boon for Steph Curry, but concerns of him becoming too loose are very real. Everybody poops and let’s hope this change doesn’t turn the Warriors’ season into doodie.