That won’t help our big men do anything either. Noah has played like a champion and I love the fire he brings to the game, but he’s too thin to bang against the bigger front court players. Gasol and company literally ran him over all day long. It happens every time the Bulls play someone with a strong frontcourt.

Miller is big enough, but at this stage of his career, he just can’t compete against guys a decade younger than he is.

Gibson is way too unpolished at this point to even pretend to be a viable starter. I see good things, but he’s not a starter right now.

Salmons has been either hit or miss, much like the man he was supposed to replace. Are we really happy with what has essentially been Diet Ben Gordon all season?

Pargo…well, he was supposed to take up some minutes and do some scoring. Again, he’s been hit or miss. He either lights it up for 15, or vanishes completely missing 5 or 6 shots and gathering up 3 points or so.

This team is good, but they’re far too inconsistent. They have players playing out of position (Salmons is much more of a small forward, where he can use his speed to create) and a frontcourt that needs a big body.

My question is this: where on earth is Jerome James? He’s making more money than anyone on the team not named Brad Miller, Kirk Heinrich, or Luol Deng, and yet he hasn’t even gotten on the floor. He’s a big body, even though he’s older than God. I mean, if you’re going to pay him 6.6 million this season, you might as well trot him out there to soak up some minutes. If he’s really that useless that you don’t even want him in the game…why is he on our team? I sure can’t figure it out.

Varese — Admittedly, I was exaggerating a bit on the Skiles-projected win total…although I do believe that he could coax more wins out of this club than VDN.

Ultimately, though, I think we can all agree that, in terms of personnel, this is not a complete team.

More to the point, we don’t have the bodies down low, we don’t have a guy who can create his own score, and D-Rose continues to be passive on the court. I’m not sure how you coach those issues away. (In Rose’s case, it’s not lethargy, it’s his character – he’s not a leader. Period.)

I mean, really? Scott Skiles would push them to 55? The Bulls don’t need a whip, they need a top-flight player, and a couple healthy bigs.

Noah has had a phenomenal year up to this point, Taj gives great effort (though not a huge fan of his Tyrus like love of the 18 footer… 1.02 pps), and Miller is well Miller.

That said, our 7 man rotation that had us out hustling and out performing other teams on D is gonna wear out the undersized front line we have. It’s not just the big guys either, or smalls are having trouble staying in front of people too…

Think about going to the gym and how you feel when you’re five is playing a third/forth/fifth against a fresh five. They run and work you die. Simple as that. There’s a reason teams that play Defense (i.e. not Nash-Suns) don’t play 7-8 man rotations in Novemeber. This team has no gas left and you can’t blame that on the two twigs and the old man we got patrolling the paint.

It seems lost, (and yet strangely obvious) in all the 2010 talk that what the Bulls really need is some Beef! I love Bosh’s game and would love to see him in a Bull’s uniform, but I don’t know if he is the only answer. Right now, if the reports are correct, Okafor could be had, Boozer or Brand could be had, even Eddy Curry (gulp) could be had. I am not saying every one of these guys is the right long term solution, but the team seems pretty complete to me …except for one large (beefy?) glaring hole in the center.*

* I’m not slamming the effort of either Noah or Taj, but at this point Taj needs to be a 2nd teamer, and I would use Noah at either frontcourt position the “Beef” doesn’t play.

VDN might be an okay coach for a veteran squad that already has leadership in place. But the Bulls are disjoined, their franchise player can’t take the reins, and their only clutch scorer is playing in Detroit. If Skiles was cracking the whip, this team could probably win 55 games. As it is, unless Rose explodes out of his shell, they’ll struggle to win 40. Or less.

That’s exactly correct. The most worrying aspect of Rose’s game is his apparent lack of leadership. He appears to be the opposite of a ‘floor general’; more like a soldier who is often AWOL.

Now again, the Bulls’ coaching is obviously very poor, so it isn’t all Rose’s fault. Nevertheless, given his natural talent and willingness to work, it is a glaring problem for the team.

The Bulls are also in trouble every time they face teams with big front court players. Noah is undersized, Miller is too slow; Gibson is too light and inexperienced at this stage of his career, etc.

As I’ve mentioned before, it is precisely this sort of team that requires a good coach in order to succeed (i.e. overachieve). With VDN at the helm, I’m afraid that we are in for a long, painful season.