2012-2013 Player Capsule- Taj Gibson

The Chicago Bulls 2012-2013 campaign has officially come to a close. Now that we are weeks removed from the end of the season and have had time to be reflective, it’s time to take a look back at the performances of the members of this Bulls squad and brief look ahead at the future. The following is the sixth part of a series of nine posts detailing this year’s squad. Each player is assigned a season grade based off of their performance on general preseason expectations.

Previous player capsules can be found here: Joakim NoahCarlos BoozerLuol Deng, Jimmy Butler, Kirk Hinrich

Name: Taj Gibson
Height/Weight: 6’9″ / 225 lbs
Age: 27
NBA Seasons: 4

Regular Season Stats: 65 games, 8.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.4 spg, 48.5 FG%, 67.9 FT%

Post-Season Stats: 12 games, 6.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 0.3 apg, 0.3 spg, 47.0 FG%, 72.2 FT%

Season Grade: C

Recap:
This season Taj Gibson neither exceeded nor failed to meet the expectations people had for him. Offensively there were no major improvements. Scoring wise he continues to excel around the rim while struggling outside of the paint. His offensive per game numbers also remained relatively consistent. Defensively he continued to bring the same intensity night in and night out and, once again, his per game numbers remained the same. Gibson did experience a drop in most major advanced statistics categories; however this could be attributed to the fact that he was no longer playing along side Omer Asik. The decline can also possibly be attributed to the knee injury he sustained in the second half of the season. Overall, it was a ho-hum season for Gibson.

Future:
Gibson recently secured his long term future with the Bulls by signing a four year extension that will pay him an average of $8.25 million per year for the life of the contract. His role as the backup power forward to Carlos Boozer should remain the same but may change depending on who the Bulls draft this offseason. Personally I’d like to see Gibson moved to backup center and play behind Noah. While he is undersized Gibson is a strong option in the paint. Defensively Gibson is a solid rim defender and offensively he finishes approximately 59.4% of field goal attempts in the paint (versus 30.4% everywhere else). What the Bulls ultimately is yet to be seen.

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