Dwyane Wade had his explanation.
The veteran made that very clear after the 103-91 loss in Charlotte, with the Bulls now entering a Christmas Day game in San Antonio and sitting with a very mediocre 14-15 record.
“It’s just not enough consistency,’’ Wade told reporters. “We have to get to the point where we decide, as a team, to be more consistent in what we do – in our coverages, in the way we run the offense.
“We’re not going to make shots all the time. But we have to shoot our shots. We have to get back in transition and make them see as many defenders as possible. But defensively we just got to … we make small mistakes. And those small mistakes in this league can tear you up.’’
So it’s small mistakes?
That’s the latest excuse of the week for a Bulls team that went from feel-good story to start the season, to the same unlikeable brand of basketball that was on display far too many times last year.
And there’s no Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah or Pau Gasol to point the finger at this time. The front office made sure of that. They’ve already blamed a former coach, a head trainer and then the roster, changing up all three in their house of no mirrors.
According to one NBA scout who has seen the Bulls “at least 15 times’’ since the start of last season, there is not one explanation for the failure. There’s many.
First of all, the offensive sets from last season have been completely changed with this year’s group. According to the scout, coach Fred Hoiberg tried to use many of the sets he used at Iowa State early last season, before quickly discovering that they didn’t have the personnel to run those, as well as the trouble Rose had understanding the concepts.
“As the season went on [Hoiberg] had no choice but to start scrapping those early sets,’’ the scout said. “They started to add more basic NBA sets, but it just never looked comfortable.’’
Hoiberg admittedly had his staff break down all the film on Wade’s 2015-16 season with Miami, as well as film on Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez once they were added to the roster last summer, picking out the sets that seemed to offer up the best results.
To Hoiberg’s credit, as well as the staff that sifted through all that film, the sets they started the season with were “sound and built to win games,’’ according to the scout.
“Now, everything looks loose compared to early on in the season,’’ the scout said.
A big reason for that crisp look to be gone is the fact that at 34 years old, Wade’s participation in practice over the last month has been minimal.
According to one player, Jimmy Butler and Taj Gibson have also been given a smaller practice workload, thanks to a front office that decided three seasons ago that health over practice time was the priority. A lack of rhythm has been the result.
Some other offensive problems that the scout noticed were “they go low early, and even if it’s working they stray away from it,’’ ‘’the bigs off the bench look confused,’’ and “Niko [Mirotic’s] offense isn’t worth his [poor] defense.’’
As far as the defense, well, there’s no easy fix there.
“They blow so many assignments,’’ the scout said. “I don’t know if it’s communication, prep or concept, but they have to cover up for one another so often that no one seems to be in position. It’s a mess.’’
